Related posts refer to the suggested posts added to the end of a blog post (a.k.a the single post page). They encourage your readers to stay on your site and continue reading your content, by making recommendations for similar articles that might be of interest. Here is a visual example of what related posts look like:

EmPress themes all feature related posts as a built-in option. Related Posts are displayed based on the category of the post the reader just finished viewing.

In some of our themes (Barton, Hayes, and Pearl), you may also choose to order posts further based on:

The total number of comments on posts within the category
The publication date of posts within the category
At random

This article will explain more about these features, how to adjust them, and how you can make better content recommendations for your readers.

EDITING RELATED POST OPTIONS

Barton, Hayes, and Pearl Themes

1. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Post & Page Display Options > Single Post Options

2. Scroll down and look for the Related Posts Options section in the Customizer.

3. From here, you may update settings to:

Display or hide related posts
Add a title for the related posts feature (e.g. "You may also like")
Set the number of recent months to display posts from
- If you have been blogging for a long time, you may wish to set a numeral so that very old content is not displayed. Conversely, if you blog irregularly, a higher number will ensure more content is returned in the related posts feature.
Order posts that are displayed by number of comments, their publication date, or at random
Select the related posts featured image size (Barton & Pearl themes only)
- Choose from landscape, square, or portrait image orientations

Rania, Presidio, Miramar, Brevier and Archer Themes

1. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Single Post

2. Scroll down and look for the Related Posts section in the Customizer.

3. From here, you may update settings to:

Hide related posts
Add a title for the related posts feature (e.g. "You may also like")
Set the number of recent months to display posts from
- If you have been blogging for a long time, you may wish to set a numeral so that very old content is not displayed. Conversely, if you blog irregularly, a higher number will ensure more content is returned in the related posts feature.

HOW RELATED POSTS ARE RECOMMENDED

RECOMMENDED BY CATEGORY

Our themes automatically suggest related posts based on the category of the post the user just finished reading.

Check out a live example:

Suppose a reader just finished browsing this sample outfit post from our Hayes theme. Notice the "Style" category at the very top of the blog post. All of the related post content at the close of the post is from the same category — Style.

To automatically ensure your related posts are relevant to the content at hand, be sure you have properly structured your categories and sub-categories.

For example, a very broad catch-all category such as "Lifestyle' might return a variety of post topics, depending on the types of topics you post within such a category. Conversely, if you are posting recipes, sub-categorizing them by type (e.g. "Breakfast, Appetizers, Brunch, Weeknight Meals") would yield more specific results for your users. If you're categorizing all breakfast recipe posts with "Breakfast," then naturally, breakfast content will get recommended, ensuring readers find relevant suggestions to what they're already looking at!

We always encourage WordPress users to think clearly and strategically about their categories, as this is an essential part of WordPress—not just for content organization, but for menu structuring, content creation ideas, and as you see here, in returning the most relevant content possible.

Read more about categories here:

RECOMMENDATIONS BY POST DATE

Our theme Customizer includes a feature which allows you to set how old related post content should be.

This is done because many bloggers have published to their sites for a long time, and might not want to recommend an article from say, 5 or 6 years ago (especially since old shopping or style content may no longer be relevant!).

To set how far back your related posts should be pulled from, use the steps below:

BARTON, HAYES AND PEARL USERS

Here is a video showing you where to find the setting, with step by step instructions below.

1. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Post & Page Display Options > Single Post Options

2. Scroll down within the Single Post Options tab until you see the settings for Related Posts

3. Look for the setting Show posts published within the last number of months. Change the numerical in this field (in months) for how far back you'd like Related Posts to pull from. For example, 12 months = the last year's worth of content, from today.

Barton, Pearl and Hayes theme users may also opt to prioritize their related posts based on how recently they were published, within the total number of months the feature draws from. This setting is described in the section above.

RANIA, PRESIDIO, MIRAMAR, BREVIER, ARCHER

Here is a video showing you where to find the setting, with step by step instructions below.

1. Navigate to Appearance > Customize > Single Post

2. Scroll down within the Single Post tab until you see the settings for Related Posts

Recommendations by Comment

The Related Posts section also orders posts by the most commented, so if you have particularly popular posts in a given category or sub-category, you may notice those posts are repeated more frequently.

Barton, Pearl and Hayes users may also opt to prioritize related posts by comment within the Single Post options tab, within the Post & Page Display Options.