On many blogs you can see a list of similar posts after the post. There are many plugins for WordPress for displaying related posts, but the most attractive one seems to me related posts plugin.
Download Related posts
Download Plugin Related Posts can be on the official website, but easier. The plugin settings are quite simple, I will tell you only about some of the features.
Add related posts you can at the end of single posts or pages by checking the appropriate boxes in the admin panel.
Related posts will be added after the main content. If you would like to post similar posts elsewhere on the blog, you can use the php code:
Related Posts Settings
On the settings page for displaying related posts, you can choose how similar posts are displayed, for example, with pictures or a simple list. You can also select the desired structure of similar posts. By default, similar posts are displayed in a simple ul li list.
The Related Post settings are not complicated and even a beginner can handle this plugin.
If you use images in related posts, then you may find the function useful when the thumbnail is taken from an arbitrary field. If an arbitrary field with a given name is empty, then the first picture in the post will be shown, and if there are no pictures, then the default image will be used, that is, the default image. You can also set a default image in the settings, simply by writing the address to it in the appropriate field.
Well, on the last tab, you can write special CSS properties for this plugin, but I think this option is superfluous, so I won't go into more detail.
Hello! Remember, a long time ago I wrote a lesson about that? A lot of time has passed since then and the plugin described there (Simple Tags) even stopped displaying these very notes. Therefore, I decided to review another plugin today. which outputs similar articles with thumbnails... This plugin is very easy to use, it doesn't even require any intervention in your blog template code (!). It is also very easy to set up and very functional at the same time.
Related Articles with Thumbnails with WordPress Related Posts
For those who prefer more "fine" plugin settings, I will make a small wordPress Related Posts setup cheat sheet.
Configuring WordPress Related Posts Plugin
So the first block goes Statistics:
- Column of statistics of views from mobile devices (left column) and views from “desktop” - regular ones (right column).
- The percentage of clicks from the total number of views.
- Number of page views with similar articles.
- The number of clicks.
In general, a very interesting block, you can experiment with the output of similar articles and find the best solution, which will lead to an increase in the number of transitions. And the more internal clicks, the better, which means the closer the TOP search engines are for us.
The next block is Settings:
- Basic settings.
- Title of related articles.
- The number of posts to display.
- Posts in the last [selection] month
Followed by Theme Settings:
- Display.
- Output in “Momma” style (vertical with thumbnails).
- Output in “Modern” style (horizontally with thumbnails).
- Output vertically (large).
- Conclusion vertically (middle).
- Output vertically (small).
- In the style of the Pinterest service.
- In two columns.
- Manually.
- Sample output of related articles with current settings.
- Tune.
- Display thumbnails for related articles.
- Display the number of comments.
- Display publication date.
- Display the first [select] characters of the text.
- Custom CSS.
The next block is very similar to the previous one, the only difference is that the settings for mobile devices:
The next block is Other Settings:
- In posts where there are no thumbnails display the next image [select file]. By default, "empty" squares are displayed.
- Use custom fields.
- Other settings.
- Exclude these categories [selection].
- Automatic insertion of related articles.
- Display related articles in RSS feed.
- Keep statistics.
- Support the manufacturer (show the logo).
- Save changes.
Probably chewed as much as possible, or rather translated. I really hope that you will not have any difficulties with this plugin, in most templates similar articles are displayed in 2 clicks. But again, in the majority, and not everywhere, somewhere you will have to work with pens.
See you soon for new lessons!
Displaying such articles on a blog - I implemented this using the Simple Tags plugin, which I talked about for a long time and started using it a long time ago. But unfortunately, it no longer displays links to similar posts, apparently the changes were made in the latest version, so I became interested in the WordPress Related Posts plugin. And if I hadn't started editing the template, maybe I would not have noticed such changes soon.
Therefore, advice, sometimes look through your blog, I assure you, you will see a lot of new things.
I am currently uninstalling the WordPress plugin and code from my Simple Tags template, and installing another WordPress Related Posts plugin, the download address is - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin/
A feature of this plugin is that it displays such articles if not only a category, but also a tag is attached to each published post. If a tag is not assigned to one post, it will show that “there are no such posts”. Therefore, before installing this plugin, worry about tags and categories.
The second feature of the WordPress Related Posts plugin is that it can automatically add a list of links to similar posts after a post, or you can display it by adding a certain code to the right place in the template. This is exactly what suits me best, since using this integration method will allow inserting ad codes, thereby diluting the work elements of the blog.
Installing the WordPress Related Posts plugin is outrageous: I downloaded the file, installed it in the standard way, activated it, a new link appeared in the options menu - Related Posts, which launches its settings panel. There are not many options, but they are all written in English words, somehow I got used to the Russian language. Or maybe the Related Posts plugin translates for itself. Decision is made.
First, you need to find the file that displays the labels and provides the plugin --wp_related_posts.php, it is located in the wp-content \\ plugins \\ wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin \\ directory. I open this file with Notepad ++, I love this text editor for its simplicity and the ability to search for any word that I want to find in the document.
