How to choose a plugin name, short description and tags that search can find

Updated Oct 22, 2026

Before WordPress.org’s plugin search looks at freshness, installs, support or ratings, it decides which plugins match a search at all, and how well. That part comes from a few fields of your listing: the name, slug, short description, tags and description. This guide covers which fields count and how much, the rule that every word of a search must appear, and the mistakes that keep plugins out of results. The weights come from WordPress.org’s open-source code; how they combine inside its search index isn’t public, so the scores below are TrackWP’s estimates.

Rule one: every word has to appear

WordPress.org only returns plugins whose text contains every word of the search. If someone searches “booking calendar for hotels” and “hotels” appears nowhere in your listing, you won’t be in the results, however strong the rest of it is.

Two details soften the rule. Short words the index drops don’t need to appear: a, an, and, as, at, by, for, in, of, on, or, the, to and with. And the index matches word forms, so “forms” finds “form”. TrackWP imitates that with simple rules for plural, -ing and -ed endings, so treat unusual words as uncertain.

TrackWP’s tools check for every word in your name, short description and tags. Search reads the long description too, but TrackWP doesn’t estimate that field, so the safe place for each word is one of the other three.

Which fields count, and how much

WordPress.org’s search query gives each kind of match a boost:

What matches the search	Boost
Its words in the name and slug, added together	5
The whole phrase in the name	2
Its words in the short description, description or tags	2
Its words anywhere in the name, short description, description or tags	2
The author or contributor names	3

Two details matter. The name and slug add up, so a search in both earns more than one in the name alone. The short description, description and tags are scored as one group in which the best-matching field sets the score, so repeating a phrase in all three adds little or nothing. Use them to cover different searches instead.

TrackWP’s estimate, in numbers

WordPress.org scores matches with Elasticsearch’s BM25 scoring, which can’t be reproduced without its index. TrackWP instead counts which fields match, out of 12 points. For the search “contact form”:

Where “contact form” appears	Estimated text score
Name, slug and short description	12
Name and slug	10
Name plus the short description or tags, not the slug	9.5
Name only	7.5
Name, but in another order (“Form for Contact”)	5.5
Short description or tags, not the name	5

The text score is then multiplied by the six factors, so the gap between 12 and 5 is a factor of 2.4 before freshness, installs, support and rating come in. Treat these figures as a guide to order, not exact values. For each search, the Rank Simulator reports how closely TrackWP’s estimated order matches the real results.

The name

The name carries the most weight: it shares the biggest boost with the slug and is the only field that earns the phrase bonus. Put your main search in it, with the words in the order people type them.

Keep it short. TrackWP’s Readme Checker passes names of 50 characters or fewer, warns up to 70 and fails anything longer: long names are cut off in search results, and the plugin guidelines treat keyword-stuffed names as spam. A brand followed by what the plugin does, such as “Acme – Contact Form”, carries one search cleanly. Put a second search in the short description or tags rather than the name.

The slug is matched together with the name, but it can’t change after approval. Before you submit, choose a slug with your main search words in it; if yours lacks them, the name has to carry them.

The short description

WordPress.org cuts the short description at 150 characters, so anything after that is lost. It’s the line under your name in search results, and search reads it as the excerpt. Say what the plugin does and who it’s for, with your main search in it, or a second search the name can’t hold. Below 50 characters, the Readme Checker warns that you’re leaving room unused.

As a rule, every search you care about should be in the name or the short description: search weighs the name most and reads the short description as the excerpt.

The description

Search reads the description too, in the same group as the short description and tags, but TrackWP doesn’t estimate its weight. The Readme Checker looks for 300 words or more, your main search within the first 100 words, where readers decide whether to keep going, and the exact phrase at no more than 3% of the words. Beyond that it reads as stuffing, which the plugin guidelines forbid.

Common mistakes

A search word missing from the whole listing, which keeps you out of that search entirely.
Counting on a slug that doesn’t contain the search: slugs are permanent.
Long names stuffed with every search you want.
Short descriptions over 150 characters, with the key words at the end.
Six or more tags, when only five count.
The same phrase repeated across the short description, tags and description instead of covering different searches.
Dropping a word of a search you rank for in a rename: it lowers your text score, or removes you from that search if the word is gone everywhere.
Chasing a search that’s out of reach. Keyword Difficulty estimates the installs a plugin named for a search needs to reach the top 10.

Check your listing

The Readme Checker scores your published readme for a search along these lines, and the Keyword Tracker shows today’s top 20 for that search and where you sit in the top 100. Once your text matches, the six factors decide the order: see How to rank higher in WordPress.org plugin search.