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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “优化”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “优化”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

SEO合集(支持百度/Google/Bing/GEO优化) shows at wp.org #5 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 W WPJAM Basic 4K+ · 3.8★ (32) wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 2 SEO优化 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 3 胖鼠采集(Fat Rat Collect) 800+ · 4.7★ (46) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 16 places below merit 4 IMGspider – 图片采集抓取插件 2K+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #4 5 S Smartideo 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 6 WPCOS腾讯云对象存储COS 300+ · 3.7★ (6) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 果果推送 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 8 Smart Keywords Tool – 智能关键词插件 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 9 WPOSS阿里云对象存储 800+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 10 WPUPYUN又拍云云存储 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 11 SEO合集(支持百度/Google/Bing/GEO优化) 700+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 12 多合一搜索自动推送管理插件-支持Baidu/Google/Bing/IndexNow/Yandex/头条 2K+ · 2.6★ (5) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 13 WP VK-付费内容插件(付费阅读/资料/工具软件资源管理) 70+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 14 WPTurbo -WordPress性能优化插件 800+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 15 文章配图 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 16 toolbox百宝箱 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 17 neo Optimize – Resize and cache images – the original remains untouched 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 18 隐藏内容 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 19 Online Contact Widget-多合一在线客服插件 700+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 20 LeSeo 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 [凹凸曼]内链关键词SEO 90+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 aiarticle文章 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 MagicPost – WordPress文章管理功能增强插件 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 WPReplace内容字符替换插件 600+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.