One of the greatest advantages to using WordPress to power your blog is the abundance of wonderful plugins that can enhance the functionality and usability of your blog. And in my opinion a “must have” plugin for any blog is one that displays a list of posts related to the one the visitor is reading at the time.
After trying out several “Related Post” plugins on my blogs, I decided to go with one called Contextual Related Posts by Ajay D’Souza. This plugin automatically analyzes the current post, then displays a list of posts that are similar to it directly below it. When the reader gets to the end of the post, he/she can then easily click on over to another post dealing with the same topic. This keeps your visitors on your site longer.
Another powerful benefit of the Contextual Related Posts plugin is the cross-linking of posts within your site. Cross-linking helps search engine robots find and index all of your pages quickly, making it even easier for searchers to find YOUR content in the midst of the constantly rising sea of web pages.
Here are a few key features that set the Contextual Related Posts plugin apart from the many of the others:
— You can direct the plugin to ignore “Pages” and place the related posts links only on single posts.
— This plugin doesn’t require the use of Tags.
— You can prevent “Links Pages” from displaying the related posts.
— You can have the plugin display thumbnails and/or snippets along with each link.
Installing the Contextual Related Posts plugin on your WordPress blog is easy. Simply follow these steps:
1 – Log into your blog’s WordPress Control Panel.
2 – Under the Plugins tab click Add New.
3 – In the search box, type Contextual Related Posts, then click Search Plugins.
4 – Find the “Contextual Related Posts” entry in the list and click Install Now.
5 – After the plugin has been installed, click the Settings link for the plugin and choose how you would like the plugin to work on your blog.
About the author: Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE.COM as well as an avid blogger.