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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “adsense widgets”

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 “adsense widgets”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

AdFlow – Ad Inserter & Ad Manager: AdSense, Banner Ads & ads.txt shows at wp.org #7 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages places #12 on merit, 4.4★ from 1319 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #1 2 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #2 3 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #3 4 Quads Ads Manager for Google AdSense 20K+ · 4.9★ (1087) wp.org #4 5 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #9 ↑2 2 too low 8 Quick Adsense 20K+ · 3.9★ (74) wp.org #5 3 too high 9 Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator 100K+ · 4.7★ (620) wp.org #14 5 too low 10 Insert Html Snippet 20K+ · 4.9★ (237) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 AdRotate Banner Manager 20K+ · 4.3★ (655) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages 70K+ · 4.4★ (1319) wp.org #23 11 too low 13 Easy Google Adsense and Banner Ads Manager – AdsforWP 1K+ · 4.6★ (43) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 Woody Code Snippets – Insert PHP, CSS, JS, and Header/Footer Scripts 50K+ · 4.5★ (221) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Wp-Insert 9K+ · 4.5★ (142) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 Hafenstudios Ads – Ad Manager, AdSense & Banner Ads 100+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 AdFlow – Ad Inserter & Ad Manager: AdSense, Banner Ads & ads.txt 3K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #7 10 too high 18 ExactMetrics – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Plugin) 200K+ · 2.5★ (1546) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 No Cache AJAX Widgets 200+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #11 ↓1 8 too high 20 Ad Commander – Ad Manager for Banners, AdSense, Ad Networks 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 5 too high 21 FlatPM – Ad Manager, AdSense and Custom Code 10K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 Universal Google Adsense and Ads manager 2K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 AdX Ad Inserter – Adsense and Ad Manager Ads 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 Ad Engine – Gerenciador de Adx, Adsense e AdManager 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 6 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian 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.