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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “prevent crawl”

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 “prevent crawl”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Crawl Hunt – Advanced SEO Optimization Tool shows at wp.org #3 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 40+ 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

Spotlight Social Photo Feed places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 171 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820) wp.org #1 2 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #2 3 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 SEO Redirection Plugin – 301 Redirect Manager 10K+ · 4.3★ (73) wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 Make Column Clickable for Elementor 100K+ · 4.9★ (53) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too low 7 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #16 ↓1 9 too low 8 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #10 ↓2 2 too low 9 Cookiebot – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for GDPR, CCPA & Google Consent Mode 100K+ · 4.4★ (440) wp.org #21 ↓9 12 too low 10 Spotlight Social Photo Feed 50K+ · 4.7★ (171) wp.org #24 14 too low 11 Link Whisper Free 30K+ · 4.2★ (151) wp.org #20 ↓2 9 too low 12 H HTTP 410 (Gone) responses 4K+ · 4.6★ (21) wp.org #12 ↓3 13 404 Solution 10K+ · 4.9★ (44) wp.org #19 ↓9 6 too low 14 HTTP Auth 6K+ · 4.2★ (6) wp.org #6 ↓2 8 too high 15 Staatic – Static Site Generator for WordPress 3K+ · 4.4★ (21) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Link Checker 4K+ · 3.2★ (30) wp.org #13 ↓2 3 too high 17 Booter – Bots & Crawlers Manager 7K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #17 ↓4 18 Crawl Hunt – Advanced SEO Optimization Tool 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 15 too high 19 Adriano GEO Context and Crawl Monitor 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 ↓1 15 too high 20 Block AI Crawlers 2K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 Cookiez – GDPR & CCPA Cookie Banner & Consent Manager 50K+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #15 ↑2 6 too high 22 Custom Sitemap Generator 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #23 ↓4 1 too low 23 Static Porter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑5 12 too high 24 Bravo Crawl Hunter – AI Crawl Blocker, Block AI Bots & Crawlers 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 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.