Are visitors leaving your blog after reading just one article? Struggling to increase pageviews, reduce bounce rates, and keep people engaged with your content?
If your site is built on WordPress, a related post plugin can solve this problem by automatically recommending relevant content to readers. This keeps them on your site longer, improves SEO, increases ad and affiliate revenue, and helps convert casual visitors into loyal fans.
In this guide, I’ll share the 8 best related post plugins for WordPress, from simple, free options to advanced tools that use analytics and behavioral targeting.
| Plugin | Best For | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| 1. MonsterInsights | Automatically displaying related posts based on Google Analytics data | Starts at $99.60/year (Pro plan required for Popular Posts at $199.60/year) |
| 2. OptinMonster | Using popups, floating bars, and slide-ins to show related posts and increase engagement | Starts at $7/month |
| 3. SearchWP Related | Advanced search-based related post recommendations | Starts at $99/year |
| 4. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) | Free algorithm-based related post matching | Free |
| 5. Jetpack Related Posts | Simple and automatic related post display with minimal setup | $9/month |
| 6. Contextual Related Posts | Free and customizable related post plugin with RSS support | Free |
| 7. Related Posts for WordPress | Simple related post plugin with an automatic setup wizard | Free (Premium starts at $5.99/month) |
Top Related Post Plugins for WordPress
1. MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is the #1 plugin for adding related posts to your website. It is actively used by over 3 million website owners to track their site’s user engagement.
You get 3 options to add related posts to your content.
- Inline Popular Posts – display popular posts within your page/post body.
- Popular Posts Widget – show articles in the sidebar or anywhere on your website.
- Popular Products – display up to 10 of your popular products on your product pages.
The plugin offers plenty of pre-built templates and customization options. You can match the layout and design of the popular posts to your website.
MonsterInsights is also the most popular Google Analytics plugin that makes integration to Google Analytics with your site easy. So, it can automatically curate top performing articles for you based on analytic reports.
Features:
- Popular Posts Widget
- Automatically select your best posts
- Link tracking features
- Get contextual insights reports
- Integrations with all popular plugins
Pricing: Pricing starts at $99.60/year. To access the Popular Posts feature, you’ll need the Pro plan at $199.60/year.
2. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization tool for showing related posts in a way that captures attention and keeps visitors on your site longer. Unlike traditional related post plugins, OptinMonster allows you to display related content using popups, floating bars, slide-ins, and inline campaigns.
With OptinMonster, you can target visitors based on their behavior. For example, you can show a related post popup when a visitor is about to leave your site, encouraging them to explore more content instead. You can also target specific pages, categories, or referral sources to ensure the right posts appear to the right audience.
How Olyplant Used OptinMonster to Keep Visitors Engaged
Olyplant, an organic plant business, used an OptinMonster related-post popup to increase visitor engagement by 157%. By displaying a targeted popup that recommended related articles about strawberry planting, they encouraged visitors to explore more content. As a result, those who clicked the popup visited over 5 pages per session on average.
Image translation:
Do you love strawberries?
Discover all the strawberry varieties that produce and cultivate your own now …
Yes, I want to try it!
No, I do not eat strawberries.
If you want to boost engagement and guide visitors to relevant content in a strategic way, OptinMonster is the perfect solution.
Features:
- Popups, slide-ins, and floating bars for related posts
- Exit-Intent® technology to catch abandoning visitors
- Page-level targeting for showing content based on user behavior
- A/B testing to optimize performance
- Integrations with all major email marketing platforms
Pricing: Plans start at $7/month.
3. SearchWP Related
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin that offers a related post extension.
SearchWP Related is a standalone plugin that works alongside SearchWP. The plugin uses entry titles as default keywords to find the related content.
The plugin offers advanced settings like auto-appending content. When enabled, this feature automatically adds related posts to every single post based on that type.
SearchWP integrates seamlessly with your website theme to match the typography and colors. You’ll also get all the customization options to match the styling of your website.
Features:
- Extensive plugin documentation
- Compatible with popular plugins
- Support for custom post types
- Exclusion settings provided
- Automatic integration with the theme
Pricing:
SearchWP is a premium plugin and its standard package starts at just $99/year.
4. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) is a powerful plugin with many features. It uses an algorithm to check the post titles, tags, and custom taxonomies to find similar content on your website.
The plugin has been actively installed on over 100,000 websites and has been maintained actively.
To show related posts, you can use its pre-built template or customize a new one as per your requirements. It provides an in-built caching system for storing the posts’ results.
Features:
- Inbuilt caching feature
- WooCommerce support
- Custom post type support
- Ready to use templates
- Plenty of customization options
Pricing:
The plugin is free.
5. Jetpack Related Posts
Jetpack is an all-in-one plugin developed by the WordPress.com team. The plugin comes with many features and related posts is one of the features.
The plugin analyzes content on your website and provides results for displaying related posts.
You can start using the related posts by simply going to Jetpack > Settings > Traffic and activating show related content.
Features:
- Automatic synchronization of new posts
- Different types of layouts are available
- Plugin provides many filters for customizing output
- Simple to use related posts block
Pricing:
The Related Posts feature comes with all Jetpack plans, which start at $9.95/month.
6. Contextual Related Posts
Contextual Related Posts is another free plugin available for displaying a list of related posts. It allows you to insert related posts content into your RSS feed.
Contextual Related Posts offers a lot of configuration settings. For example, you can set the number of posts to show or exclude from the results.
The plugin has received good ratings on the WordPress repository and comes with extensive support documentation.
Features:
- In-built caching support
- Support for custom post types
- Compatible with Gutenberg
- Support for post thumbnails
Pricing:
It’s a free plugin, but you can upgrade to the Contextual Related Posts Pro starting at $49/year.
7. Related Posts for WordPress
Related Posts for WordPress is yet another simple plugin that allows you to add related posts.
The plugin offers an easy to install wizard that automatically analyzes the posts on your website and suggests related post links.
Related Posts for WordPress comes with an in-built cache system, so adding related posts on your site does not affect your website speed.
Features:
- Easy to use
- Manually add and remove related posts
- Support for shortcode and widget
- Offers an in-built cache system
Pricing:
The plugin is free for use. It also offers a premium version starting at $49/year.
Which is the Best Related Post Plugin for You?
MonsterInsights and OptinMonster are the best plugins for showing related posts on your website.
With MonsterInsights, you can customize all the popular posts and keep the visitors engaged with your website content.
With OptinMonster, you can create attention-grabbing popups, floating bars, and slide-ins to recommend related posts that readers might be interested in.
We hope this article helped you find the best related post plugins for your website. Additionally, these articles will help you boost visitor engagement on your website:
Add a Comment