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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “bot traffic”

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 “bot traffic”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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 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

Traffic Monitor shows at wp.org #5 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ 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

Limit Login Attempts Security – Login Security, 2FA, Firewall, Brute Force Prevention places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 1488 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #1 2 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #3 4 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #2 6 too high 9 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #16 ↓6 7 too low 10 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039) wp.org #17 ↓1 7 too low 11 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #18 7 too low 12 Limit Login Attempts Security – Login Security, 2FA, Firewall, Brute Force Prevention 1M+ · 4.8★ (1488) wp.org #21 ↑1 9 too low 13 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #13 ↑4 14 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #23 9 too low 15 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #19 4 too low 16 Traffic Monitor 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 ↓1 11 too high 17 Banhammer – Monitor Site Traffic, Block Bad Users and Bots 1K+ · 4.4★ (19) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too high 19 DevDome Analytics: Bot Traffic vs Human Traffic Website Statistics 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 too high 20 DevDome Bot Protection: Bot Blocker and AI Crawler Control 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑2 9 too high 21 CloudFilt Bot & Spam Protection 500+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 Live Traffic Analytics – Real-Time Visitor & Bot Tracking – Google Analytics Alternative 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↑1 8 too high 23 Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 Invalid Traffic Blocker 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.