Why did my plugin drop in WordPress.org search?

You were fifth for your main search last week and now you’re eleventh. Search position on WordPress.org is relative: your score is multiplied by six factors, and you rank against everyone else who matches the same search. So a fall has three possible sources: your own factors got worse, your own listing text changed, or other plugins got better. This guide goes through each in the order worth checking, then closes with a checklist.

If it’s downloads that fell rather than a position, Why your plugin’s downloads dropped is the better starting point.

First, is it a real drop?

Results move a little every day. WordPress.org re-indexes listings as they change, and its text matching shifts with them, so a plugin can swap places with a neighbour and swap back without anyone changing anything.

Before looking for a cause, check the size of the move. A fall worth explaining is one of these:

• 3 or more places down,
• out of the top 10, or
• out of the results altogether.

A move of a place or two, especially one that reverses within days, usually isn’t worth chasing. Compare the same search over several days, not two single checks. The Keyword Tracker shows today’s top 20 for any search and where your plugin sits in the top 100.

Falling out of the results altogether is different from falling down them. That almost always means your listing no longer matches the search, which is covered below.

Your own factors

Search multiplies your text score by six factors. Four of them can get worse without you doing anything.

Freshness passed 180 days

Your plugin keeps full freshness for 180 days after its last release. After that the factor slips every day: ×0.94 at 210 days, ×0.84 at 270, ×0.70 at a year. Because the decline is gradual, a plugin can slide one place at a time for weeks without a single obvious drop. The Decay Countdown shows the date for any plugin. A new version resets it to ×1.00.

“Tested up to” fell behind

Search gives full score while your “Tested up to” is within 0.1 of the current WordPress branch. When a new major version ships, a readme that was one branch behind becomes two behind overnight, and the factor drops to ×0.88; three behind is ×0.77. If your fall started the week of a WordPress release, check this first. It’s a readme edit to fix.

Fewer resolved support threads

The support factor counts threads resolved in the last two months, so it falls whenever fewer get resolved, from a backlog or simply a quieter forum. Going from 10 resolved to 4 takes it from ×0.65 to ×0.48, about a quarter off your whole score. Answer open threads and mark the ones you’ve answered resolved.

A lower rating or installs band

The rating factor is neutral at 4 stars; falling from 4.5 to 4 costs about 6%. A run of 1- and 2-star reviews after a bad release is the usual cause. An installs band that slips, say from 10,000+ to 9,000+, costs very little, about 1%, so it rarely explains a big fall on its own.

How to rank higher in WordPress.org plugin search has the full tables for every factor.

Your own listing text

Search only returns plugins whose text contains every word of the search. If you renamed the plugin, rewrote the short description or changed the tags, check that every word of each main search is still somewhere in your listing. A word that’s gone takes you out of that search entirely, not just down it.

Text changes also shift your score when the words are still there. Your name and slug carry the most weight, so moving a search term out of the name and into the description can cost several places even though you still appear.

Look at what changed and when. Each plugin page on TrackWP has a change log that records renames, short descriptions, tags, “Tested up to” and releases, with the popular rank and installs band before and a week after each change. If your fall lines up with your own edit, that’s your answer.

Plugins that climbed past you

Often nothing about your plugin changed. Look at who is above you now that was below you, or absent, before. A plugin that climbed two places or more past you did something; one place is just the room your own fall made.

The usual reasons:

• It released after a long gap. A rival past its 180-day mark that ships an update goes straight back to full freshness. A rival at a year without a release (×0.70) gains over 40% overnight.
• It put the search in its name. The name carries the most weight, so a rival that renames itself around your search can jump several places.
• It rewrote its short description or tags to cover words it didn’t before.
• It updated “Tested up to” after sitting behind.
• Its installs band, rating or resolved threads went up.
• It’s a new plugin that entered the results.

Read the rivals’ changelogs, listings and support forums. The Rival Watch tool puts two plugins side by side, and the change log on each rival’s TrackWP page shows what it changed and when.

Work out which cause cost the most

Once you have candidates, the Rank Simulator shows your six factors next to the plugins just above and below you for a search, so you can see which factor separates you from the plugins that passed you. It works without an account.

From the Boost plan, the simulator also answers what-if questions: put the old value back, for example the support count from last month or the “Tested up to” before the WordPress release, and see how many places it would win back. Fix the cause worth the most places first.

Let TrackWP do the diagnosis

TrackWP checks your tracked searches every day and raises an alert when one moves 3 or more places or crosses the top 10. Every plan includes keyword alerts.

• Boost and FullCharge add the rival radar: alerts when a rival you watch releases, renames itself, or rewrites its short description or tags.
• FullCharge adds drop diagnosis to each keyword alert: your own factors on the check days either side of the fall, your own text changes, and up to four plugins that climbed past you, each with what it changed. For your own causes it estimates the places each one cost, by putting the old value back in the Rank Simulator. The weekly action plan shows each tracked search’s fall over the week.

The places are estimates, because text match is estimated; the factors themselves are exact.

Checklist

1. Is the fall 3+ places, out of the top 10, or out of the results? Has it lasted more than a day or two?
2. Out of the results altogether? Check every word of the search is still in your listing.
3. More than 180 days since your last release?
4. “Tested up to” more than one branch behind the current WordPress release?
5. Fewer support threads resolved in the last two months than before?
6. New 1- and 2-star reviews?
7. Did you change your name, short description or tags around the time it fell?
8. Who climbed past you, and what did they change: a release, a rename, new text, “Tested up to”?
9. Which of these costs the most places? Fix that one first.