At the end of a post, there are two things people are likely to do. They are either going to continue reading the next post or they are going to leave the site.

You can encourage your readers to continue reading and stay on the site by showing related posts. They also help you boost engagement, search engine rankings, revive old posts and reduce bounce rates. This is a win-win solution for your site.

There are a handful number of related posts plugins available in the WordPress repository. By using any of these plugins, you can tailor your content to your readers to keep them engaged and raise awareness of your brand.

All of these plugins have free versions and some of these have pro plans. Let’s dive into the details of these plugins.

1. YARPP

Once you’ve got people looking at your blogs, there’s no looking back. You have to leverage their attention with relevant recommendations. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) finds customized recommendations by analyzing your post titles, content, tags, categories, and custom taxonomies. 

YARP comes with beautifully designed templates that you can customize to match your site’s style and look. It has an in-built cache to ensure that queries are carried out in little to no time.

It works with all languages to help support your bilingual content and readers.

Key Features

In-built Cache
List and Thumbnail Templates
Customizable Display Options
Multisite and Multilingual Support
WooCommerce and bbPress Forum Support
Advanced Algorithm collects Related Posts

Price

Free Version

2. Contextual Related Posts

If you’re looking for a tool to retain your visitors and keep them scrolling, Contextual Related Posts is the perfect plugin to help you out. Its feature-rich interface collects and displays similar posts to your article, ensuring a continuous flow of blog posts to keep your audience engaged. 

While most related post plugins slow your site down due to loading the additional articles, Contextual Related Posts has its own in-built cache that stores your articles on the go. This ensures that your site is faster than ever, quickly bringing related articles in no time.

You can showcase the related posts with an automated thumbnail (from the post) or a custom thumbnail set by you. You can also place the articles anywhere on your post via shortcodes. 

Key Features

Attractive Layout
Gutenberg Support
Custom Thumbnails
Custom CSS Styles
In-built Caching Algorithm
Displays Author/Date with Related Post

Price

Free Version

3. Shareaholic

Shareaholic focuses on discovering and displaying related content to your audience to retain them longer. Through its dynamic algorithm and code, it reduces bounce rate by driving constant page views. 

It has several themes to help display your posts in an attractive manner. The plugin analyses and processes your content using its cloud server, showcasing related articles to viewers in no time.

Additionally, you can add promoted content within the related posts to generate more revenue. 

Key Features

Revives Older Posts
Boosts Social Traffic
Promotes Sponsored Content 
Lightweight and Quick Loading
Customized Related Content View

Price

Free Version | Pro Plan starts at $8/month

4. Jetpack Related Posts

Jetpack Related Posts scans through your existing content and discovers similar posts visitors might like to read. Using its powerful algorithm, it showcases related posts in a grid or list view depending on your selection. 

It can display up to six related posts in one single blog post. These posts can be placed in the middle and bottom of each article. They are automatically generated by the system and cached for 12 hours. It doesn’t use your server to load the content, making the process so much quicker and convenient.

You can, of course, modify the related posts to include promoted content as well as hide certain categories of posts. You can also add related posts to products and events.

Key Features

Hide/Show Post Author
Adds Default Thumbnail
Edits the Related Post View
Adds Related Content in Shop
Builds Custom Related Post List
Excludes Certain Posts/Categories

Price

Free Version | Pro Plan starts at $4.97/month

5. Related Posts Thumbnails

Loved and used by over 40,000 users globally, Related Posts Thumbnails comes with a quick setup process. It lets you decide the basic criteria for one post to be related to another, ensuring that the automatically generated related posts are exactly the ones you would have chosen yourself.

You can display the related posts wherever you want, including in the sidebar by using the widget. You can adjust the thumbnail size by customizing the background, border, text, and more.

The plugin can create short video thumbnails to attract your viewers even further. 

Key Features

SEO Friendly
Video Thumbnails
WPML Compatible
Allows Custom Image Sizes 
Sets Parameters for Related Posts

Price

Free Version

6. Related Posts for WordPress

Related Posts for WordPress is a smart and lightweight plugin. It automatically detects and tags related blogs to every article without human intervention. Once it is installed, it stores all related articles in its cache to reduce additional loading time. 

A unique feature of this plugin is that it doesn’t simply specialize in related posts. It searches on related content based on the criteria set by you, so it can display related products from your shop as well as job listings. All you have to do is select the type of content you’d like to add. It has 4 ready-made templates to display related content, which you can customize via drag and drop.

It comes with a widget that you can strategically place in your website (i.e. sidebar, top of the page, below posts) for maximum content reach. 

Key Features

Multi-language Support
Shows All Related Content
Content is Cached on Server
Shortcode and Widget Support
Self-hosted Content from Server
Searches through all Taxonomies

Price

Free Version | Pro Plan starts at $5.99/month

7. Inline Related Posts

Inline Related Posts can transform a regular WordPress site from low traffic to 99% engagement rates. It stands out from the rest of its competitors by one feature alone – it displays related content INSIDE the article, as opposed to at the end of the article. 

Unlike other plugins, this tool can detect the right spaces to place related articles so that your readers can seamlessly scroll downwards, or jump to the related article when they like it. 

It takes away the overload of content at the end of every article (such as author name, subscription box, and comment button). While the audience is busy reading your article, leading him to a second related article is the best way to keep him captivated to know more. 

Key Features

SEO Optimization
Lightweight and Quick
Multiple Display Styles
Unlimited Related Posts (Pro)
Automatically Detects Placement

Price

Free Version | Pro Plan starts at $47/year.

Conclusion 

Having related posts on your site is a great way to encourage your readers to continue reading and to stay on your site. These plugins for related posts also help you boost your search engine rankings and you will see an increase in traffic to your site.

We hope you enjoyed this in-depth post about related posts. With this information, you can make an informed decision about whether to install related posts on your site. If you have any questions, please reach out to us anytime by commenting below. Thank you for reading!

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