David Miller

<p>Similarity displays a list of posts similar to the current post with similarity being determined based on tags, categories, or both. The display of the list is fully customizable including the ability to display the strength of the similarity as a value, percentage, color, or custom text/code. Another option allows for a less related post to be randomly selected and appended to the list. The list can be limited by one or both of a numerical limit or (as of version 2.1) match strength.</p>
<p>This plugin is translation ready and comes with English (U.S.), French, Polish, German, italian, and Spanish translations. Thanks to Li-An (http://li-an.fr/blog/) for providing the French translation. Thanks to Krzysztof Kudlacik (http://born66.net/) for providing the Polish translation. Thanks to Bjoern Buerstinghaus (http://www.buerstinghaus.net/) for providing the German, Italian and Spanish translations.</p>
<p>Prior to Version 1.6 private posts would potentially show in the list of related posts. In 1.6 these were skipped. As of version 1.7 private posts will show for the post author or others with the ability to read private posts. It is strongly recommended that users who have private posts install version 1.6 or higher.</p>
<p>The plugin allows for three function calls anywhere in your page templates (all use the same options):</p>
<ul>
<li><code><?php sim_by_tag(); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the tags applied to the posts</li>
<li><code><?php sim_by_cat(); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the categories assigned to the posts</li>
<li><code><?php sim_by_mix(); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the tags and categories assigned to the posts</li>
</ul>
<p>There are also three function calls that are better suited for use in sidebars (specifically when the sidebar is used on the main page)</p>
<ul>
<li><code><?php sim_by_tag_multi(); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the tags applied to the first post on milti-post pages</li>
<li><code><?php sim_by_cat_multi(); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the categories assigned to the first post on milti-post pages</li>
<li><code><?php sim_by_mix(_multi); ?></code> – determines similarity based on the categories and tags assigned to the first post on milti-post pages weighting each according to the ratio you assign</li>
<li>To display a Similarity list as a widget use a text widget with one of the following shortcodes – <code>[SIM-BY-TAG]</code> <code>[SIM-BY-CAT]</code> <code>[SIM-BY-MIX]</code> for single post pages only or for all pages use <code>[SIM-BY-TAG-MULTI]</code> <code>[SIM-BY-CAT-MULTI]</code> or <code>[SIM-BY-MIX-MULTI]</code></li>
<li>To display a Similarity list without altering your templates simply select the function that you would like to auto-display at the bottom of the options page.</li>
</ul>


Similarity

Similarity displays a list of posts similar to the current post with similarity being determined based on tags, categories, or both.

