There’s a lot of churn at GoDaddy which probably means a lot of people come in and create a WordPress based site and are enticed to use their themes also. Then if they migrate away they’ll take the theme or themes with them.
Then another user comes along and creates a new site and uses the GoDaddy themes again.
And those themes are fairly good.
But don’t pick a theme because it’s popular. Pick one because you like it!
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
It would suggest that ‘popular’ is more complicated than just active installation.
@anevins, yes, but what is the extra consideration? Perhaps payment to Automattic for placement?
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Why would you think that? That’s speculation based on ignorance of the system
@anevins Yes, it’s speculation because I’m ignorant of how the algorithm works. Do you have a better idea?
Andrew Nevins
(@anevins)
WCLDN 2018 Contributor | Volunteer support
Always give the developers at WordPress.org the benefit of the doubt that there’s a good reason for the system to be complicated. They deserve respect than to think they have been paid to rank GoDaddy higher.
The popularity ranking is currently determined by the number of active installs divided by the age of the theme, in days. So if a theme is newer but is used on a lot of sites, then it can rank higher than one with more actives but which has been around longer.
I don’t use Godaddy services myself, but I suspect that they pre-install a wide selection of themes onto the sites made using their systems. Those themes would thus be used by more people (remember, only active installs count here). Now, they’re probably putting those themes into the directory one at a time (theme review team rules for such). So they may have a large number of actives before coming into the directory, and thus have a lower age.
Take https://wordpress.org/themes/ascension/ for example. It’s been in the directory for about 30 days now, and has 20k+ active users. It probably had some number of those users before being approved into the directory. Thus it started out higher. As it ages, that boost will not be enough to sustain its ranking there, unless it gets continued growth. Popularity rank dissipates over time, basically.
popularity ranking is currently determined by the number of active installs divided by the age of the theme
@otto42 That’s what I was looking for. Thanks!
