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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “html entities”

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 “html entities”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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.

Ranked above its merit

Email Address Obfuscation shows at wp.org #4 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

XML Sitemap Generator for Google places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 2233 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too low 3 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #8 ↓2 5 too low 4 Woody Code Snippets – Insert PHP, CSS, JS, and Header/Footer Scripts 50K+ · 4.5★ (221) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 Export Media URLs 7K+ · 5.0★ (29) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ · 4.8★ (2233) wp.org #13 6 too low 8 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #11 ↑1 3 too low 9 HTML Page Publisher 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #1 8 too high 10 Email Address Encoder 100K+ · 4.2★ (160) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too low 11 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #17 6 too low 12 R Raw HTML 10K+ · 4.3★ (33) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #21 ↑1 8 too low 14 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #22 ↓1 7 too low 16 Email Address Obfuscation 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #4 ↓1 12 too high 17 CSV Importer 3K+ · 4.2★ (28) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too low 18 JSM Non-Breaking Space (nbsp) for French Content 1K+ · 4.6★ (15) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too low 19 B Basic URL ShortCodes 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↑1 12 too high 20 Table for Divi 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #23 ↑1 3 too low 21 JSM file_get_contents() Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 CC-Syntax-Highlight 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 CodingBunny LLMs.txt Generator 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 5 too high 24 Import Markdown – Versatile Markdown Importer 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.