WordPress related posts plugin are the best way to keep your readers’ interest on track. And even if they don’t like the post they’re reading, they can have the opportunity to choose a better one from the related posts plugin you’re going to install.
There are more than 9 WordPress related posts plugins available and you’re probably unsure which the best is?
In this post, we’re going through a little comparison of them and helping you choose the best plugin for your blog, as well as listening to some smart folks using them lately and their recommendations and here are…
9 WordPress Plugin for Related Posts
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin by Mitchoyoshitaka – Able to choose whether to display a list of related posts on the site or on the feed and with custom post type support.
WordPress Related Posts by Denis Hua – Generates related posts via WordPress tags and displays related posts on feed.
Related Posts for WordPress by Microkid – Increases your site page views and SEO by manually selecting related posts for content.
Additionally, Many WordPress beginners don’t realize that manual curation of related posts can significantly increase engagement. When you hand-pick related posts instead of relying on automation, users feel more guided and tend to spend more time exploring your site.
Contextual Related Posts by Ajay – Decreases bounce rates and increases reader retention by using contextual matching to generate and display related posts.
Related Post Thumbnails by Marynixie – Choose whether to display different amounts of related post thumbnails under your content.
SEO Auto Links and Related Posts by Poer – A plugin combining related posts and automatic smart links.
Efficient Related Posts by Aaroncampbell – Requires PHP5 to load this plugin and works immediately even with thousands of posts and tags already existing.
Additionally, Some related post plugins can slow down your site dramatically, especially on shared hosting. Always check whether the plugin uses cached results or heavy SQL queries because fast performance equals higher SEO rankings and lower bounce rates.
Thumblated Related Post by Shekharsaxena007 – Allows you to display different amounts of related posts thumbnails under your content.
Darren’s Related Posts Plugin by Darren.
Choose Plugins that Have the Latest Update
Most people choose plugins to install on their blog simply by looking at the number of downloads or ratings. But actually, plugins that have the latest updates and frequent maintenance are the best plugins for us.
Just like a blog, a blog without updates is a dead blog. Therefore, we shouldn’t use a dead plugin that will never get updates over a long period of time. You can also go through this article to know more about this topic.
⭐ Case Study: How Outdated Plugins Almost Destroyed a Blog’s Traffic
A fitness blogger named Rohit Sharma had been using an outdated related posts plugin for over two years. One day, after a WordPress core update, the plugin stopped generating related posts and began causing database errors. His bounce rate jumped from 58% to 77%, and page views per user dropped drastically.
After switching to YARPP and clearing broken queries, his blog recovered within 10 days, and his page-per-session increased by 32%. Lesson: Always pick an actively maintained plugin to avoid compatibility issues and traffic loss.
Recommendation from Smart Folks
Matt Cutts, a software engineer in Jan 2000 and currently the head of Google’s Webspam team, said:
“My criteria was: the easiest plugin to install, that appeared to be actively maintained, and ideally would give me lots of options. The first one I ended up trying was Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP), and Mitcho has really done a fantastic job on it:
It’s trivial to install.
You don’t have to edit your WordPress template.
The relevance is good: the suggested posts are related, and you can tweak thresholds and how things are computed if you want.”
Conclusion
Adding the right related posts plugin can significantly increase page views, improve user engagement, and enhance your blog’s overall SEO performance. Whether you choose YARPP, Contextual Related Posts, or another option from this list, make sure it’s updated frequently and optimized for speed. With the right tool, your readers stay longer — and your blog grows faster.
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