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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “web crawler”

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 “web crawler”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Crawler Record shows at wp.org #5 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 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 #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #1 2 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #2 3 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #3 4 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #4 5 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too low 7 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #13 ↓1 5 too low 9 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #23 ↓2 14 too low 10 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 Sitemap by BestWebSoft – WordPress XML Site Map Page Generator Plugin 20K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too low 12 Email Address Encoder 100K+ · 4.2★ (160) wp.org #18 ↓3 6 too low 13 BerqWP – All-In-One Optimization for Core Web Vitals, Cache, CDN, Images, CSS & JavaScript 4K+ · 4.3★ (54) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14 VigIA – AI Visibility, Analytics & Control 2K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #14 ↓1 15 IP2Location Country Blocker 30K+ · 4.1★ (128) wp.org #22 ↓2 7 too low 16 Block AI Crawlers 2K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #8 ↓2 8 too high 17 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 ↓1 8 too high 18 LexonRank: AI Link Building, Free Backlinks, GEO & SEO Automation 800+ · 4.1★ (31) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19 Most And Least Read Posts Widget 900+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 Ads.txt and App-Ads.txt – AdEnergizer 400+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 ↓2 10 too high 22 Web Pixel Studio Cookie Consent for EU 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 ↓1 10 too high 23 Crawler Record 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↓1 18 too high 24 Warmer – Cache Warmer and Cache Preload Crawler 80+ · 4.3★ (8) 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.