Super Simple Related Posts

A super simple widget to output related posts based on categories, tags, or custom taxonomies.

Author:MIGHTYminnow (profile at wordpress.org)
WordPress version required:5.4
WordPress version tested:5.7.2
Plugin version:1.5.4
Added to WordPress repository:21-09-2013
Last updated:21-06-2021
Warning! This plugin has not been updated in over 2 years. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.
Rating, %:80
Rated by:12
Plugin URI:http://mightyminnow.com
Total downloads:9 541
Active installs:100+
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Super Simple Related Posts gives you both a widget and a shortcode to output lists of posts related to the current post. You get to decide how the posts are related (categories, tags, custom taxonomies), what to show (posts, pages, custom post types), and a whole lot more. The widget is configurable via Appearance > Settings and more info on shortcode usage is provided below.

A MIGHTYminnow plugin.

Features

There are tons of related posts plugins out there – here’s why Super Simple Related Posts is special:

  • Speed
    Unlike other related posts plugins, Super Simple Related Posts is super fast. It doesn’t run resource-intensive algorithms on your database and it doesn’t bog down your server. If you’re looking for a plugin that’ll run through all your content and match related posts word-for-word, there are plenty of good ones out there. If you’re looking for a simple, lightning-fast related posts plugin, you’re in the right place.

  • Simplicity
    As it’s name implies, Super Simple Related Posts keeps things as straightforward as possible. This means that you get a simple widget with easily configurable settings to let you do what you gotta’ do.

Settings

Whether you use widgets or shortcodes, you can easily configure Super Simple Related Posts with the following settings. These settings are directly configurable in each widget, and can also be controlled with attributes when using shortcodes (for more on shortcode settings, see the “Shortcode” section below).

  • Title
    The title of your widget.

  • Hide Title
    Give you the ability to hide the widget title, particularly useful when using the shortcode.

  • Post Types
    The post types you would like to output, and the order in which you want to display them. This works great with all custom post types.Note: you must specify at least one post type, otherwise no content will be output.

  • Show Posts Related By
    Choose the method by which you want to show related posts. You can choose categories, tags, or any custom taxonomy. This field automatically populates with all available possibilities.

  • Order By
    The criteria by which to order the related posts (e.g., title, date created, author, date modified, etc).

  • Order
    Ascending or descending – take your pick.

  • Number of Posts
    The total number of posts you would like to show in each section.

  • What to do if there are no related posts
    Choose how you would like to handle the situations in which no posts are found. Either hide the contents or display a custom message.

  • Headings
    Options to link and/or hide post type and category/tag/taxonomy headings.

  • Before/After HTML
    A handy feature to let you add custom HTML before and after the widget, in case you want any intro or concluding text.

Shortcode

In addition to using SSRP widgets, you can also use the [ssrp] shortcode. Here’s an example:

[ssrp title="My Related Posts" post_types="post, page" number_of_posts="3"]

Here is a list of the available shortcode attributes, which correlate to the settings listed above. Each attribute is listed along with its potential values in quotations, and any default values are listed in parenthesis.

  • title="Any Text" (Related Posts)
  • hide_title="1"
  • post_types="Comma-separated list of post type slugs, in order. E.g. post, page"
  • taxonomy="Taxonomy slug by which to detemine relatedness. E.g. tag" (category)
  • orderby="title|name|date|modified|menu_order|author|ID|parent|rand|comment_count" (date)
  • order="ASC|DESC" (DESC)
  • number_of_posts="Any number" (-1, unlimited)
  • include_featured_image="1"
  • exclude_duplicates="1"
  • no_posts_action="hide|message" (hide)
  • no_posts_message="Any text" (No posts found)
  • post_heading_links="1"
  • hide_post_type_headings="1"
  • term_heading_links="1"
  • hide_term_headings="1"
  • before_HTML="Any HTML/text"
  • after_HTML="Any HTML/text"

Filters

Super Simple Related Posts also provides you with a handy set of filters you can use for your own development and customization:

  • ssrp_post_title( $post_title, $post_id )
    Applied to the title of each related post, within the surrounding <a></a> tags.

  • ssrp_post_link( $post_link, $post_id )
    Applied to the linked title of each related post, outside the surrounding <a></a> tags. This is useful for adding a prefix/font-icon before the linked title.

  • ssrp_posts_list( $post_ul, $post_type_object, $taxonomy_term_object )
    Applied to the <ul> lists of related posts for a given custom post type and category/tag/taxonomy.

  • ssrp_taxonomy_term_heading( $taxonomy_term_name, $taxonomy_term_object )
    Applied to the category/tag/taxonomy term headings, within the surrounding <a></a> tags if the headings are set to be linked.

  • ssrp_post_type_heading( $post_type_name, $post_type_object )
    Applied to the post type headings, within the surrounding <a></a> tags if the headings are set to be linked.

Banner photo by Susannah Kay.