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← Rankings

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

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 tags”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Remove layout destroying HTML-Tags shows at wp.org #7 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 15 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

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #1 2 Social Preview and Open Graph Tags 50K+ · 4.6★ (122) wp.org #2 3 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 HTML Editor Syntax Highlighter 60K+ · 4.4★ (110) wp.org #4 5 HTML Page Sitemap (Block and Shortcode) 10K+ · 4.4★ (24) wp.org #5 6 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #8 ↓5 2 too low 7 PixelYourSite – Your smart PIXEL (TAG) & API Manager 400K+ · 4.3★ (281) wp.org #11 ↑3 4 too low 8 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #20 12 too low 9 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #12 ↓6 3 too low 10 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #19 ↓2 9 too low 11 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #22 ↓4 11 too low 12 Minify HTML 10K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 Kwayy HTML Sitemap 6K+ · 4.7★ (18) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 too high 14 A Allow HTML in Category Descriptions 8K+ · 5.0★ (41) wp.org #15 ↓3 1 too low 15 Custom HTML Block Extension 7K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #9 ↑1 6 too high 16 CSV to HTML 300+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #21 ↓1 5 too low 17 Metronet Tag Manager 20K+ · 4.8★ (8) wp.org #24 ↓2 7 too low 18 Always Edit In HTML 1K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too high 19 Protect schema.org markup in HTML editor 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #23 ↓2 4 too low 20 D Display HTML Sitemap 1K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↓2 7 too high 21 HTML Tag and Class Replace 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too high 22 Remove layout destroying HTML-Tags 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↑1 15 too high 23 HTML Page Publisher 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↑2 6 too high 24 AI to Elementor — HTML Importer for Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓2 6 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.