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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “crawler stats”

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

Prime SEO – AI SEO, LLMs.txt Generator, AI Bots Manager & AI Crawler Stats shows at wp.org #3 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Koko Analytics – Privacy-Friendly WordPress Analytics places #11 on merit, 5.0★ from 245 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 SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (816) wp.org #1 ↑23 2 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too low 3 Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Seriously Simple Stats 5K+ · 3.6★ (13) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 too high 6 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too low 7 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1236) wp.org #17 10 too low 8 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too high 9 Docket Cache – Object Cache Accelerator 20K+ · 4.9★ (50) wp.org #13 ↑4 4 too low 10 AdRotate Banner Manager 20K+ · 4.3★ (655) wp.org #14 ↑2 4 too low 11 Koko Analytics – Privacy-Friendly WordPress Analytics 70K+ · 5.0★ (245) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #12 13 Trace My IP – Visitor IP Tracker, Stats Analytics & Page Views Counter with Email Alerts 1K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too high 14 Prime SEO – AI SEO, LLMs.txt Generator, AI Bots Manager & AI Crawler Stats 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 ↓1 11 too high 15 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #7 8 too high 16 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too high 17 LexonRank: AI Link Building, Free Backlinks, GEO & SEO Automation 800+ · 4.1★ (31) wp.org #22 ↑1 5 too low 18 WPEPP – Essential Security, Password Protect & Login Page Customizer 3K+ · 4.1★ (19) wp.org #19 ↑3 1 too low 19 ConvertNow Analytics: Website Stats, Visitor Statistics, AI Traffic and Bot Filtering 70+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too high 20 Atlant Security 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #20 ↓7 21 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #24 ↓10 3 too low 22 Bouzin Download Stats Manager 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 7 too high 23 Weblix Analytics – Real-Time Stats & Visitor Counter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑2 5 too high 24 LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #21 3 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.