Category Dropdown by GCS Design
by Chandrika Sista · Uncategorized
Display a parent and child categories in a dropdown. Works with custom taxonomies and WooCommerce product categories.
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
C 56/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews · Open vulnerability
Active installs
1K+
≈1.9K estimated
Momentum
+4%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: One page off on “child category dropdown”. #11 puts you just past the first ten results, where almost all the clicks stop. The gap to close is small.
56 health vs 58 average across 25,752 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →4.4%
of downloads still active
At least 1K of 22.8K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,773 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.
Removal-risk signals
28/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Not actively maintained. No update in about 2 years.
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.
Room to improve
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 753 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 6.6.11; the current branch is 6.8
5.0★ over 3 reviews, smoothed to 4.15★ and held back under 25 reviews
4 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 753 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.
32
Momentum
Losing ground
-0.7
Velocity
places per keyword, 25d
0%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 25d
+0.7
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| gcs | #3 | #7 | 0 |
| child category dropdown your tag | #11 | #23 | down 2 |
| ajax wordpress category your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| parent and child categories your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| wordpress category dropdown your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
3 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 2 listed. 1 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 3 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- One page off on “child category dropdown”. #11 puts you just past the first ten results, where almost all the clicks stop. The gap to close is small.
- “ajax wordpress category”, “parent and child categories” and “wordpress category dropdown” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,489 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 1K · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
wp.org popularity rank over time · lower is better
Health trend
Composite health score, snapshotted daily
Update activity
How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
2.1y ago
latest release · v1.9 · 9 Oct 2024
9
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 71% 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 “1K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 4.1 years ago; the previous band took 19 months to cross, which places it about 90% of the way through.
Install history since 13 Nov 2020
Security history
via Wordfence Intelligence1 open vulnerability affects the current version (1.9). 1 of 2 disclosed are patched.
- Open Medium · 6.4 WP Category Dropdown <= 1.9 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting ↗2025-09-22 CVE-2025-58239 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 1.9 No patch available
- Patched Medium · 6.4 WP Category Dropdown <= 1.8 - Authenticated (Contributor+) Stored Cross-Site Scripting via align Parameter ↗2024-09-23 CVE-2024-8103 Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation Affects <= 1.8 Patched in 1.9
Vulnerability records provided by Wordfence Intelligence. Copyright 2012-2026 Defiant Inc. License and terms.
CVE records: Copyright 1999-2026 The MITRE Corporation. CVE terms of use.
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 8.1.12 · WP 6.7
Languages
via translate.wordpress.orgTranslated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more
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
1 of 8 pass · checked 1 Nov 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "Display a parent and child categories in a dropdown. Works with custom taxonomies and WooCommerce product c..."
- ! Has a FAQ Only 1 question in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
- ! FAQ asks real questions 0 of 1 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("undefined").
- ! 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 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ! Enough to quote 440 characters of description; under 1,000 there is little to quote.
- ! Tags match the text Only 1 of 4 tags appear in the text ("Ajax WordPress category", "child category dropdown", "WordPress Category Dropdown" missing).
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2022-10-04 800+ → 1K+ up after 575 days in tier
- 2021-03-08 500+ → 800+ up
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Category Dropdown by GCS Design into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/wp-category-dropdown" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Category Dropdown by GCS Design — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Category Dropdown by GCS Design: 1K+ active installs, 5.0★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/wp-category-dropdown
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