(22/4/2008)

Related Entries can be used to generate a list of hyper accurate related entries for a post. Many of the other plugins that accomplish this do so based on keyword matching in titles and post content, and while those usually work to some degree, the accuracy is pretty dismal.

Related Entries uses the taxonomy classifications of each post to come up with an extremely accurate list. To that end, you can only use this plugin if you have added taxonomy terms to each post (either categories or tags).

Benefits

One of the primary benefits of adding related entries to a site is to promote your readers to delve further into your site. The majority of blog web pages, especially posts, are dead-ends, providing no options for the reader to continue into your site. This leads to high bounce-rates for posts, where users typically come into your site via a search engine, and then immediately leave after reading your content. Having a list of related entries provides options for your readers to continue reading.

In addition, adding related pages can significantly enhance your search engine ranking. Typical page-rank algorithms (such as those used by Google) distribute the page-rank of a page amongst all the outgoing links on that page. If your posts only provide outgoing links to other sites, your page-rank almost entirely transfers to those outgoing sites. Adding related entries adds additional inbound links to other pages on your site, which enhances the page-rank of those pages.

Requirements

Related Entries requires at least version 2.3 of WordPress to function since it depends on the taxonomy system. It should work with both PHP4 and PHP5.

Installation

To install Related Entries, simply uncompress the downloaded file into your plugins directory and enable it from the control panel. To add related entries to a post, you can call the bnc_get_related() function from any theme page. It’s best to wrap the call in a function_exists clause to ensure your theme does not break when the plugin is disabled.


if (function_exists('bnc_get_related')) {
    bnc_get_related(6,4,'No related posts','bnc_related');
}


The arguments for the bnc_get_related function are as follows:

bnc_get_related($limit = 5, $min_match = 1, $no_related = 'No related posts', $class_name = 'bnc_related');

1. $limit - the maximum number of related entries to show (default is 5)
2. $min_match - the minimum number of taxonomy terms to match before being considered “related” (default is 1, but can be adjusted based on the number of typical taxonomy terms you put on each post)
3. $no_related - the text that is displayed when no related entries are found (default is “No Related Posts”)
4. $class_name - the CSS class name for the ordered list. This can be used to style the output (default is bnc_related)

Increasing the $min_match parameter typically makes the related entries list more relevant, but at the expense of fewer results. Lowering it will return more entries, but they will be less tightly related to the current post.

Revision History

1.1 - Updated branding