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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “seo stats”

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 “seo stats”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 7 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

Prime SEO – AI SEO, LLMs.txt Generator, AI Bots Manager & AI Crawler Stats shows at wp.org #11 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 100+ 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

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 2528 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 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #1 ↑2 2 GEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO 30K+ · 4.6★ (683) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too low 3 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too high 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #9 5 too low 5 SEO Engine – Smart SEO with AI, Schema & Redirection for WordPress 1K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #5 6 Media File Renamer: Rename Images & Files for SEO (AI-Powered) 40K+ · 4.6★ (447) wp.org #10 ↑5 4 too low 7 Xagio SEO & AEO – AI SEO for Google Rankings & AI Visibility 10K+ · 4.9★ (51) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too high 10 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 301 Redirects – Redirect Manager 300K+ · 4.7★ (578) wp.org #18 ↓1 7 too low 12 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #20 ↑4 8 too low 13 GetGenie – AI SEO Assistant & Content Writer with Keyword Research, AEO & GEO 70K+ · 4.8★ (119) wp.org #13 ↓2 14 Broken Link Checker by AIOSEO – Find & Fix Broken Internal, External & Video Links 200K+ · 3.8★ (87) wp.org #8 ↓2 6 too high 15 Analytify – Google Analytics 4 Tracking and Reporting in WordPress 20K+ · 4.7★ (488) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 ExactMetrics – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Plugin) 200K+ · 2.5★ (1546) wp.org #7 ↑1 9 too high 17 ShareThis Dashboard for Google Analytics 80K+ · 3.6★ (138) wp.org #22 ↓1 5 too low 18 Connect Matomo – Analytics Dashboard for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (95) wp.org #23 ↓1 5 too low 19 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too high 20 Kadence Central – Site Management, Backups, Security, and Reporting 30K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 Prime SEO – AI SEO, LLMs.txt Generator, AI Bots Manager & AI Crawler Stats 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓1 10 too high 22 SEO Fury – SEO & GEO: Schema, XML Sitemap, Redirects, 404 Monitor, llms.txt 10+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Rankology SEO and Analytics Tool 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓2 8 too high 24 AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 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.