How to Display Related Posts in WordPress

Engaging your readers and keeping them on your WordPress website is important. One effective strategy is to showcase related posts after they finish reading an article. This technique encourages them to explore more of your content, increases page views, and encourages a sense of community within your blog.

In this post, we will discuss various methods for displaying related posts in WordPress covering both beginners and users with some technical experience. We will explore built-in features, and popular plugins, and even touch upon custom code solutions.

Why Display Related Posts

There are numerous advantages to incorporating WordPress related posts into your website:

1. Enhanced User Engagement: Readers who enjoy a particular post are likely interested in similar content. By suggesting related articles you provide a way for them to dig deeper into a topic or discover new areas of interest on your site.
2. Increased Page Views: Related posts keep visitors engaged potentially leading them to browse more of your content and spend more time on your site. This translates to higher page views for website success.
3. Improved SEO: Search engines consider user engagement factors when ranking websites. By keeping visitors on your site for longer periods related posts can contribute to better search engine optimization.
4. Boosted Traffic: Related posts often feature content relevant to the current topic. This can entice readers to click through and explore related articles potentially leading them to become regular visitors.

Approaches for Displaying Related Posts

There are three primary methods to show related posts in WordPress:

1. Built-in Functionality in WordPress.com

WordPress.com offers a built-in option for displaying related content after posts. This is available only for WordPress.com hosted sites not self-hosted WordPress installations.

To activate this feature navigate to your WordPress.com dashboard, then go to Settings and Reading. Under the “Related Posts” section, check the box for “Show related content after posts“.

2. Using the Plugin method in WordPress CMS

WordPress offers a vast plugin library, and displaying related posts is no exception. Numerous plugins serve to this specific function, offering a wide range of customization options and functionalities. Here are some popular choices:

• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP): A well-established plugin that determines related posts based on content, tags, categories, and even links. It offers a user-friendly interface for customizing the display.
• Related Posts for WordPress: This plugin allows you to automatically display related posts or manually link them within the post edit screen. It provides various display options and integrates well with popular caching plugins.
• Inline Related Posts: This plugin focuses on displaying related posts within the content itself, increasing the chances of readers clicking through. It offers customization options for placement and appearance.

When choosing a plugin, consider factors like ease of use, customization features, compatibility with your theme, and active development status. To how to add related posts to WordPress plugin, I am using YARPP to install this plugin. Log in to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to the “Plugin” section then “Add New Plugin”. Search for “YARPP” click “Install Now” then “Activate”.

YARPP Configuration

After activation, you will find a new menu item called YARPP in your WordPress dashboard. Click on it. There are three sections in YARPP that offers various options to customize how related posts are displayed.

• The Pool: This refers to the pool of posts and pages that are candidates for display as related to the current entry.

• The Algorithms: This refers to YARPP limiting the related posts list by (1) a maximum number and (2) a match threshold.

• Automatic Display Options: Review the available settings and adjust them according to your preferences.

Once satisfied with your configuration, scroll down and click the Save Changes button. Here is what the preview looks like in the display-related post.

3. Custom Code Implementation

For users comfortable with code, implementing a custom solution allows for the most control over how related posts are displayed. This approach involves writing PHP code that leverages WordPress functions to determine and display related content. It is highly recommended to implement custom code within a child theme to avoid conflicts with theme updates.

Create a new folder within your WordPress themes directory and name it appropriately like mychild-theme. Inside this folder create a file named style.css. Within style.css add the following code replacing “Theme Name” and “Theme URI” with your desired information:

/*
Theme Name: My Custom Theme
Theme URI: https://yourwebsite.com/
Author: Your Name
Author URI: https://yourwebsite.com/
Template: your-parent-theme-slug (Replace with your parent theme's slug)
*/

Create a new file named functions.php inside your child’s theme folder. Here’s the code snippet that retrieves and displays related posts based on shared tags:

// Function to retrieve related posts
function get_related_posts($post_id) {
  $tags = wp_get_post_tags($post_id);
  
  $related_args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post', // Modify if needed (e.g., 'page')
    'tag__in' => $tags, // Filter by shared tags
    'post__not_in' => array($post_id), // Exclude current post
    'posts_per_page' => 3, // Number of related posts to display
  );
  
  $related_query = new WP_Query($related_args);
  
  if ($related_query->have_posts()) {
    echo '<div class="related-posts"><h3>Related Posts</h3>';
    while ($related_query->have_posts()) {
      $related_query->the_post();
      echo '<a href="' . get_the_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
    }
    echo '</div>';
  }
  
  wp_reset_postdata();
}

// Call the function to display related posts after the content
add_action('after_content', function() {
  if (is_singular('post')) { // Modify post type if needed
    $post_id = get_the_ID();
    get_related_posts($post_id);
  }
});

This ensures the display related posts WordPress after the content of single posts.

Conclusion

Implementing a well-executed related posts strategy can significantly enhance user engagement and boost traffic on your WordPress website. By selecting the appropriate method, optimizing the display, and potentially exploring advanced techniques, you can create an experience that keeps your readers coming back for more.

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