Related Posts

Updated

What it helps you do

Keep readers on your site after they finish a post. Under each blog post, Related Posts lists up to four other posts on the same topic, each with its image and title, so a reader who liked one article finds the next one.

It's built into the Dirigible theme, so you don't need a related posts plugin, and it adds nothing to how fast your pages load.

Turn it on

  1. Go to Customize → Blog & Posts → Post Pages.
  2. Turn on Show Related Posts.
  3. Optionally, set:
    • the Related Posts Headline (for example "Keep reading" or "More from the blog");
    • the Related Posts Image Size, the crop of each post's image;
    • the Related Posts Display: Seamless blends the list into the page, Card puts each post in its own panel.

The full list of post page settings is on Post Pages.

How posts are picked

Posts count as related when they have things in common:

  • Wording: the words in their titles and text. Titles count, and the post text counts most.
  • Categories and tags they share.

Your default category (often News or Uncategorized) doesn't count, because nearly every post is in it. The closest matches come first. A post with nothing close enough shows no list, rather than filling it with unrelated posts. The same post always shows the same list.

What visitors see

Under the post, after its text: your headline, then up to four posts, each with its image and title, linking to the post.

Things to know

  • Changes show after the cache clears. Related posts update when you publish, unpublish or re-tag a post. Pages your host has already cached keep their old list until the cache clears; purge the site cache to see the change straight away.
  • Sites that used the YARPP plugin switched over on their own. The theme turned Related Posts on, kept the YARPP headline, image size and display settings, and deactivated YARPP (it's never deleted). A site keeps YARPP if it also uses YARPP somewhere this list doesn't cover, such as a widget, a shortcode or archive pages.
  • Sticky posts aren't pinned into every list, unlike YARPP's setting for that.
  • Going back to an older Dirigible version after the switch removes related posts until you reactivate YARPP under Plugins.

Related settings and guides