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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wordpress faq plugin”

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 “wordpress faq plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

Joli FAQ SEO – WordPress FAQ Plugin shows at wp.org #9 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons places #12 on merit, 5.0★ from 775 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. 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 #1 2 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #8 ↑4 2 too low 7 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too high 8 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too low 10 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186) wp.org #10 ↑4 1 too high 12 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775) wp.org #19 ↑1 7 too low 13 Ultimate FAQ Accordion Plugin 30K+ · 4.6★ (439) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too high 14 MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress 1M+ · 4.8★ (1497) wp.org #20 ↑1 6 too low 15 WP Popular Posts 100K+ · 4.5★ (249) wp.org #18 ↓4 3 too low 16 AWP Classifieds 3K+ · 4.6★ (301) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 Helpie FAQ — Accordion, Docs & Knowledge Base 8K+ · 4.5★ (80) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 Plugin Organizer 10K+ · 4.7★ (227) wp.org #23 ↓1 5 too low 19 Happy FAQs – FAQ, Product FAQ & Help Center 1K+ · 4.8★ (23) wp.org #16 ↓8 3 too high 20 Joli FAQ SEO – WordPress FAQ Plugin 600+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 F FAQ Block For Gutenberg 4K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22 Accordions – Responsive Accordion & FAQ Plugin for WordPress 1K+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #24 ↓6 1 too low 24 Advanced FAQ Manager 2K+ · 3.8★ (4) wp.org #13 ↓2 11 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.