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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “youtube 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 “youtube plugin”, 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

Simple YouTube Embed shows at wp.org #9 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 15 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 1267 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 Feeds for YouTube (YouTube video, channel, and gallery plugin) 100K+ · 4.8★ (205) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #2 3 Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades 100K+ · 4.6★ (572) wp.org #3 4 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #4 5 WP YouTube Lyte 20K+ · 4.8★ (206) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Video Gallery – YouTube Playlist, Channel Gallery by YotuWP 10K+ · 4.7★ (322) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9 Automatic YouTube Gallery – Embed Auto-Updating YouTube Video Galleries, Feeds, Playlists & Channels 9K+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #19 ↓1 8 too low 12 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too high 13 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #13 14 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery, Playlist & Video Grid 2K+ · 4.9★ (128) wp.org #20 4 too low 17 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #15 ↑4 2 too high 18 Simple YouTube Embed 4K+ · 4.2★ (15) wp.org #9 ↑1 9 too high 19 Embed YouTube Block – Fast Loading Videos, Shorts & Playlists 6K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 StreamWeasels YouTube Integration 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too high 21 DSGVO Youtube 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #18 ↓2 3 too high 22 WP Plugin Manager – Deactivate plugins per page 3K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Plugin Compatibility Checker 9K+ · 4.2★ (12) wp.org #23 24 Video Playlist for YouTube 1K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #22 2 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.