Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “term description”

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 “term description”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 5 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

Description List Block shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 8706 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★ (27821) wp.org #4 ↑3 3 too low 2 Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order 500K+ · 4.5★ (162) wp.org #2 3 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Terms descriptions 1K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #5 ↓2 2 too high 8 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #10 ↓2 2 too low 9 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #13 ↑9 4 too low 10 TermsFeed AutoTerms: Privacy Policy Generator, Cookie Consent, GDPR, CCPA, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, Cookies Policy, EULA 70K+ · 4.7★ (246) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too low 11 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #24 ↓4 13 too low 12 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1285) wp.org #22 ↓10 9 too low 14 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 Privacy Policy Generator, Terms & Conditions, GDPR, CCPA, Cookie Policy & Disclaimer Templates – WPLP Legal Pages 10K+ · 4.7★ (93) wp.org #15 16 V Visual Term Description Editor 10K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too high 17 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Vachr Short-Term Rental Reservations 30+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #8 10 too high 19 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #21 ↓3 2 too low 20 Term Description Popup — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 WooCommerce Tax (formerly WooCommerce Shipping & Tax) 500K+ · 2.1★ (106) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 SiteSEO – SEO Simplified 400K+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #20 ↓4 2 too high 23 Description List Block 400+ · 2.3★ (3) wp.org #9 14 too high 24 Term Description: Rich Text Editor (Powered by TinyMCE) for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓1 12 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.