In my browser window, I have the Related Posts plugin settings panel open.
These bad words I have to turn into Russian, opening the file related_posts.php I enter the word Basic Setting in the document search options.
I found the first phrase (it is highlighted in gray, stands between the quotes, now I have to enter the phrase “Basic settings” instead. Stop. Before making a change, I have to convert the file from ANSI encoding to UTF-8.
If I don’t do this, every Cyrillic character entered will turn into an unreadable character.
What is the work of translating the plugin:
- in the settings panel I take an English word, phrase, sentence
- using Notepad ++ I'm looking for it in the file
- I translate the word into Russian, adapting the translation to our language, replacing the English version with it.
- I save the document, check the plug-in functionality after translation.
The fact is that during the translation process, I can make a mistake, and the file will not work correctly, in turn, this will affect the overall performance of the blog. Then, when the blog admin panel is overloaded, the system will give me this message.
This means that I made a mistake while working on line 330 of the wp_related_posts.php file. It prevents him from loading. I am looking for this line, fixing the error.
Everything turned out to be simple, I got into the syntax of writing a link to the author of this plug-in, I’ll do some magic, but I will leave the address, since I will post the translated plug-in for download so that he has no complaints against me. But I'll leave the address on my blog. I am quickly translating the options shown in the first screenshot.
And here is the already translated panel. Why did I choose it. Because the title of "Similar posts" I can display with different formatting: it can be written in a paragraph, or maybe as a title h3, h4, h2, divs. This is one plus.
As a standard, I can determine how many links will be displayed in the block of similar posts.
The second plus for me is the automatic (in this case, implemented on the blog) or manual integration of such posts into the text of the note. For manual integration I have to
- remove the quotation mark “automatic integration into a note”.
- open single.php file
- paste this code below into the desired location in the single.php file.
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As an example, I can show this screenshot, which was taken during the process of editing the template, and the integration of the code of similar articles.
This is not final, but it says a lot. I get a rather sensitive tool for fine-tuning the installed template for the blog.
And now I will show a part of the code as an example.
You can say I got what I needed, I installed the WordPress Related Posts plugin on the blog, it worked for me, I integrated it into the template exactly as I wanted. The words advertising are words - markers, they help me navigate the code so that I do not break the code of any button or widget. Since I haven't finished editing the template and I will add a couple more buttons or widgets to this file that will help integrate the blog into the social media environment, I don't really care about empty lines in the files.
An additional option of the WordPress Related Posts plugin: next to the items-links to “Similar Posts” there is an option to display thumbnails. For me the problem is to assign these same thumbnails during the publication of each posted note. I do not want to overload the blog, and the format itself does not need unnecessary decoration, if I were making a men's or women's magazine, I would think about implementing this option.
Lost in translation - I used the Google translator resource in my work. This service provides a very high quality translation. But still, one point remained unclear to me: Maximum Charaters of Except. If you have a guess what it is, and how to adapt this text to our Russian, please help. God grant that the author does not often update this plugin often, because after each update, I will need to make changes to the wp_related_posts.php file.
Hello! Today I will show you how to add the Related Posts feature to your site. On the page of each post, after the content, announcements of posts from the same category as the current post will be displayed. You can display similar entries based on tags. Plugin settings in Russian! A very simple and useful plugin!
You can install the plugin directly from your WordPress admin panel. Go to the page: Plugins - Add New, enter the name of the plugin in the search form, press Enter, install and activate the plugin.
- Choose based on what the entries will be displayed, categories or tags.
- Select the background color of the block of records.
- Block frame color.
- The width of the block relative to the parent container.
- Rounding the corners of the block (zero if not necessary).
- Block header.
- Indent from the top edge of the block.
- Font size.
- Title font shadow effect.
- Shadow setting.
- The width of the thumbnail.
- URL of your own placeholder image, which will be displayed when no thumbnail is found.
- Rounding the corners of the miniature (zero if not necessary).
- The number of displayed posts.
- Output format for related records. Vertically or horizontally.
- Limiter of horizontal output. If more records are displayed, then they will be placed on a new line.
- Align blocks in height.
- Font size and color for the title of the entry.
- The number of words in the description.
- Font size in the description.
- Save changes.
Everything is ready! After saving the settings, go to the record page, there will be displayed announcements of similar records.
Kind time of the day, dear visitors!
In this article, you will learn about the Related posts plugin, which makes great related posts with thumbnails.
There are many ways to make similar posts, but this plugin is very simple. And everything works well. The list of such records will be as follows. At least I chose this one.
There are other display settings to choose the one that best suits your site. We will definitely consider further how to change everything. I believe that this is one of the best options for appearance, as visual accompaniment always increases conversion (in this case, click).
What is also very good about this plugin is the display of images, which is not always possible in other plugins. As a rule, other similar solutions take pictures only from thumbnails. But most users simply don't assign them to every post. Yes, I myself have never done so until recently.
The same plugin will take the first picture from the images in the article. So, if you set the main picture in the article, then you can not worry that you did not set the thumbnail in the settings for the post. He also works with miniatures.
