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

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 “aioseo”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 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

Duplicate Post by AIOSEO – Clone Posts, Duplicate Pages and Republish Content shows at wp.org #9 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SEO WRITING – AI Writer for SEO & AI Search places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 120 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #1 2 Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #5 ↑3 2 too low 4 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (995) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too low 8 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #13 ↑3 5 too low 9 SEO WRITING – AI Writer for SEO & AI Search 20K+ · 4.9★ (120) wp.org #16 ↑2 7 too low 10 Dark Mode for WP Dashboard 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #8 ↑4 3 too high 12 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #7 ↓3 5 too high 13 Missed Scheduled Posts Publisher by WPBeginner 20K+ · 4.9★ (60) wp.org #21 ↓2 8 too low 14 Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO) 10K+ · 4.2★ (111) wp.org #18 ↑3 4 too low 15 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 ThinkRank SEO – AI SEO Plugin for SEO & Google Search Console 20K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #20 ↓13 4 too low 17 Sugar Calendar – Events Calendar, Event Tickets, and Events Management Platform 10K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #23 ↓6 6 too low 18 Bulk NoIndex & NoFollow Toolkit 2K+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Feeds for TikTok (TikTok feed, video, and gallery plugin) 70K+ · 4.3★ (11) wp.org #22 ↑1 3 too low 20 RankReady – AI SEO, Schema, llms.txt, AEO and GEO for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 500+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #19 ↑3 1 too high 21 Auto Focus Keyword for SEO 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↑2 10 too high 22 Bulk Auto Image Title Attribute (Image Title tag) optimizer (Image SEO) 900+ · 3.6★ (5) wp.org #17 ↑3 5 too high 23 Import Shopify To WP 900+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Duplicate Post by AIOSEO – Clone Posts, Duplicate Pages and Republish Content 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↑1 15 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.