Search Meter

74 Quality Score

Active Installs

19/30

At 20,000 active installs it has a moderate but not large user base, which is reasonable for a single-purpose utility plugin.

Update Freshness

20/25

A maintenance score of 92 out of 25 indicates the developer has updated the plugin very recently (December 2025) and keeps it current with WordPress core.

User Rating

13/15

The 86 out of 100 rating from 29 users is strong, though the small sample size means the picture is not as reliable as plugins with hundreds or thousands of reviews.

Support Health

8/15

With zero support threads opened or resolved, there is no public track record to gauge how the author handles user issues, which is a real gap.

WP Compatibility

15/15

A perfect compatibility score reflects that it has been tested against WordPress 6.9.4 and has a minimum requirement of only 3.2, making it broadly compatible.

Scores higher than 35% of indexed plugins

About

Search Meter tracks what your readers are searching for on your site. View full details of recent searches or stats for the last day, week or month.

Active Installs 20k+

Rating ★★★★ 4.3/5

Last Updated 2025-12-03 12:06am GMT

Requires WordPress 3.2+

Tested Up To 6.9.7

Security History

1 known vulnerability, all patched

1 Critical

Most recent: March 11, 2020

View details ▸

What It Does

Search Meter records every search query made through your WordPress site's search box and stores them for later review. From the admin dashboard, you can browse individual recent searches, see what terms returned no results, and view aggregated stats for the past day, week, or month.

Who It's For

This plugin is best suited for content-heavy sites such as large blogs, knowledge bases, documentation portals, and forums where understanding what readers are actually looking for can inform new content, navigation changes, or taxonomy improvements. It is especially helpful for solo publishers and small editorial teams who want direct visibility into reader intent without setting up a full analytics suite.

Who Should Skip It

If you already use a server-side or JavaScript-based analytics tool that tracks site search (such as Google Analytics or any of the alternatives listed below), this plugin is redundant. Small sites with under a few hundred posts and very little search activity will also get little value from the data it collects.

The Bottom Line

Search Meter is a focused, well-maintained utility that does one job and does it well, earning an overall quality score of 77.66 out of 100. The standout strengths are its very recent updates and broad compatibility, while the main weaknesses are limited name recognition and no visible support history. If on-site search insight is exactly what you need and you do not already have it covered by a broader analytics tool, it is a sensible pick.

Pick this if you want full site analytics that includes search tracking but also covers pageviews, referrers, and more in a privacy-friendly package.

Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 92/100

Pick this if you want Google Analytics-style dashboards with built-in search tracking but without sending any data to external servers.

Widgets for Google Reviews 94/100

Pick this if your goal is to display star ratings and testimonials on your site rather than to analyse internal search behaviour.

Rich Showcase for Google Reviews 90/100

Pick this if you specifically need richer Google Reviews display widgets, which is an entirely different use case from search analytics.

WP Popular Posts 89/100

Pick this if you want to surface your most-viewed posts to readers and study content popularity rather than reader search queries.