YARPP produces better matches than most related post plugins because it uses a content-based scoring algorithm. But the default settings are not optimal for every site. Here is how to tune them.
Understanding the YARPP Relatedness Score
YARPP assigns each potential related post a score based on how many features it shares with the current post. The score is built from four components: matching post title words, matching post body words, matching tags, and matching categories. Each component has a weight multiplier you can adjust. Higher weight = that factor contributes more to the overall score.
The minimum score threshold filters out matches below a certain relevance level. If YARPP is showing no related posts, the threshold is too high. If it is showing loosely related posts, the threshold is too low.
Adjusting Weights for Your Content Type
Go to Settings, then YARPP, then the Relatedness section. You will see sliders for each component:
- Title — How much matching words in the title matter. For sites with descriptive, keyword-rich titles, increase this weight.
- Body — How much matching words in the content body matter. For long-form content sites, this is usually the most reliable signal.
- Tags — How much shared tags matter. For sites with a disciplined tagging system, increase this weight significantly. For sites with inconsistent tagging, reduce it.
- Categories — How much shared categories matter. Categories are broader than tags, so matching categories produces broader matches. Reduce this if matches are too broad.
Finding the Right Minimum Score
The default minimum score threshold is 5. If you see no related posts, reduce to 3 and test. If you see poor matches (posts that share a category but nothing else), increase to 7 or 8 to require stronger overlap before a post qualifies as related.
The right threshold depends on your content volume. Small archives with few posts need a lower threshold to find any matches. Large archives with many posts can use a higher threshold to get tighter matches.
Rebuilding the YARPP Cache After Changes
YARPP stores pre-computed relatedness scores in a dedicated database table. After changing weights or thresholds, you need to rebuild this cache for the changes to take effect. In the YARPP settings, find the option to clear or rebuild the relatedness cache. On sites with many posts, this rebuild can take several minutes — do it during low-traffic periods.
Configuring the Post Pool
The post pool controls which posts YARPP considers as potential related posts. You can restrict the pool to: the same category as the current post, the same tags, or the full post archive. Restricting the pool to the same category produces tighter matches but may limit results for posts in narrow categories with few other posts. The full archive gives more options but potentially weaker matches.
Custom Post Type Support
By default YARPP only considers standard Posts in its matching pool. Go to the YARPP settings and add your custom post types to the supported types list. After adding a post type, rebuild the cache. YARPP can show related custom post type entries on standard posts and vice versa, which is useful for cross-linking editorial content with product pages or case studies.
Limiting Related Posts to Recent Content
If your archive contains old content that is less relevant to current visitors, you can limit the YARPP pool to posts from the last N days. This prevents YARPP from surfacing very old content as related. The option is in the YARPP settings under Pool options. For news sites or frequently updated blogs, this keeps related posts current.
For complex related post implementations including manual curation, multiple post type relationships, and custom display templates, a WordPress developer can configure and extend YARPP for your specific content architecture.