The 6 Best Related Post Plugins for Wordpress in 2024

According to Tony Haile, the CEO of ChartBeat, the average reader spends a mere 15 seconds reading your blog post.
In this post, I'm going to show you how Related Post plugins for WordPress will help you increase the time users spend reading your content.
There are a wide range of plugins that can help you add a related posts section to your website
By using these plugins, you will be showing your readers more content that interests them. This will not only keep them on your page longer, but will allow you to be seen as more of a subject matter expert.

Why install a Related Posts Plugin for WordPress?

These WordPress plugins will make recommendations to your readers based on the current page they are on.
This helps keep your readers engaged for longer, and reading more content.
How many of us are guilty of purchasing an item on Amazon because it was related to something else?
That’s how I ended up with a bulk supply of cat treats. I didn’t need to buy them, but Amazon recognized that cat treats are related to cat toys, and presto. A sale was made.
You too, can harness the power of related posts to help increase your web traffic, page views, time spent on your content and ultimately, revenue.
These plugins all work a bit differently, but they all have the same end goal: offering your readers the chance to learn more about topics they are interested in.
Not only does this keep them on your page longer, but it helps to show that you are an expert in your field (I mean – just look at all these articles you wrote!).
To that end, here is a list of 6 of the top related post plugins you can use:

1. Jetpack
2. Related Posts for WordPress
3. Contextual Related Posts
4. Related Posts by AddThis
5. Yuzo Related Posts
6. Related Posts Pro

Jetpack

Jetpack is one of the most widely known WordPress plugins you can get. Boasting an impressive 18 million downloads, and with over 35 different functions, Jetpack is definitely a versatile tool for any website owner.
If your website blog has over 10 posts on it, Jetpack is able to analyze your content, tags and categories to make smart recommended selections for your audience.
Jetpack won't have an effect on your page loading speed, as they do all the analyzing on their end, letting your website continue to run with optimal speed.
Jetpack also comes loaded with a lot of different customization options.  You can choose where to include your related posts—whether that is at the top or bottom of your blog. You can also set the number of related posts to include in your list.
You can even go so far as to exclude certain posts, categories and tags if you feel like they won’t relate to the article being read. You include your own custom choices for related posts if there is something you really want your customers to read!
Jetpack's related posts plugin is powerful, and affordable.
Pricing: Free, or paid starting at £3/month.

Related Posts for WordPress

Related posts for WordPress is a solid, but lightweight plugin alternative to the more heavy hitting plugins out there.
Related posts performs all the resource intensive tasks in your admin area, and uses a cache to display the results.  This allows it to remain quick, and not slow down your website.
Related Posts even comes recommended by WP Engine to use for related posts.
In addition to this recommendation, Related Posts also comes with a few other features which I find to be quite useful.
Not only is the setup super easy, but Related Posts also lets you manually link posts (if you don’t want it to do so automatically), and, the plugin includes a widget which you can add to your sidebar.
However, if this isn’t enough for you, you can always opt to upgrade to the Pro version.
Included with Pro is the ability to adjust weights for related content, so certain tags or categories will show up more. You also have more control over your styling.
Pricing: Free, or Pro for $5.99/month

Contextual Related Posts

Contextual Related Posts is a highly customizable plugin. It is quick and easy to use, has some great features built into it, and is extendable.
If you have a smaller site, then this plugin might work perfectly for you.  It has a simple setup, and can work immediately relating your text only posts.
It can also search for an image within your post to use as a thumbnail, when no thumbnail is present.
This plugin helps to improve your blog's relevance by contextually matching posts to one another.
While this does help out in numerous ways, Contextual Related Posts has been blocked by WP Engine for being too slow.  This plugin does not scale well on larger sites.
Pricing: Free

Related Posts by AddThis

You may recognize AddThis from their success with their share and follow buttons.  Working from their experience, the team at AddThis has created a great plugin for showing related posts.
Related Posts by AddThis integrates well within WordPress to show more relevant posts in more engaging ways. You can customize the way your related posts are shown as well. You can chose from an on-page scroll, at the bottom, hovering suggestions, and many more!
One of the best features of Related Posts is its design. This plugin has a way of making your related posts stand out from the rest of your pages content. It also comes with analytics for related posts and share counts.
The only downside to Related Posts by AddThis is it tends to slow your website a bit, and if you want to take full advantage of the analytics, you also need to install the AddThisAccount plugin – either free or pro.
Pricing: Free

Yuzo

Yuzo Related Posts is another popular plugin for WordPress.
Yuzo includes a caching system that can optimize thumbnail images in the widget for faster loading times. Caching makes the performance better than YARPP (which has since been discontinued) and Contextual Related Posts.
Yuzo is great for beginner WordPress bloggers. It is incredibly fast and has a lightweight design. Its admin page is very user-friendly, and it has a lot of designs and themes.
This plugin can also support RTL design, and comes with the ability to work either horizontally or vertically.
However powerful Yuzo might be, it is not a lightweight plugin. Make sure you verify that it doesn't affect your site-speed after installing.
Pricing: Free

Related Posts Pro

Related Posts Pro is a premium plugin available for WordPress blogs.  This plugin comes with a whole host of features, including working with different content type such as custom post types, multi-sites, categories, terms and more.
Related Posts Pro provides an extra layer of convenience by allowing users to filter recommendations. They can choose to sort by either title, relevance, taxonomy and post type.
You can even use this plugin with any content type – posts, pages, and custom post types.
The only real downside to Related Posts Pro is that it is a slightly heavier plugin which can tend to slow your website down.
Related Posts Pro plugin also supports 3 types of layouts:

• Isotopic: adds a large related posts section (up to 20 items) in standard columns and rows.
• Slick and Slide:a carousel of related posts.
• Transitioning: displays a single post at any given time, before transitioning to the next with transition animation

Each layout is clean and modern, and each boost an impressive 65 different templates to choose from.
Pricing: $22

Wrapping Up

We all know that there are countless tips, tricks, methods, and ideas out there to help you improve your blog. Before you waste your precious time and money trying each and every tip out there to see what works and what doesn’t work for your blog, we recommend you try Related Post Plugins.

There are a lot of different plugins out there, with different features. There are pros and cons to each of these tools. Some are lightweight, some heavy. Some free and some come with a subscription. At the end of the day, related post plugins are designed to make your website more fluid, and provide a pleasing and easy experience for your readers, and are worth using if your site relies on user engagement to be successful.

All of these plugins will work in your MobiLoud mobile app. By utilizing these related posts plugins, you will be able to offer a reading experience similar to that of major publishers. To learn more, you can get started with a free preview of your app, or schedule a free, personalized demo and get a first-hand look at the platform's possibilities with one of our app experts.