Content is important for running WordPress blog. However, it is not sufficient to have content without sufficient internal linking on each of your page. The effective way is to manually insert relevant links on the post content and showcase related posts in sidebar or footer area. However, adding a list of recent posts can also be useful in most cases for having a solid internet linking structure. In this article, we will explain various options to insert recent posts in WordPress.
Why to Use Recent Posts?
Here are some of the reasons to insert recent posts in your site:
- Adding a list of latest posts in home page help visitors to quickly navigate through your content.
- You can insert recent post widget in popular content to promote your latest published articles.
- It is also good idea to showcase your latest articles in footer or sidebar area.
Insert Recent Posts in WordPress Site
You have different possibilities in WordPress to showcase your latest posts:
- Showcase in widgets area like sidebar or footer using WordPress Recent Posts widget.
- Insert in-between post content using Gutenberg Recent Posts block.
- Showcase recent posts using third-party plugins.
Let us explain all possibilities in the following sections.
1. Insert Related Posts in Widgets Area
The typical way of using Recent Posts widget in WordPress is to showcase your recent articles in sidebar or footer widget area. You can drag and drop the widget if you are using old Classic Editor and you have a widget block with Gutenberg editor.
- Login to your site’s admin panel and navigate to “Appearance > Widgets” section.
- Select the sidebar or footer area where you want to insert the widget and click on the “Add block” icon that shows as + on the top left.
- This will show a list of all available blocks and type “recent” in the search box.
- Click on the “Latest Posts” widget to insert the block.
- After inserting the widget, click on it to view the available for customizing the appearance.
- You can change alignment and toggle grid or list view to adjust the widget on your site’s layout.
- Since it is a separate block, it does not have any title. You can add a “Heading” blog to insert a title above the widget and group both blocks to a single block if required.
- Finally, press the “Update” button to publish your changes. The “Latest Posts” widget will look like below on your site.
Recent Posts in Classic Editor
The process is same to insert recent posts if you are using Classic Editor. However, the widget name will be different as “Recent Posts” instead of “Latest Posts”.
- Go to “Appearance > Widgets” and drag the “Recent Posts” widget to the desired area.
- Alternatively, click on the widget, select the available area to insert and click “Add Widget” button.
- Once the widget is available, enter the title like “Latest Posts”, “Recent Posts”, “Fresh from the Blog” or anything you like to show above the widget in the published site.
- Type the number of posts you want to show in the list as per the space available on your site’s layout.
- Finally, choose whether you want to show the published date below each article in the list.
- After finishing your setup, click on the “Save” button to publish your changes.
- The “Recent Posts” widget will look something like below on your published site.
Note: As you can see, Gutenberg does not provide options to show published date and select the number of posts in the latest posts list. Also, no matter you use Gutenberg or Classic Editor, appearance of the widgets is decided by the theme you use.
2. Insert Latest Posts Widget in Content Area
Though “Recent Posts” with Classic Editor offers additional options, it is not available to insert inside the content area. The only option for you is to use Gutenberg “Latest Posts” widget or go for a third-party plugin.
- When you are in the content area, type /latest inside a paragraph block.
- This will filter the “Latest Posts” block and click on it to insert.
- The widget instantly show your recent posts and you can toggle the list or grid view.
Customizing Latest Posts Widget Inside Content
Unlike widget block, you can find plenty of options to customize the latest posts widget inside your content. You can find all the available options under “Block” section from the sidebar.
- Styles – you have three styles to choose from like default, with dividers or with borders.
- Post content settings – you can enable this option and show excerpt with specified length or full post below each title.
- Post meta settings – toggle author name and post published date.
- Featured image – show or hide featured image for each post. Further you can change the image alignment, link image and select the image size.
- Sorting and filtering – select the sorting order, filter based on categories and author. You can also restrict the number of items to appear in the list with desired columns for the grid view.
- Advanced – this is a common option available for all Gutenberg block to add custom CSS classes.
Below is an example of the latest posts in list view with custom options:
The same widget will appear in the grid view with some modifications like below in two columns:
Note: WordPress also offers Query Loop and Posts List blocks which are used to create posts page based on categories and tags. However, you can use the block’s filtering options to show single page with certain number of newest posts and create a recent posts widget.
3. Using Third-Party Plugins
Frankly, we do not recommend using third-party plugin for inserting recent posts in WordPress as the default Gutenberg block suffice the purpose. However, there are some additional situations like if you want to include custom post types or include specific pages also in the list. The best option is to install and activate “WP Latest Posts” plugin on your site. This plugin offers large number of options to create a beautiful recent posts block which you can insert anywhere using shortcodes or with a Gutenberg block. Note that you can create multiple blocks for different post types and insert the shortcode in your PHP templates to showcase corresponding articles without mixing categories and post types.
- Upon activation of the plugin, you will find a new menu item “WP Latest Posts” in the sidebar and click on it.
- Click on the “+ New Block” button to create a new recent posts block for your site.
- The plugin offers numerous filtering and design options for selecting the content source and theme for your widget. Go through the settings and customize as per your requirements.
- After finishing your setup, save the block to create a shortcode.
Inserting Recent Posts Block
If you are using Classic Editor, the plugin will add a button with the name “Add Latest Posts” in the interface. For Gutenberg, you can paste the shortcode anywhere inside the content area or use the “WP Latest Posts” block.
- You will not have any option to customize the widget within the editor as you have already setup everything from the plugin’s settings panel.
- Publish your article and see the latest posts block in action like below.
- You can also use the shortcode in the widget area or inside your post template to show the widget automatically on all your posts.
Note: Jetpack also offers an additional widget called “Top Posts & Pages” which you can enable by allowing “Extra Widgets” from the plugin’s settings. This widget has advantage of showing pages in the list with simplified interface. Therefore, if you already use Jetpack then consider using this option instead of using additional plugin.
Final Words
We recommend using “Latest Posts” block from Gutenberg block editor to create beautiful recent posts widget insider post content area. Though the block do not offer any customization when using in the widget area, most themes use custom CSS to show the widget elegantly. If the default block is not sufficient then you can use the plugin as mentioned above to create recent posts in a carousel view.
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