Related Posts Plugins for WordPress

Best Related Posts Plugins for WordPress (Free and Premium)

Are you looking for the best related posts plugins for WordPress? If you are, we have got something for you. This article will show you the top five plugins you can use to display related posts on your website.

But before diving deeper, let’s see what related posts are and why use them.

What Are Related Posts and Why Use Them?

When you go through some blog posts, you will see articles similar to the one you are currently reading by the end of the post or in the middle. Those are known as related posts. As an example, let’s take a look at Bloomberg’s website.

bloomberg

When a website visitor completes reading the first article, he can easily navigate to the next post through the related posts widget.

In some cases, the CMS or the selected theme will display related posts based on factors like the category you set for the current article, the tag you specified, etc. Alternatively, you can also manually choose related posts from the backend.

When you allow the theme/CMS to pick the related posts, you can reduce the time you need to spend on the tasks. On the other hand, if you plan to select related posts manually, you can be picky but need to spend some extra time with the process.

Advantages of Related Posts

Related posts help to increase user interaction and enhance the overall user experience on a website or blog. Here are a couple of advantages of related posts:

  • Increase Participation: Providing similar posts gives users more opportunities to explore content related to their interests. This can motivate users to stay on your website longer, boosting page views and decreasing bounce rates.
  • Enhancing User Experience: One way to think of related posts is as a type of personalized content recommendation. They save the time of consumers and the effort of conducting additional research by assisting them in finding pertinent information quickly and efficiently. This enhances the user experience and motivates visitors to stay on your website.
  • Boost Page Views: You can increase page views per session by tempting visitors to click on related content. This is advantageous for websites that depend on advertising revenue because higher page views can result in more ad impressions and revenue.
  • Promote Content Exploration: The ability to display older or less popular content that might still be pertinent and useful to visitors is provided by related posts. You can direct traffic to these underrated treasures and allow them to be found by recommending similar articles.
  • Improve Internal Linking and SEO: Including related posts enhances the internal linking structure of your website. Search engines can grasp the relationship between various pages on your website when you link together comparable material. As a result, you can quickly boost your rankings.

Now you know why using related posts in WordPress is a good idea. Next, let’s see how related post plugins can be helpful.

Why Use Related Posts Plugins?

We highly recommend using a dedicated plugin to display related posts on your website. Here are the pros of using a plugin instead of the traditional (manual) method:

  • Simple Integration: Related articles plugins have simple installation procedures and user-friendly interfaces. They often offer a straightforward approach to incorporating similar article functionality into your website without requiring a deep understanding of technology or coding expertise.
  • Automated Suggestions: Plugins employ algorithms and analysis techniques to automatically produce relevant post ideas based on content similarity, categories, tags, or user behavior. By doing so, you may automatically choose and update relevant topics, saving time and effort.
  • Choices for Customization: The style and behavior of related post recommendations may often be customized with the help of many related post plugins, allowing you to match the look and feel of your website. The number of related posts shown, the standards for choosing related content, and the positioning of the suggestions are frequently customizable.
  • Performance Improvement: Plugins for related posts are frequently made to speed up loading and performance. They ensure that the related post recommendations are sent effectively, eliminating any detrimental effects on your website’s speed or user experience.
  • Analytics and Perceptions: Some related post plugins offer statistics and information on how people interact with the suggested related topics. You may monitor click-through rates, user interaction, and other metrics to determine which related posts are most successful. Then, you can modify your content strategy accordingly.

Next, let’s move to the article’s core, where we list the best related posts plugins for WordPress.

Best Related Posts Plugins for WordPress

The plugins we are going to list are:

  • Jetpack
  • Yet Another Related Posts
  • Custom Related Posts
  • Related posts Thumbnails
  • Related Posts Plugins for WordPress

Each tool comes with unique features. We will explain what makes them special below. According to your requirements and preferences, you can choose a tool.

1) Jetpack

jetpack - Related Posts Plugins for WordPress

If you have been in the blogging and WordPress industry for a while, you probably know Jetpack. Jetpack is one of the most powerful plugins to improve your website. The tool comes with a lot of features and add-ons. Once you have enabled the related posts option on your WordPress website, the plugin will take care of the rest. The process is automatic, and you do not need to spend extra time configuring the plugin.

Apart from the related posts feature, you can get back up & restore performance improvements and detailed statistics. You know the importance of having a complete website backup. Jetpack can help you generate the backup and store it off-site. With their performance improvement features, you can get a custom CDN for images, enable lazy load on photos, and so on. You can score better in page speed tests by combining Jetpack with any caching plugin like WP Super Cache.

