AI Related Posts

A related posts box looks at the article and never at the reader

Two people open the same post on your blog. One arrived from the internal search, after a very specific topic. The other has spent weeks commenting in a different section. A box chosen by the category of that post shows them exactly the same thing.

What a visitor does on your site says more about what they will read next than the category of the article they have open. Every comment, every tag visited and every search is a clue about that person that a box by category does not use.

AI Related Posts, by divcoderPlugins, works with those clues: it suggests posts based on what the visitor has done and not only on the post they are on. Before installing it, bear in mind that it has not been updated since April 2020.

Comments, tags and searches turned into suggestions

• Based on behaviour: it proposes posts related to what the visitor does on the site.
• Based on their comments: it shows posts similar to the ones they commented on.
• Based on categories and tags: it takes into account the ones they have visited.
• Based on internal search: it uses what they searched for on your site.
• No-code panel: it works with the default settings, and the advanced ones are optional.
• Shortcodes: you place the output wherever you want, including inside a page builder.
• Translation: with WPML and PoEdit.

What kind of site gives it material to work with

All its signals are born inside your website. A publication or blog with readers who return, comment and use the search box hands it plenty of information about each person.

If your traffic comes from Google, reads one page and leaves, the picture changes. That visitor has not commented, has not searched and has not been through any tag, so there is no clue about them yet. What appears in that case is the first thing to look at on a test install, because it may be most of your visits.

A 2020 version, and what the name leaves out

Version 1.0.1 dates from April 2020, and the only change since launch was fixing responsive CSS. Its compatibility covers WordPress 5.0.x through 6.0.x and WooCommerce 6.x.x.

WordPress versions after 6.0.x are outside that list. It does not mean it will fail, it means you will have to check for yourself.

The name says AI, and the expectation is worth adjusting. Among its features there is no text writing, no summaries and no content generation: its job is choosing which posts to propose.

It also suggests posts only. Among its features there is no product recommendation for a shop, no click tracking and no tests for comparing two versions of the box.

Compatibility and first steps on a test site

Its compatibility also covers bbPress 2.6.x, Elementor, Elementor Pro and WPML. For a more recent site, follow these steps:

1. Install it on a copy of the site, with your real WordPress and PHP versions.
2. Place the shortcode in the post template or in your page builder.
3. Browse as a reader would: comment on a post, use the search box and open a tag. Then check whether the suggestions change.
4. Also open the site as a new visitor, to see what someone who has done nothing yet receives.

Other ways to improve reading in the catalogue

If the problem is that nobody reaches the box, the useful change is one of position. Inline Related Posts places the boxes inside the text, between paragraphs, and can insert them automatically in all your posts.

If what fails is that readers do not find what they are looking for, SearchWP replaces the WordPress search with one that indexes custom fields, taxonomies and documents, and adds search analytics.

Questions about suggestions per visitor

Does it show the same thing to every visitor?

It is not meant to: its suggestions take into account the comments, the categories or tags visited and the searches of each visitor.

Can it recommend WooCommerce products?

Among its features there is only post suggestion, not product suggestion, although its compatibility includes WooCommerce 6.x.x.

Does it work with the latest version of WordPress?

Its compatibility reaches WordPress 6.0.x and the last update dates from 2020, so you should test it first on a copy of the site.