StoryMapJS by Knight Lab is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 45/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
50+
≈55 estimated
Momentum
-34%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: One page off on “journalism tool”. #16 puts you just past the first ten results, where almost all the clicks stop. The gap to close is small.
45 health vs 58 average across 25,738 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →1.3%
of downloads still active
At least 50 of 3.9K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,771 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
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 11+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.3.34, well behind 6.8.
Details
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
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 4047 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 4.3.34; the current branch is 6.8
5.0★ over 2 reviews, smoothed to 4.13★ and held back under 25 reviews
4 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 4047 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
40
Momentum
Mixed: one swing, the rest drifting
+0.2
Velocity
places per keyword, 16d
20%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 16d
-0.2
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| storymapjs your tag | #1 | #1 | 0 |
| storymap your tag | #3 | #4 | 0 |
| journalism tool your tag | #16 | #14 | 0 |
| google map your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
5 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 3 listed. 2 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 1 of its tags isn't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- One page off on “journalism tool”. #16 puts you just past the first ten results, where almost all the clicks stop. The gap to close is small.
- “google map” isn't earning a slot. You list it, but you're not in the first 24 results for that search. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 115 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #20,100 to #21,200, alongside the other plugins at 50+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 21 Oct 2026.
Update activity
Downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites.
Not enough installs to measure. This needs at least 100 active sites; below that, a handful of downloads reads as tens of thousands.
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “50+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 20 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 50% of the way through.
Install history since 2 Feb 2016
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ xanocebreiro10.9y ago
Simple operation with very attractive results.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ alfgago11.1y ago
Plugin works as intended. At first, I had some trouble with slides, but I reported the issue and it was fixed the same day.
Read on wp.org ↗
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.2.4
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
2 of 8 pass · checked 31 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "StoryMapJS by Knight Lab is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of..."
- ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
- ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 1 list; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ! Enough to quote 776 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
- ✓ Tags match the text 2 of 4 tags appear in the text; "google map", "journalism tool" do not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2025-03-06 60+ → 50+ down after 10 days in tier
- 2025-02-24 50+ → 60+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2025-02-23 60+ → 50+ down after 291 days in tier
- 2024-05-08 70+ → 60+ down after 5 days in tier
- 2024-05-03 60+ → 70+ up after 74 days in tier
- 2024-02-19 70+ → 60+ down after 5 days in tier
- 2024-02-14 60+ → 70+ up after 4 days in tier
- 2024-02-10 70+ → 60+ down after 2 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
Maps Widget for Google Maps 20K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag A -
Easy Google Maps by Supsystic – Custom Markers, Clustering & Map Themes 20K+ installs · 4.6★ · 1 shared tag A -
Gmap Block 10K+ installs · 4.1★ · 1 shared tag B -
Five Star Business Profile and Schema 7K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
Kikote – Location Picker at Checkout & Google Address AutoFill Plugin for WooCommerce 1K+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
Meks Easy Maps 800+ installs · 3.6★ · 1 shared tag
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Storymaps into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/storymaps" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Storymaps — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Storymaps: 50+ active installs, 5.0★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-10-31. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/storymaps
Spotted a number that looks wrong? Report a data issue and we'll check it against the source.