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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “content scraper”

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 “content scraper”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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.

C

Ranked above its merit

Content Fetcher shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.2★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Blackhole for Bad Bots places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 148 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. 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 #2 1 too low 2 WP Scraper 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 301 Redirects – Redirect Manager 300K+ · 4.7★ (578) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1285) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Minimal Coming Soon – Coming Soon Page 100K+ · 4.3★ (282) wp.org #12 ↓2 5 too low 8 Simple Author Box 90K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 90K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #9 ↓3 10 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #19 ↓1 8 too low 12 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #6 6 too high 13 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #5 8 too high 14 Colorlib 404 Customizer 5K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #23 ↓1 9 too low 15 Affiliate Links – Link Cloaking and Management 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 Right Click Ban – Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 400+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too low 18 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓6 4 too low 19 C Content Fetcher 200+ · 3.2★ (6) wp.org #10 ↓2 9 too high 20 Tasty Recipes Lite – WordPress Recipe Card Plugin with Built-In Recipe Schema 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 CopyBlocker Pro – Content Protection 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓3 7 too high 23 Mail And Content Protect – keep emails and content safe from misuse 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too high 24 Init Content Protector – Anti-Copy, Anti-Scrape, Encrypt-All 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑3 7 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.