SEO Smart Link Targets
by Andrew Gunn · SEO
Super lightweight solution to changing all external links and internal PDF attachments to open in a new tab.
45 health vs 67 average across 381 SEO plugins
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Long abandoned. No update in 9+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.5.33, well behind 6.8.
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Under-optimized
Biggest win: Update recency
To rank higher: Last updated 3647 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Daily downloads
Since 2022-10-05 · 1,381 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges
21
now · peak 64
Directory rank vs rivals
wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you
Downloads per 1k installs · 30d
Engagement proxy · release spikes are signal, a long slide is an aging base
Estimated active installs
wp.org reports only “40+”. The real number sits in this band.
Refined from the date this plugin crossed into its current band.
Install history · since 2022-10-04 · 1,371 observations
Details
Growth timeline
Install-band crossings we have observed, and how long each band took to outgrow
- 2026-04-17 50+ → 40+ down after 9 days in band
- 2026-04-08 40+ → 50+ up after 61 days in band
- 2026-02-06 50+ → 40+ down after 1 days in band
- 2026-02-05 40+ → 50+ up after 20 days in band
- 2026-01-16 50+ → 40+ down after 177 days in band
- 2025-07-23 60+ → 50+ down after 70 days in band
- 2025-05-14 50+ → 60+ up after 4 days in band
- 2025-05-10 60+ → 50+ down after 35 days in band
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach — closest match first
-
External Links Overview 800+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags B -
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 3M+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for SEO Smart Link Targets into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/seo-smart-link-targets" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="SEO Smart Link Targets — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> SEO Smart Link Targets: 40+ active installs, 5.0★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-07-17. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/seo-smart-link-targets