There is the same version of the list, but I will consider it the next time I implement it at home.
Now I'll show you how to set up this plugin and what are the nuances.
By the way, if you think that this functionality will somehow improve your site, then you are deeply mistaken. Yes, you may get a very small percentage of additional page views, but this is far from the truth when, thanks to this function, you can promote the site by improving the behavioral factor.
Similar records play a special role in indexing. That's what it's really worth installing them for. This is a big plus for a young site, as there are new and old pages. And for an already established site, they will play a protective role so that when a page falls out of the index, the linking of the site is not violated. I will talk about the latter in another article. The topic is very interesting and important.
Now let's move on to installing and configuring the WordPress Related posts plugin. I described the entire setup process in great detail in my video tutorial, and then I gave a text version. The video will be more informative, so I recommend that you first watch it, and then study the text version.
You can download the plugin from the official page by clicking on the button below.
Since the plugin itself is from the English-speaking Internet, first you need to translate the name of the block into Russian. From the image at the beginning of the article, you can see that I named the block "You will also be interested in reading."
This parameter is configured at the very beginning of the settings (Basic settings).
With regard to the number of posts displayed (Number of posts), I do not recommend displaying more than 5 posts. I put up a variant of 4 articles, since 5 simply would not fit in one line.
There is no point in displaying more than 5 posts. I have already said above that we are doing this thing for interlinking (automatic). Therefore, it is not necessary to display many similar posts. It is necessary to focus on manual linking.
The very first "Enable themes" checkbox is responsible for the ability to select a theme. If you disable it, then the standard version will be displayed in the form of simple links to records. If the post thumbnails are set, they will also be displayed next to the links.
Naturally, I included the choice of the topic and can decide on the desired option. Below you can see many different variations. There is already that you like more and will look better on your site. I chose the 3rd option (vertical large) with large thumbnails. It is this option that is shown in the very first image in this article.
To determine your option, you can try each one, or move the mouse cursor over each item in the settings and a preview of the themes will go in real time.
When you have decided on the best option for you, you can proceed to the next item of settings (Customize). We have individual settings that everyone can customize for themselves.
- Display Thumbnails For Related Posts - enable or disable display of thumbnails in related posts;
- Display Number of Comments - if enabled, the number of comments left in the article will be displayed next to the link;
- Display Publish Date - display the post publication date;
- Display Post Excerpt - enables the display of a portion of the content next to the link. If you enable the setting, then in the field you need to set the number of characters that will be displayed. I do not recommend putting this check-box, as everything will be too cumbersome and it will not give any benefit. Links are enough;
- Enable custom CSS - if you want to add some styles to the block, then there is no need to go into the stylesheet of your template. You can activate this setting and write the necessary styles from below to certain classes that are already in this setting. As you can see in the image above, I had to use this setting;
- Default thumbnails - if the article does not have a single picture and the thumbnail is also not set, then in this setting, by clicking on the "Select file" button, you can select the image that will be displayed for such articles;
- Custom size thimbnails - you can set your own size for thumbnails. In my case, this was not required, since in my version of the theme the dimensions were normal (150x150 pixels).
- Exclude these Categories In this paragraph, you can exclude certain categories so that their entries are not displayed in the bokeh of similar entries. Just put a checkbox in front of the desired category and the records will no longer be displayed;
- Auto Insert Related Posts - By default, this setting is active and you hardly need to touch it. It automatically places a block of related posts in the right place, that is, at the end of the post. It is not active for me, since I had to change the location of this side.
It turned out so that the block was placed in front of the social buttons. And what's the point of the social. buttons if they are not visible? Therefore, I had to place similar posts after the social buttons code. To do the same, you need to remove the checkbox from this setting and place the following code in the right place -
This is how I did it.
- Display Related Posts in Feed - whether to display related posts in the news feed, that is, in the feed;
- Support us (show our minimized logo) - if you want to support the plugin developers, then set this setting and there should be a small logo next to the block.
These are all plugin settings. Below is a little information about the plugin. A short video is also given, but we don't need that. After all the settings, we can save the settings. Be sure to do this by clicking on the button at the very bottom of the settings page.
I hope that I have explained everything simply and clearly. Everything is very simple.
The only thing that I recommend you remember about the importance of this function is that all this is needed not for improving behavioral factors, but for automatic internal linking, which will speed up indexing and keep the overall linking of the entire site if some pages for certain reasons fall out of index.
Want to improve your behavioral factors? No problem. Work on the site and focus on users. Make high-quality content and a user-friendly site and you won't need any secret chips, which, in fact, do not exist.
As for the analogue of this plugin, you can use the following:
- Related posts thumbnails;
- Yet Another Related Posts Plugin;
The latter is especially good. What exactly, I will tell you in other articles, where I will also analyze these 2 plugins in detail.
And on this I will end this post. Leave your comments. Write your wishes, questions. Of course, share this material with your friends using social buttons. Well, in the topic of the article - click on similar posts)
Until next time.
Best regards, Konstantin Khmelev!
