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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “referencing”

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 “referencing”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 2 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

SEO'n'AI – Image Locator & Find Unused Images shows at wp.org #18 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 5 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Footnotes Made Easy 2K+ · 4.6★ (40) wp.org #1 2 XML Sitemap & Google News 100K+ · 4.4★ (85) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275) wp.org #3 ↑2 4 DearFlip – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF embed, PDF viewer 200K+ · 4.9★ (194) wp.org #5 ↓3 1 too low 5 Salon Booking System – Appointment Booking for Salons, Barbershops & Spas 2K+ · 4.4★ (187) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Sequential Order Number for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.9★ (146) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Prevent Browser Caching 10K+ · 4.9★ (29) wp.org #8 ↑1 9 Sequential Order Numbers for WooCommerce 10K+ · 3.8★ (29) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.7★ (99) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 TrueAna – True Analytics Dashboard 1K+ · 5.0★ (30) wp.org #20 ↑1 9 too low 12 Footnotes & Content 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 W WP QuickLaTeX 4K+ · 4.6★ (31) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 SheetsPilot – AI Spreadsheet Bulk Edit for Posts, WooCommerce Products & SEO 700+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 15 AI Content Signals 800+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 Lock My Site 60+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too low 17 Hreflang Customizer 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↑2 4 too high 18 Interlinko – Smart Internal Linking for WordPress 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 Mediaspy – Detect & Clean Unused Media 70+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #15 ↑2 4 too high 20 UTM for Woocommerce 700+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 Uplink Media Bridge for Etch 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 ↓1 2 too low 22 Odoo Integration for WooCommerce 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑3 1 too high 23 SEO'n'AI – Image Locator & Find Unused Images 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑1 5 too high 24 TNT Conditional Logic Fields for Elementor Forms 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 5 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.