WebberZone

Ajay

<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/contextual-related-posts/" rel="ugc">Contextual Related Posts</a> is a powerful WordPress plugin that displays fast, intelligent related posts to keep users on your site longer. Improve SEO, increase pageviews, and lower bounce rates — no setup needed.</p>
<h3>Key features</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Activate and Forget</strong>: Activate the plugin. Contextual Related Posts automatically displays related posts on your site and in your feed after the content. There is no need to edit any template files.</li>
<li><strong>Custom Control with Manual Install</strong>: Want placement control? You have multiple options available:
<ul>
<li><strong>Gutenberg / Block Editor support</strong>: You can easily add a “Related Posts [CRP]” block to any post or page with its options and settings.</li>
<li><strong>Widgets</strong>: Add related posts to any widgetized theme area, such as the sidebar or footer. You can configure the widget options to suit your needs.</li>
<li><strong>Shortcode</strong>: Use <code>[crp]</code> to display the related posts anywhere within the post content.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><strong>REST API</strong>: Fetch related posts for any post ID using <code>contextual-related-posts/v1/posts/<id>/</code>. You can also use query parameters to filter or sort the results.</li>
<li><strong>The algorithm</strong>: Find related posts based on the current post’s title and/or content. You can also find posts by tags, categories and selected custom fields.</li>
<li><strong>Caching</strong>: Related posts output is automatically cached as visitors browse through your site, reducing the load on your server and improving performance.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a href="https://demo.webberzone.com" rel="nofollow ugc">View Demo</a></strong></p>
<p>Contextual Related Posts uses an intelligent algorithm that analyzes your post’s title and/or content to find the most related ones. This way, you can show your visitors more awesome content and keep them on your site longer.</p>
<p>With Contextual Related Posts, you can quickly boost your site’s traffic, reduce bounce rates, and refresh old entries. It’s fast, flexible, and easy to use. Try it today and see the difference for yourself!</p>
<p>Additional features include:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Exclusions</strong>: Exclude posts from specific categories or tags from being displayed in the related posts list.</li>
<li><strong>Custom post types</strong>: The related posts list supports posts, pages, attachments, or any other custom post type on your site.</li>
<li><strong>Thumbnail support</strong>: Display thumbnails or not!</li>
<li><strong>Styles</strong>: The output of the related posts list is wrapped in CSS classes that allow you to style it easily using custom CSS code.</li>
<li><strong>Customizable output</strong>: Display post excerpts in the related posts list. Customize the HTML tags and attributes used to display the output.</li>
<li><strong>Extendable code</strong>: Many filters and actions allow developers to easily add features, modify outputs, or integrate with other plugins.</li>
</ul>
<h3>MySQL FULLTEXT indices</h3>
<p>On activation, the plugin creates three MySQL FULLTEXT indices (or indexes), which are leveraged to find the related posts. <a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-algorithm/" rel="nofollow ugc">Learn more about how the algorithm works</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re running a multisite installation, an index is created for each blog upon activation. These indices occupy space in your MySQL database but are essential for running the plugin.</p>
<p>Two options on the settings page allow you to remove these indices when deactivating or deleting the plugin. The latter is true by default.</p>
<h3>💼 Features Exclusive to CRP Pro</h3>
<p><a href="https://webberzone.com/plugins/contextual-related-posts/pro/" rel="nofollow ugc">CRP Pro</a> supercharges your related posts with advanced customization, better performance, and powerful content strategy tools.</p>
<h4>🚀 Performance Enhancements</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/efficient-content-storage-and-indexing/" rel="nofollow ugc">Efficient Content Storage and Indexing</a>: Speed up your site with optimized custom tables and efficient database indices for lightning-fast queries.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/caching-in-contextual-related-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">Cache Setting</a>: Fine-tune your performance with configurable cache times from 1 hour to 1 year.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/server-load-threshold-setting-in-contextual-related-posts-pro/" rel="nofollow ugc">Server Load Threshold</a>: Prevent CRP from running queries when the database is under heavy load.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-bot-protection/" rel="nofollow ugc">Bot Protection</a>: Skip CRP processing for known bots and crawlers using an extensible signature list, saving server resources.</li>
</ul>
<h4>🎯 Smarter Content Matching</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-algorithm/" rel="nofollow ugc">Advanced Algorithm</a>: Control exactly how relevant content is found by adjusting weights for title, content, and excerpt.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-algorithm/#weighting-categories-tags-and-taxonomies" rel="nofollow ugc">Taxonomy Weight System</a>: Refine your matches with precise taxonomy weighting for perfect content relationships.</li>
</ul>
<h4>🛒 WooCommerce Integration</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Related Products for WooCommerce</strong>: Seamlessly integrate with WooCommerce to show related products.</li>
<li><strong>Product Matching & Filtering</strong>: Index SKUs and attributes, filter by stock status, and use category-based recommendations with native WooCommerce styling.</li>
<li><strong>Display Customization</strong>: Toggle prices, ratings, and choose to replace or complement WooCommerce’s related products.</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/woocommerce-related-products/" rel="nofollow ugc">📖 WooCommerce Related Products Documentation</a></p>
