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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “google sitelinks”

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 “google sitelinks”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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

PRyC WP: Google Sitelinks Search Box snippest shows at wp.org #3 but places #7 on merit, a gap of 4 places. Its 40+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Sitelinks Search Box 2K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets 30K+ · 4.0★ (162) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Schema 30K+ · 4.3★ (221) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 PRyC WP: Google Sitelinks Search Box snippest 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Easy Schema – Structured Data & Rich Snippets 200+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 ↓1 10 too low 9 Simple SEO Improvements 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 10 Schema Star 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 11 AEOmatic – AEO for AI Search: llms.txt, Schema & AI Crawler Check 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↑3 2 too low 12 AEO Engine 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 4 too high 13 wAnswers – SEO-First Q&A 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↑2 1 too high 14 W3P SEO – Lightweight SEO, Schema & AI Search Toolkit 90+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Promasterweb – Sommaire automatique 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 INI Scout 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑4 1 too high 17 Include Sitename in Search Results 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too high 18 NV oOS Content Graph 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Swift Rank – AI-Ready & Search-Optimized Structured Data for WordPress — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓2 1 too low 20 Chronition SEO — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 1 too low 21 ModulusTools SEO Suite – AI SEO, Schema, XML Sitemaps, Redirects & llms.txt — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Ruxo SEO — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓2 1 too low 23 Microdata to JSON-LD Converter — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 Jump Links Block (SEO 44) 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓2

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.