Related Posts Widget

The Related Posts widget shows your readers "you might also like these posts" at the bottom of each blog post. Great for engagement and helps Google understand which posts on your site are related.

What this is

A section that appears below your post content on the public site. Each related post shows title, optional thumbnail, optional excerpt, and a link.

This is different from Editor Related Posts — that's a panel for YOU (the writer) inside the post-edit screen. This widget is for your READERS on the live site.

Turn it on

1. Go to Linkilo → Settings → AI Settings (under the Smart Linking group).
2. Click the Related Posts tab at the top of the page.
3. Toggle Activate Smart Related Posts to ON.
4. Customize the options below.
5. Click Save Settings.

Visit one of your blog posts on the public site — you should see the related posts section appear.

Configuration options

Widget Title

The heading shown above the widget. Default: "Related Articles".

Insert Method

Where the widget appears:

• Auto-insert after content — Linkilo adds it after each post's main content. Easiest.
• Manual placement via shortcode — copy [linkilo_related_posts] and paste into a post template, theme file, or specific post.
• Widget placement only — register a WordPress widget you place via Appearance → Widgets.
• Custom hook integration — use do_action('linkilo_related_posts') from your theme.

Smart auto-positioning

Sub-option for Auto-insert. When on, Linkilo tries to find a smart break point in your content rather than strictly inserting at the end.

Selection Strategy

How Linkilo picks which posts are "related" — this is the big one:

Classic strategies:

• Category Based — posts in the same categories
• Tag Based — posts sharing tags
• Mixed Taxonomy — categories + tags combined
• Performance Based — based on views and comments
• Newest Content First — by recency
• Orphan Content Priority — surfaces orphan pages so they get visits

Intent / Funnel strategies:

• Funnel Stage Progressive (TOFU→MOFU→BOFU) — guides readers through your funnel
• User Intent Matching — matches by user intent
• Same Funnel Stage Only — keeps readers in the same stage

AI strategies:

• Topic Cluster Priority — favors same-cluster posts
• AI Semantic Similarity — full embedding-based matching
• Mixed Intelligent (AI + Traditional) — blends AI with category signals

Hybrid strategies:

• Traditional + AI Enhancement
• Category + Semantic Blend

When you pick a strategy, additional config options for that strategy appear below the dropdown.

Style options

Layout (list/grid/carousel) · Number of posts to show · Thumbnail size + position · Show date / excerpt / author · Border, padding, colors.

Live preview

The page has a Preview Notes card showing how settings affect appearance. Click Update Preview to refresh.

Maintenance tools

Near the bottom of the Related Posts settings page:

• Test Related Posts Generation — manually compute related posts for one post to verify your strategy.
• Clear Related Posts Cache — wipe cached widget output. Useful after changing strategy.
• Regenerate All Related Posts — recompute for every post. Use after a big strategy switch.

Common Questions

Will the widget slow my pages down?

A little on first load. Linkilo caches results so subsequent visits are fast. If a page IS slow, use Clear Related Posts Cache then visit the slow page once to warm it.

Can I put it somewhere other than after the post content?

Yes — change Insert Method to Manual placement via shortcode and put [linkilo_related_posts] exactly where you want.

Why are the wrong posts being shown as related?

Your Selection Strategy probably isn't right for your content. Try:

• Category-organized sites: Category Based or Mixed Taxonomy
• Semantic match: AI Semantic Similarity or Topic Cluster Priority
• Funnel-aware sites: Funnel Stage Progressive

After changing strategy, click Regenerate All Related Posts to clear stale cached results.

It doesn't show on my custom post type

Custom post types need to be registered with 'public' => true to be eligible. The Insert Method settings include post-type checkboxes to control which types get the widget.

Can I disable it on specific posts?

If using Auto-insert and want to skip one post: switch to Manual placement via shortcode, then the widget only appears where you put the shortcode.

The shortcode [linkilo_related_posts] isn't working

Check:

1. Activate Smart Related Posts is ON.
2. Insert Method is set to anything OTHER than "Auto-insert after content".
3. Shortcode is in the post content area (not sidebar/footer).
4. Clear cache via Clear Related Posts Cache.