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

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 “seopress”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Auto Focus Keyword for SEO shows at wp.org #7 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 2K+ 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

WP Last Modified Info places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 855 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 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) 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 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #3 4 Site Reviews 60K+ · 4.9★ (376) wp.org #13 ↓5 9 too low 5 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 WP Last Modified Info 40K+ · 4.9★ (855) wp.org #18 ↓2 10 too low 9 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #8 ↑3 1 too high 10 Bulk Auto Image Alt Text (Alt tag, Alt attribute) optimizer (image SEO) 10K+ · 4.2★ (111) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Dynamic Month & Year into Posts 8K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too high 12 Alt Text AI – Automatically generate image alt text for SEO and accessibility 20K+ · 4.7★ (35) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too low 13 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too low 14 Visibility – Lightweight SEO, AEO and GEO for Search and AI 600+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 8 too high 15 Simple Sitemap – Responsive HTML Sitemap for WordPress 60K+ · 3.9★ (72) wp.org #16 ↓2 1 too low 16 WP Search with Algolia 7K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #20 4 too low 17 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 WP Subtitle 10K+ · 4.1★ (21) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19 MailerPress – Email Marketing, Newsletter, Email Automation & WooCommerce Emails 1K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 Air WP Sync – Airtable to WordPress 1K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #24 ↓2 4 too low 21 LLMs.txt and LLMs-Full.txt Generator 4K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too high 22 Auto Focus Keyword for SEO 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 15 too high 23 Cowboy MCP – Free MCP Server with Undo for Claude & ChatGPT 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 SEOPress for MainWP 800+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↑1 15 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.