You will also get a widget in the backend to see how many visitors you are getting, where they are from, and so on. If you need to know more about Jetpack, feel free to check out this guide.

Features

  • Secured code
  • Related posts customization
  • Backups
  • Performance improvement
  • Detailed stats

Price

Jetpack is a freemium plugin. It can be downloaded from the WordPress repository.

2) Yet Another Related Posts

YARPP plugin

YARPP is one of the popular plugins that’s suitable for the task. The YARPP algorithm uses the titles, categories, body copy, tags of your pages, posts, and custom post kinds to generate “matches.” These matches can then be displayed as related content at the bottom of your blog posts and pages.

The plugin also comes with a custom caching system. It will help you serve the related posts faster in the front end without causing performance issues. From the plugin settings page, you can choose a pre-defined style for displaying your related posts. It can be a list or thumbnail style.

Finally, YARPP is 100% compatible with WooCommerce, multisite installations, and all translation plugins. There won’t be any compatibility issues; you can display the related posts according to your preferences.

Features

  • Advanced  algorithm
  • Active support
  • All languages enabled
  • Custom caching
  • Developer friendly

Price

YARPP is a free plugin. You can download it from the WordPress plugins repository.

3) Custom Related Posts

custom related posts

If you are looking for an easy to use WordPress related posts plugin, check out Custom Related Posts. Compared to other plugins, CRP needs you to manually add related posts to your posts, pages, or custom post types. It can be the best option for smaller or newer websites requiring greater content control.

You can use a widget, block, shortcode, or Gutenberg block editor to display related posts because CRP is compatible with both editors. In reality, CRP adds a block to Gutenberg, which you can use inside the Gutenberg editor to display related posts. Since the plugin also comes with lightweight code, it won’t cause performance issues.

You can also show/hide features image on the related posts widgets. Another notable feature of CRP is that you can display related posts by importing from XML files or mentioning the post IDs.

Features

  • Lightweight code
  • Optimized for speed
  • Gutenberg compatible
  • Shortcode optimized
  • Featured image settings

Price

Custom Related Posts is another free plugin. From the repository, you can get it.

4) Related Posts Thumbnails

related posts thumbnails

Suppose you need an easy tool to add a related posts box with thumbnails; use Related Posts Thumbnails. This one is relatively straightforward, which is perfect if you’re looking for a simple fix. It may not have as many features as some other plugins. You can display the related posts in your content using shortcodes. On the other hand, if you need to take things further, you can use a dedicated PHP snippet and edit your templates.

This would be a good fix when displaying related posts inside your blog posts after the content area. You have total control over the plugin and can decide how many posts you need to display on the widget. You can also customize the length of the test, title, excerpt, and so on.

The plugin is also compatible with WooCommerce. So, if you are running an online store with WooCommerce, use this tool to display related posts on your website without causing any issues.

Features

  • Thumbnail generation
  • Image customization
  • Multiple thumbnail layouts
  • Caption display
  • Style customization

Price

Related Posts Thumbnails is a free tool. The plugin is available in the WordPress plugins repository.

5) WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager

WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager

Check out WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager for a flexible but feature-rich WordPress plugin. The tool comes with three layouts, which you can select according to your brand’s styling and color. You can get infinite scrolling which will improve the blog’s user experience. You can also choose a position to display the related posts.

Also, the override option will help you choose individual settings for posts. The plugin is also compatible with custom post types. WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager also has Google AdSense and Google Analytics support. It is also compatible with most WordPress and WooCommerce themes.

Features

  • Flexible
  • Feature-rich
  • Google Analytics support
  • Google AdSense support
  • Multiple styles
  • Infinite loading

Price

WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager is a premium plugin. You can purchase it from the CodeCanyon marketplace, which will cost you $25 (one-time fee).

Conclusion

If you need to increase page views and reduce bounce rates, use any related post plugins. You can do internal linking inside your article to add similar content, but a related posts plugin will make the job much easier.

As you can see, several plugins with outstanding features are available for the task.

If you prefer a simple but powerful solution, use Jetpack. Jetpack is more than a typical WordPress related posts plugin, and you can use all of its features o improve your website. YARPP, Custom Related Posts, and Related Posts Thumbnails are good options with lightweight code.

If you prefer another premium plugin, use WordPress Infinite Related Next Post Manager.

Based on your requirements, you can choose a tool.

We hope you have found this article helpful and learned more about the best related posts plugins for WordPress. Please consider sharing this post with your friends and fellow bloggers if you did.

Which plugin are you going to use?

Let us know in the comments.

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