<h3>WP-CLI Support</h3>
<p>Contextual Related Posts Pro includes comprehensive WP-CLI commands for advanced management and automation. Perfect for developers, agencies, and site administrators who need powerful command-line tools.</p>
<p><strong>Key WP-CLI Features:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Database Management</strong>: Migrate post meta, check index status, and manage database operations</li>
<li><strong>Cache Control</strong>: Clear, warm, enable/disable cache with multisite support</li>
<li><strong>Custom Table Operations</strong>: Sync content and manage FULLTEXT indexes for optimal performance</li>
<li><strong>Content Processing</strong>: Reprocess posts and manage related content in bulk</li>
<li><strong>Multisite Ready</strong>: All commands support <code>--network</code> flag for multisite installations</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-wp-cli/" rel="nofollow ugc">📖 Complete CLI Documentation</a></p>
<h4>🎨 Advanced Design & Display Options</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-blocks/" rel="nofollow ugc">Block Editor Integration</a>: Create beautiful layouts with the Query Loop Block and ready-to-use block patterns including Grid, Image with Title, and more.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-shortcode/" rel="nofollow ugc">Extra Shortcode Parameters</a>: Unlock additional customization options for complete control over your related posts display.</li>
</ul>
<h4>📊 Analytics & Content Strategy Tools</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/tracking-parameters/" rel="nofollow ugc">Tracking Parameters</a>: Measure content performance with automatic UTM tracking for all related post clicks.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/cornerstone-posts-in-contextual-related-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">Cornerstone Posts</a>: Guide visitors to your most important content by featuring key articles in your related posts lists.</li>
<li><a href="https://webberzone.com/support/knowledgebase/contextual-related-posts-metabox/" rel="nofollow ugc">Additional Metabox Settings</a>: Control related content at the individual post level for perfect content relationships.</li>
</ul>
<h3>GDPR</h3>
<p>Contextual Related Posts doesn’t collect personal data or send information to external services — making it GDPR-friendly by default.</p>
<p>⚠️ You’re responsible for ensuring your site’s overall GDPR compliance.</p>
<h3>Donations</h3>
<p>Love Contextual Related Posts? Help keep it alive!</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://wzn.io/donate-crp" rel="nofollow ugc">donate</a> or upgrade to <a href="https://webberzone.com/plugins/contextual-related-posts/pro/" rel="nofollow ugc">CRP Pro</a> — both help support development and support.</p>
<h3>Contribute</h3>
<p>Contextual Related Posts is also available on <a href="https://github.com/WebberZone/contextual-related-posts" rel="nofollow ugc">Github</a>.<br />
So, if you’ve got some cool feature you’d like to implement into the plugin or a bug you’ve been able to fix, consider forking the project and sending me a pull request.</p>
<p>Bug reports are <a href="https://github.com/WebberZone/contextual-related-posts/issues" rel="nofollow ugc">welcomed on Github</a>. Please note Github is <em>not</em> a support forum, and issues that aren’t suitably qualified as bugs will be closed.</p>
<h3>Translations</h3>
<p>Contextual Related Posts is available for <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/contextual-related-posts" rel="nofollow ugc">translation directly on WordPress.org</a>. Check out the official <a href="https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/rosetta/theme-plugin-directories/" rel="nofollow ugc">Translator Handbook</a> to contribute.</p>
<h3>Other Plugins by WebberZone</h3>
<p>Contextual Related Posts is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/top-10/" rel="ugc">Top 10</a> – Track daily and total visits to your blog posts and display the popular and trending posts</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/add-to-all/" rel="ugc">WebberZone Snippetz</a> – The ultimate snippet manager for WordPress to create and manage custom HTML, CSS or JS code snippets</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/knowledgebase/" rel="ugc">Knowledge Base</a> – Create a knowledge base or FAQ section on your WordPress site</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/better-search/" rel="ugc">Better Search</a> – Enhance the default WordPress search with contextual results sorted by relevance</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/autoclose/" rel="ugc">Auto-Close</a> – Automatically close comments, pingbacks and trackbacks and manage revisions</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/popular-authors/" rel="ugc">Popular Authors</a> – Display popular authors in your WordPress widget</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/where-did-they-go-from-here/" rel="ugc">Followed Posts</a> – Show a list of related posts based on what your users have read</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/webberzone-link-warnings/" rel="ugc">WebberZone Link Warnings</a> – Add accessible warnings for external links and target=”_blank” links</li>
</ul>


Contextual Related Posts


Great plugin. Yours is the best related posts plugin I've found, and I've tried a lot.



If I could request one feature, perhaps in the pro version, the ability to show only related posts within the same post type.


Great plugin


Runs locally on your server instead of calling out to a cloud service. Highly configurable, privacy-friendly, can show thumbnails or just titles, can cache results or calculate them on the fly. Comparable to YARPP, which is also good, but this one comes up with better results on my site.


Highly configurable, great matches

Keep visitors on your site longer with intelligent, fast-loading, contextually related posts. Block, shortcode, custom post type and widget ready.

Similarity vs Contextual Related Posts