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

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 “crawlers”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 3 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

Crawler Record shows at wp.org #12 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 1322 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #1 2 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #13 7 too low 7 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #17 ↑3 10 too low 8 Booter – Bots & Crawlers Manager 7K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #3 ↓1 5 too high 9 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance 5K+ · 4.5★ (102) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too low 11 Block AI Crawlers 2K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #4 7 too high 12 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #21 9 too low 13 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #11 2 too high 14 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Age Gate 40K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #23 ↓2 8 too low 16 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too low 17 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too low 18 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #8 10 too high 19 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #10 9 too high 20 Atlant Security 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #19 ↓2 1 too high 21 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓6 1 too low 22 DevDome Bot Protection: Bot Blocker and AI Crawler Control 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Crawler Record 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 11 too high 24 Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification 90+ · 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.