Jetpack Related Posts is a module within the Jetpack plugin that displays algorithmically matched related content at the end of your posts. Unlike simple tag-based related posts plugins, Jetpack uses WordPress.com’s content analysis infrastructure to find genuinely related articles based on content similarity.
Requirements
Jetpack Related Posts requires:
- The full Jetpack plugin installed and connected to a WordPress.com account
- At least 10-20 published posts for meaningful recommendations (fewer posts produce less relevant results)
- Your theme’s post template to support the post content hooks Jetpack uses
Step 1: Enable the Module
Go to Jetpack → Settings → Traffic. Scroll to “Related Posts” and toggle it on. Jetpack activates the module and begins showing related posts at the end of your single post pages. No additional configuration is required for basic functionality.
Step 2: Customise Display Options
Click the gear icon next to Related Posts to access display settings:
- Show a headline — toggle on/off the “Related Posts” heading above the section
- Show thumbnails — display featured images alongside post titles, or show titles only
- Context — show a brief excerpt from related posts (adds content, increases section size)
These are the only native display options. Further customisation requires CSS or the jetpack_relatedposts_returned_results filter for changing post count.
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Step 3: Change Number of Related Posts
The default is 3 related posts. To change this, add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter('jetpack_relatedposts_returned_results', function() Return the number you want (1-7). Set this filter in your theme’s functions.php file. More than 7 is not recommended — relevance quality diminishes beyond this number.
Step 4: Custom CSS Styling
Jetpack Related Posts outputs HTML with the class jp-related-posts-i2. Target this class in your theme’s custom CSS. Common customisations include: background colour for the section, thumbnail border radius, heading font size, and spacing between related post cards.
Common customisations: background colour for the related posts section, thumbnail border radius, heading font size and colour, and spacing between related post cards.
Step 5: Verify Output
Visit a published post (not a page or custom post type — related posts appear on posts by default). Scroll to the bottom of the post content area. Related posts should appear after the content but before comments. If they do not appear, check the troubleshooting steps below.