Keeping visitors engaged on your site longer is essential for growing your WordPress website. When users bounce after viewing just one page, you’re missing valuable opportunities to build relationships, increase conversions, and improve your SEO rankings.
I’ve discovered that one of the simplest yet most effective ways to keep visitors clicking through your site is by showing your most popular posts. By highlighting the content that resonates most with your audience, you’re essentially creating a roadmap that guides visitors toward your best material.
In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through exactly how to show most popular posts in WordPress using the easiest method available—no coding required!
In This Article:
- Why Show Most Popular Posts on Your Website
- How to Add Most Popular Posts in WordPress (In 5 Steps)
- Frequently Asked Questions: Showing Most Popular Posts in WordPress
Why Show Most Popular Posts on Your Website
Before I dive into the how-to, let me explain why displaying popular posts is such a powerful strategy for your WordPress site.
Internal linking benefits are significant. Studies show that websites with robust internal linking structures see higher pages per session and longer average session durations. When you showcase popular posts, you’re creating natural internal links that guide visitors deeper into your content.
Here’s what happens when you display your most popular content:
- Your bounce rate decreases. Internal links help reduce bounce rates by giving visitors clear paths to related content they’ll find valuable.
- You’ll see more page views per session. Sites with effective internal linking strategies typically see visitors viewing 2-3x more pages during each visit.
- User engagement increases dramatically. Companies that focus on digital customer engagement report up to 70% higher revenue than those that don’t.
- Your social proof strengthens. When visitors see that hundreds or thousands of other people have read and engaged with your content, they’re more likely to trust your expertise and explore your site further.
Plus, showing popular posts helps with SEO. Search engines love websites where visitors spend more time and view multiple pages—both signals that your content is valuable and relevant.
How to Add Most Popular Posts in WordPress (In 5 Steps)
The easiest way to show popular posts in WordPress is by using the ExactMetrics plugin.
ExactMetrics is the best premium WordPress analytics plugin. With ExactMetrics, you can quickly and easily track your website’s most valuable Google Analytics metrics and stats right in your WordPress dashboard.
The most popular features include:
- Top outbound link click tracking
- Top affiliate link click tracking
- Site speed report
- GDPR compliance
- Scroll tracking
- A lot more!
Get started with ExactMetrics now.
Step 1: Install ExactMetrics
First, you’ll need to install ExactMetrics on your WordPress website. To use all the features of our Popular Posts tool, download the Plus level license or above.
Then, download the ZIP file from your account area by navigating to the Downloads tab.
After that, upload the ZIP file to your WordPress website. You can do that by going to your WordPress admin area and clicking on Plugins » Add New » Upload Plugin.
Once you upload the plugin, go ahead and install and activate it.
Step 2: Connect Google Analytics to Your WordPress Site
Now, you’ll have to set up Google Analytics on your WordPress website. It’s really simple with ExactMetrics!
The plugin adds Google Analytics tracking to your WordPress site without coding. Just follow the steps in the setup wizard to get started.
For more details, check out our guide on how to properly add Google Analytics to your WordPress website.
Step 3: Choose Your Post Type
Navigate to ExactMetrics » Popular Posts in your WordPress sidebar.
Now, you’ll automatically land on Inline Popular Posts, but notice in the top navigation that you can also click over to the Popular Posts Widget tab.
What’s the difference between inline and widget?
Inline popular posts are usually displayed as one post at a time within your content. So, they’re easy to put at a few places within your content to help people find the most popular content on your site.
A widget, on the other hand, is something you might want to put at the very end of your articles or in the sidebar. It typically showcases more than one piece of content in a grid, so someone can see several popular articles at a glance.
Step 4: Customize Your Posts
Once you’ve decided if you want inline posts or the widget, scroll through all the customization options to choose how you want your posts to look and function. You’ll pick:
- A theme
- Colors
- Layout options
- Number of posts
- Whether author and date are shown
- Sort (how posts will be chosen)
- Post types to include/exclude
- How and where to place your widget or inline posts
Step 5: Display Your Popular Posts
Both the inline option and the widget option have different choices for placing them on your site. Both have an automated option, so the popular posts will be inserted into your content for you. Both of them also have options for inserting them in your WordPress editor (Gutenberg) or via shortcode.
So for the inline posts, you’ll see these options:
Each option comes with instructions when you click on it, so click around on the options to see how to make them work for you.
That’s it! You’ve gone through all the options, chosen how to display your posts, and you now have them set up and ready to go.
Frequently Asked Questions: Showing Most Popular Posts in WordPress
How do I show most popular posts in WordPress?
The easiest way to show most popular posts in WordPress is by using the ExactMetrics plugin. After installing ExactMetrics and connecting it to Google Analytics, navigate to ExactMetrics » Popular Posts in your WordPress dashboard. Choose between inline posts or a widget display, customize the appearance to match your site, and select where you want the popular posts to appear. ExactMetrics handles all the tracking and display automatically without requiring any coding.
Can I display popular posts in WordPress without a plugin?
Yes, you can display popular posts without a plugin by adding custom code to your theme’s functions.php file. You’ll need to create a function that tracks post views using custom fields, then build a WordPress query to display posts sorted by view count. However, this method requires PHP knowledge, can break when you update your theme, and doesn’t include the user-friendly features and analytics that plugins like ExactMetrics provide.
What is the best plugin to show popular posts in WordPress?
ExactMetrics is the best plugin for showing popular posts in WordPress because it combines Google Analytics tracking with easy-to-use popular post features. Unlike standalone popular posts plugins, ExactMetrics gives you detailed analytics about how your popular posts perform, tracks which posts are truly getting the most engagement, and provides multiple display options (inline and widget) that are fully customizable. The Plus level license or higher includes all popular posts features.
Where should I display popular posts on my website?
I recommend displaying popular posts in multiple strategic locations for maximum engagement. Place a popular posts widget in your sidebar so it’s visible on every page, add inline popular posts within your article content to keep readers engaged mid-article, and include a popular posts section at the end of your blog posts to suggest next reads. You can also add popular posts to your footer or homepage. Test different placements and use your analytics to see which locations drive the most clicks.
Does showing popular posts help with SEO?
Yes, showing popular posts helps with SEO in several ways. When visitors stay on your site longer and view more pages, it sends positive engagement signals to search engines that your content is valuable. Popular posts create natural internal links that help search engines crawl and understand your site structure better. Studies show that websites with strong internal linking structures often rank higher than competitors with similar content quality but weaker site architecture. Plus, lower bounce rates and higher pages per session are both factors that can positively impact your search rankings.
How many popular posts should I display?
The ideal number of popular posts depends on where you’re displaying them. For sidebar widgets, I recommend showing 5-10 popular posts so visitors have plenty of options to choose from. For inline popular posts within your content, show just 1 post to keep readers focused on the article they’re reading. For end-of-article popular post sections, 3-6 posts work well to give visitors several next-read options without being overwhelming. Always test different numbers and monitor your analytics to see what drives the best engagement on your specific site.
Now, do you want to track which of your authors are getting the most views? Check out How to Set Up Author Tracking in WordPress (The Easy Way).
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