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

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

Custom Permalink Editor shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #9 on merit, 5.0★ from 423 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176) wp.org #1 2 Better Search Replace 1M+ · 4.3★ (546) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Premmerce Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 40K+ · 3.9★ (53) wp.org #4 5 BP Profile Search 5K+ · 5.0★ (71) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 SearchWP Live Ajax Search 40K+ · 4.7★ (36) wp.org #6 7 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #16 ↓1 8 too low 9 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #18 ↓1 9 too low 10 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #15 ↑3 5 too low 11 Search Meter 20K+ · 4.3★ (29) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #20 8 too low 13 Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks 40K+ · 4.3★ (61) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 Admin Search 1K+ · 4.5★ (18) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Pretty Search Permalinks 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Search Atlas SEO – OTTO AI SEO Automation for WordPress 7K+ · 3.3★ (24) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too low 17 AI Search for WooCommerce – Semantic Search 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 7 too high 18 Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database 3K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #21 ↑1 3 too low 19 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #23 ↓2 4 too low 20 Premmerce Product Search for WooCommerce 800+ · 3.9★ (7) wp.org #13 7 too high 21 Disable Media Permalink by Hardweb.it 800+ · 4.1★ (7) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 Custom Permalink Editor 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 14 too high 23 Visibility – Lightweight SEO, AEO and GEO for Search and AI 600+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 P PTAPS – Post Type Archive Pages and Permalink Settings 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.