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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “external urls”

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 “external urls”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

WPC Multiple External Product URLs for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #2 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 300+ 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

Translate WordPress with GTranslate places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 4962 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 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 80K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #1 2 Featured Image from URL (FIFU) 60K+ · 4.6★ (264) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #9 ↓2 6 too low 4 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 External Links in New Window / New Tab 30K+ · 4.5★ (77) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 No External Links 4K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #19 ↓2 12 too low 8 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #18 ↑2 10 too low 9 External files in Media Library 500+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #3 6 too high 10 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #21 ↑1 11 too low 11 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 Archivarix External Images Importer 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #7 ↑1 5 too high 13 WPC Multiple External Product URLs for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #2 11 too high 14 WPGet API – Connect to any external REST API 10K+ · 5.0★ (32) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 Featured Image with URL 2K+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17 Lasso Lite – Affiliate Link Manager, URL Shortener & Link Tracking 4K+ · 3.1★ (47) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 WPC External Variations for WooCommerce 300+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #8 ↑1 10 too high 19 E External Permalinks Redux 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 Smart Auto Upload Images – Import External Images 5K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #15 5 too high 21 oEmbed External Video 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↑1 8 too high 22 Leaving Notice Popup For External Links – nofollow, noopener & New Tab 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 URL Image Importer – Import External Images to the Media Library from URL, CSV & XML 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↑2 6 too high 24 Coupon URLs – Apply a Coupon from a Custom Link – for WooCommerce 100+ · 4.3★ (3) 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.