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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “分享按钮”

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 “分享按钮”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 of the top 20. 2 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

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.

A

Ranked above its merit

anyShare shows at wp.org #18 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons places #1 on merit, 4.8★ from 5,333 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

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 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5,333) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 11 places below merit 2 IMGspider – 图片采集抓取插件 2K+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 3 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 #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 [凹凸曼]微信分享有图-WeChat Page Sharing 100+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 5 Smart Keywords Tool – 智能关键词插件 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 6 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 #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 7 toolbox百宝箱 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 8 MagicPost – WordPress文章管理功能增强插件 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 Online Contact Widget-多合一在线客服插件 700+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 LeSeo 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 11 WPTurbo -WordPress性能优化插件 800+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 12 HTML代码优化工具 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 13 S Seoceo Reward & Share Poster (打赏分享海报插件) — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 14 [凹凸曼]AI智能客服 — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 15 WeChat微信公众号关键词回复 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 16 百 百度分享按钮 60+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 17 SEO合集(支持百度/Google/Bing/GEO优化) 700+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 A AddFeed订阅按钮 Widget — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 19 QQWorld Share 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 20 W WPJAM Social Share 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 21 W wp-sns-share 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 22 C China-AddThis 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 23 B bShare 分享 20+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 24 A anyShare 10+ · 2.0★ (1) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit

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.