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Terms descriptions icon
Maintained Tested up to 6.9.10 #1 in cross-linking

Terms descriptions

This plugin allows you to create list of terms and assign links to them. Plugin replaces terms occurrences in your posts with appropriate links.

Active installs1K+1K+ tier
Downloads · 30d473▲ +28.9% vs prev. 30d
Rating4.9/510 reviews
Health score43/100Fair
All-time downloads108.8KSince Nov 2010
Support resolved0 / 10% in last 2 months
RequiresWP 4.1PHP any
Downloads · 7d127▲ +4.1% week over week
Our verdict

Use with caution

Terms descriptions works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 9 months ago, and scores 43/100 on our health check.

  • Only tested up to WordPress 6.9 (latest is 7.1)

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

81725Jul 16Aug 29Oct 13
Yesterday13
Daily average (1y)11
Peak day159Jan 26, 2026
Last 12 months4.1K

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Terms descriptions stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
cross-linking #1 235 Best cross-linking plugins →
link building #28 2,071 Best link building plugins →
links >100 10,000 Best links plugins →
page >100 10,000 Best page plugins →
post >100 10,000 Best post plugins →

Version adoption

Share of active sites per release.

  • 3.475.2%
  • 3.317.8%
  • Other7.1%

Rating breakdown

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 from 10 reviews

  • 5★90.0%
  • 4★10.0%
  • 3★0.00%
  • 2★0.00%
  • 1★0.00%

About Terms descriptions

From the official readme · v3.4.10

Description

The main purpose of this plugin is easy link building.

For example, you can create a page or post with detail description of some term. Most likely, this term is used in other posts and it would be appropriate to put a links from that posts to you page. But doing this operation manually is very time consuming task.

This WordPress plugin allow you to maintain a list of terms and assign links to them. Plugin automatically replaces terms occurrences in posts with appropriate links. You can control the number of terms replacements.

This plugin allows.

  • Create, update and delete terms through admin interface (Terms menu). Each term can contain one or several word forms (e.g. pear, pears).
  • Assign a link to a term. This link can point to your blog post, page, custom post type or to a page on another site.
  • Control how many terms will be converted to links in each post.
  • Select where you want to replace terms, in posts content, in posts comments or both.
  • Set several word forms for each term. For example, “apple|apples”. Word forms should be separated with a “|” symbol.
  • Search for terms in posts content and convert them to appropriate links. This task is performed automatically when plugin is activated.
  • Disable terms to links conversion for individual posts.
  • Wrap links with arbitrary text (for example, you can wrap link with strong tag)
  • Export and import terms and plugin options.
  • Export terms in CSV format.
  • Packet terms creation.
  • Permalinks update function (use it after permalinks structure updates).

Please, note that terms will not be replaced with links in following cases.

  • If the term is already inside the link. E.g. if the link was created manually. So the plugin will not change any links that already exists in the post.
  • If the term is located inside html tag. For example, inside alt attribute of img tag.
  • If the term is located in h1–h6 tags.
  • If the term is part of another word. E.g. term = car and the word is carrot.
  • If you checked “Disable Terms Descriptions plugin for this post” checkbox (at the bottom of post edit screen).

Important!

Huge terms lists with hundreds of terms can increase page creation time. In such cases, consider to use caching plugin.

Detail description of this plugin is available in English.

Detail description of this plugin is available in Russian.

Serbo-Croatian translations were created by Borisa Djuraskovic.

Spanish translations were created by Juan.

Development

If you want to participate in the plugin development, create a pull request to the official GutHub repository.

The plugin built with PhpStorm

Installation

  1. Download the zip file
  2. Extract terms-descriptions folder
  3. Upload terms-descriptions folder to yourwp-content/plugins directory
  4. Log in to your WordPress blog
  5. Click on “Plugins”
  6. Locate the “Terms Descriptions” plugin and click “Activate”
  7. Go to “Term” > “Terms” to create your list of terms
  8. Update DB message may appear after plugin upgrade at the top of admin pages. In this case backup you database and press “Update DB” button.
  9. Go to “Terms” > “Options” and select parser type. Simple parser will search for exact terms. Simple parser with quotes support will search for terms that may be surrounded with quotes.
  10. If you change permalinks structure go to “Term” > “Terms” page and press “Update permalinks” button
  11. If you want to disable the plugin for individual posts check “Disable Terms Descriptions plugin for this post” checkbox (at the bottom of post edit screen)

Changelog

3.4.10

  • Bug fixes: Sensitive Data Exposure vulnerability fixed
  • Bug fix: in saving skip_tags
  • Bug fixes: XSS vulnerability fixed

3.4.9

  • Bug fixes: XSS vulnerability fixed

3.4.8

  • Bug fixes: XSS vulnerability fixed

3.4.7

  • Bug fixes: reflected XSS vulnerability fixed
  • WordPress 6.6.2 support

3.4.6

  • WordPress 6.5 support

3.4.5

  • Bug fixes: reflected XSS vulnerability fixed
  • WordPress 6.2 support

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Terms creation page
Terms creation page
Page selection autocomplete field
Page selection autocomplete field
Options page
Options page
Tools page
Tools page
The plugin built with PhpStorm
The plugin built with PhpStorm

For developers

Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.

Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.

Active installs badge Rating badge Health score badge

Best Terms descriptions alternatives

All cross-linking plugins →
Alternatives
Rank Plugin Active installs Rating Updated Health
2 Related Links Blender Related Links Blender The Related Links Blender plugin provides a easy way to cross link posts. Target posts or… by stephenblender 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ 5 (2) 9 years ago 30
3 Electric Studio Cross-linker Electric Studio Cross-linker Inserts cross linking into your site from post names by James Irving-Swift 10+ ★★★★★★★★★★ No reviews 15 years ago 23

FAQ

Terms descriptions: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 14, 2026

Is Terms descriptions free?

Yes. Terms descriptions is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Terms descriptions safe to use in 2026?

Terms descriptions works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 4.9/5 and was last updated 9 months ago, and scores 43/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Terms descriptions?

Terms descriptions is active on 1K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 108,849 times since it launched in November 2010. It was downloaded 473 times in the last 30 days.

Does Terms descriptions work with WordPress 7.1?

Terms descriptions is officially tested up to WordPress 6.9.10, while the latest release is 7.1.3. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

When was Terms descriptions last updated?

The latest version, 3.4.10, was released on January 25, 2026 (9 months ago).

Who makes Terms descriptions?

Terms descriptions is developed and maintained by Vladimir Statsenko.

What are the best alternatives to Terms descriptions?

The most popular alternatives to Terms descriptions are Related Links Blender (10+ installs) and Electric Studio Cross-linker (10+ installs).

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