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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “perplexity crawler”

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 “perplexity crawler”, 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

LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics shows at wp.org #7 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

GEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO places #2 on merit, 4.6★ from 683 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Block AI Crawlers 2K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 GEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO 30K+ · 4.6★ (683) wp.org #11 ↓5 9 too low 3 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too low 4 Better Robots.txt – AI-Ready Crawl Control & Bot Governance 5K+ · 4.5★ (102) wp.org #12 ↑1 8 too low 5 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 RankReady – AI SEO, Schema, llms.txt, AEO and GEO for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 500+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #9 ↓2 2 too low 8 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #8 9 Share Buttons & AI-powered Summaries 1K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #17 8 too low 10 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #10 ↑2 11 LexonRank: AI Link Building, Free Backlinks, GEO & SEO Automation 800+ · 4.1★ (31) wp.org #21 ↑2 10 too low 12 Crawler Record 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 ↓1 10 too high 13 Visibility – Lightweight SEO, AEO and GEO for Search and AI 600+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 ↑1 6 too low 14 OGEEAT 200+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #16 ↓5 2 too low 15 LovedByAI – GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) & AI SEO Plugin: AEO, llms.txt 1K+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #13 ↑2 2 too high 16 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓4 6 too low 17 AI Content Signals 800+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 AEO God Mode – AI Search Visibility 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too low 19 Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↑5 14 too high 20 Search Atlas SEO – OTTO AI SEO Automation for WordPress 7K+ · 3.3★ (24) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 Prime SEO – AI SEO, LLMs.txt Generator, AI Bots Manager & AI Crawler Stats 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 AEOmatic – AEO for AI Search: llms.txt, Schema & AI Crawler Check 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 AI Search Analytics & Tracking 40+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↑2 17 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.