WordPress Tip: Recent, Relevant, and Random Blog Posts
12 May 2010 Update: Interestingly, Google Analytics revealed that in the month since adding the sidebar, there’s been no significant change in the average time spent on the site (54s) or pages per visit (1.3). I still like it.
Recently, I thought it would be interesting to add a sidebar to my WordPress blog. I figured a short list of recent posts, relevant posts, and random posts would help surface information people might find useful. Here’s a quick rundown of how to add these with the PHP code below:
- Recent Posts: one-liner with simple WP PHP call
- Random Posts: a couple lines because I wanted random posts but sorted descending by date (not simply get_posts('numberposts=5&orderby=rand&order=desc');)
- Relevant Posts: also called related posts, a template-based plugin worked best for me: Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
<div class="sidebar">
<b>Recent</b>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('title_li=&type=postbypost&limit=5'); ?>
</ul>
<?php related_posts(); ?>
<b>Random</b>
<ul>
<?php
// Get five random posts.
$rand_posts = get_posts('numberposts=5&orderby=rand');
// Sort them (by date).
asort($rand_posts);
// Reverse them.
$rand_posts = array_reverse($rand_posts);
foreach( $rand_posts as $post ) :
?>
<li><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
</div>
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