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← Rankings

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

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 “titles”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Daisy Titles — Style & Hide Page and Post Titles shows at wp.org #4 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 3K+ 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

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 1267 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. 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 #2 ↑2 1 too low 2 MM Title Manager — Hide Page and Post Titles 10K+ · 4.4★ (17) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #3 4 Secondary Title 7K+ · 4.9★ (72) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #12 ↓1 6 too low 7 Hide Tooltips on Hover – Clean Up Title Attributes Without Losing Accessibility 4K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater (Add Alt Text, Image Title For Image SEO) 100K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #13 ↓1 5 too low 9 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #23 14 too low 10 Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 100K+ · 4.8★ (215) wp.org #19 ↑5 9 too low 11 Hide Page And Post Title 40K+ · 3.6★ (54) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 List all posts by Authors, nested Categories and Titles 600+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #7 ↑1 5 too high 13 Title and Nofollow For Links (Classic Editor) 10K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #11 ↑2 2 too high 14 SEO Media Manager 5K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #10 4 too high 15 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #18 ↑4 2 too low 17 Daisy Titles — Style & Hide Page and Post Titles 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 ↓2 13 too high 18 Unique Title Checker 900+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 I Image Title Remove 1K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 Archive Title 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 too low 21 Change Price Title for WooCommerce 3K+ · 3.8★ (10) wp.org #17 ↑4 4 too high 22 Duplicate Title Validator 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↑2 1 too high 23 Bulk Auto Image Title Attribute (Image Title tag) optimizer (Image SEO) 900+ · 3.6★ (5) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too high 24 Add Missing Link Titles 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 10 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.