There are times when you’d like to have a certain type of post appear in a widget for use in your sidebar or (in some themes) your header or footer.
I used this to display a random senryu on each page, but it will work equally well for any group of reasonably small posts.
There is the option to include the title of the post, the title of the widget, both titles, or neither.
If you want you can add a bunch of widgets, each showing up to five random posts from a different category.

Random One Cat Widget

This Widget shows up to five random posts from a given category

Christoph

Redirect your visitors to
<ul>
<li>a random post</li>
<li>your last (latest) post</li>
<li>your first (oldest) post</li>
<li>the previous or next post</li>
<li>or a combination of conditions, for example a random post among your last 10 posts, or the latest post from at least 3 months ago, or the latest post of a specific author.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://chattymango.com/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Features</a> | <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/examples-wordpress-redirects-to-posts/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Examples</a> | <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation</a> | <a href="https://chattymango.com/?redirect_to=latest&cat=9&pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" rel="nofollow ugc">Latest Development Blog Post</a>
<h4>A magic URL takes you to the right post</h4>
This plugin provides a URL (link) that takes you directly to a post in single-post view. This post is determined by the query parameter ?redirect_to= and optional others.
While the URL remains the same, its target changes depending on the available posts at the time when somebody enters it. That means you can use the same static URL in a menu, with a button or in a newsletter and the plugin finds out the correct target.
Simply enter the URL of your WordPress site into your browser and add ?redirect_to=… to the end.
Possible values for redirect_to are:
<ul>
<li>last or latest – The URL will redirect to the last (latest) post.</li>
<li>first or oldest – The URL will redirect to the first (oldest) post.</li>
<li>random – The URL will redirect to a random post.</li>
<li>prev or previous – The URL will redirect to the previous post (by date).</li>
<li>next – The URL will redirect to the next post (by date).</li>
<li>custom – The post will be determined according to the mandatory parameter orderby and the optional parameter order.</li>
</ul>
You can also limit the scope of considered posts by additional filter parameters, such as &s=searchaword or &cat=2, or use an offset to go to the second latest or to the post before the previous. The parameter random combined with count and bias lets you pick the latest (or oldest) posts with a different probability than the rest.
<h4>Caching</h4>
The plugin offers <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/other-parameters/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme#Caching" title="plugin website" rel="nofollow ugc">caching of database results</a>.
<h4>Settings and Parameters</h4>
There is no settings page in the backend. You configure the plugin entirely through the query parameters in the URL.
Please find more information about parameters and troubleshooting <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme" title="plugin website" rel="nofollow ugc">on the plugin website</a>.
<h4>Examples for URLs</h4>
Note: Replace “http://www.example.com/” with your own website location. Spaces are written as “%20”.
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest – redirects to the latest post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&pk_campaign=random – redirects to a random post and tracks the visit
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev – redirects to the previous post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&each_once=rewind – redirects to a random post, avoiding duplicates, and then starts over again
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=prev&offset=1 – redirects to the post before the previous post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10 – redirects to a random post among the 10 latest posts
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&bias=80 – redirects to a random post. The plugin picks one from the latest 10 with a probability of 80% and from the rest with a probability of 20%
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&count=10&offset=1 – redirects to a random post among the 10 posts that come after the latest
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=random&after=1%20month%20ago – redirects to a random post among the posts that are not older than 1 month
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&exclude=4,7 – redirects to the latest post, excluding the posts with the IDs 4 and 7
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&offset=1 – redirects to the second latest post
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=custom&orderby=comment_count&order=DESC – redirects to the post with the most comments
http://www.example.com/?redirect_to=latest&s=iaido&default_redirect_to=12&cache=200 – redirects to the latest post that contains the word ‘iaido’ or, if nothing can be found, to the page or post with the ID 12; use a cache with a 200 second lifetime
<h4>Button</h4>
The plugin also provides a shortcode [redirect_to_post_button] to create a simple button. Some <a href="https://documentation.chattymango.com/documentation/redirect-url-to-post/getting-started-redirect-url-to-post/redirect-button/?pk_campaign=rutp&pk_kwd=readme#Shortcode_to_create_button" title="shortcodes" rel="nofollow ugc">parameters</a> are available.
A button that links to a random post is a great way to increase your visitors’ on-site engagement and therefore your SEO ranking!
<iframe loading="lazy" title="How to Redirect Users to a Random Post in WordPress" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-7kTnkBVpDA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
(video by WPBeginner)
If you find this plugin useful, please give it a <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/redirect-url-to-post/reviews/?filter=5" title="reviews" rel="ugc">5-star rating</a>. Thank you!

Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post

The plugin is easy to use and Works great. The developer provides super fast replies to support questions.

Works Great!

Automatically redirect to your latest, oldest, random, or other post through a custom URL

Random One Cat Widget vs Random Post Plugin – Redirect URL to Post