How to add related posts to your blog posts in Squarespace
We’ve all been there...
You innocently visit a blog to read one post. You get to the bottom of the post, it was totally helpful and you’ve learned exactly what you needed to learn. Just before you leave the site, you see a “Related Posts” section... Suddenly, you’ve read 35 blog posts and 2 hours have disappeared.
Woops, how did that happen? Two words: Related Posts!
You want people to read your blog and get lost in your helpful content. A great way of promoting that is to add a Related Posts section to the bottom of every blog post. Here’s a super simple way to do it!
Firstly, if you’re using the templates: Farro, Haute, Skye, Foundry, Indigo, Ready or Tudor then your template already has a built in feature to display related posts!
But I know a lot of us aren’t using those templates, and if you’re anything like me, you’re probably using Brine 🙌🏻. So, us folks need a different solution!
Lucky for you, I have TWO solutions…
#1: Related Posts Plugin
THE RELATED POSTS PLUGIN BY SQSPTHEMES IS HANDS DOWN THE EASIEST AND FASTEST OPTION FOR ADDING RELATED POSTS TO ALL YOUR BLOG POSTS.
I basically love every Plugin from the Sqspthemes shop, they’re high quality, never fail me and the support is great if you’re having trouble installing.
They’ve created such a simple solution to one of Squarespace’s biggest annoyances, and, it’s pretty cheap when you think about how much time this could save you + how many people are going to stay on your blog! Shop the plugin here.
Yes, this is an affiliate link, which means I’ll a little commission if you purchase through that link! But don’t worry, I never promote anything that isn’t freakin’ awesome!
#2: Using a Summary Block
This method is a teeny bit more time consuming, and really only works if your blog doesn’t have too many posts in it yet.
Unfortunately, if you already have a tonne of blog posts, you would need to go back and apply this summary block method to the bottom of all of your existing posts manually, one by one! So, this is a much better technique if you’re just starting your blog.
But, it’s worth mentioning, because if you are just starting your blog and you’re on a tight budget, this is definitely an option that works really well and once you have set up, is pretty much automatic! (Not as automatic as the option #1, but, you get the idea!)
Basically, We’re going to add summary blocks to the bottom of our blog posts, then filter them by categories that relate to the particular post.
Open up a blog that you want to add Related Posts to,
Add a ‘Summary Block’ at the bottom of your blog post. I use the ‘Carousel’ layout, but you can use any of these 4 layouts options.
Then, in the Summary Block options, under the 'Content' tab, select your blog that you want the posts to pull from.
Under the 'Layout' tab you can adjust all of the design options to suit yourself.
Under the 'Display' tab there’s a few more options. If you’re using Carousel like me, you can choose the maximum items to display, I have mine set at 4.
Now, you can either leave it at pulling from your entire blog, or you can do what I do and separate the Related Posts by category.
For example on this particular post I would pull from the ‘Squarespace Tips’ category of my blog (because this particular post is about Squarespace!) By pulling from a category, this assures that the Related Posts shown will be relevant to the post that is being viewed.
ADDING CATEGORIES: When you originally create your blog posts, you want to make sure that you’re adding categories. For example, I have my category ‘Squarespace Tips’, and every blog post I write about Squarespace is added into that category. You add categories in the Category section of your post editor (see below). Learn more about blog editing here.
Once you have added at least one category to a blog post, you can then open up the Summary Block settings and add your Category under the Category Filter, under the 'Display' tab, to pull from one specific category!
TIP: If you want to pull from multiple categories, manually type in the names with a coma and no space after the coma eg: Category 1,Category 2,Category 3
Perfect! Now you have related posts at the end of your blog post. But, you’re probably thinking, "how do I automatically get this at the end of every page, rather than having to input it manually?"
Easy! You’re going to create a Blog Post Template:
Create a new blog post (just like you normally would) and set it up exactly how you want every other blog post to display. This means you would add an image at the top (if thats what you want), a space for body text then your “related posts” summary block at the bottom.
I recommend naming this blog “Blog Post Template” so you know what it is.
Click ‘Save’ at the bottom right, this will save the post as a draft - do not ‘Publish’ this one!
Then, when you go to create your next blog post, instead of creating a new blog post and starting from scratch, look in your Blog for your “Blog Post Template” then DUPLICATE this template! That way you have the layout completely set up and only have to change text and images.
So, pretty easy, right? Which method will you be using? I’ve used both methods and I know they both work well, so you can’t really go wrong — good luck!Want more? Check out our fav blogging tips below!
How to start a Blog with Squarespace (2021)
How to link to your Blog Categories on your Squarespace Site
How to add a blog sidebar to your Squarespace site (7.1 and 7.0)
6 blog design tips for Squarespace
How to automatically post your Squarespace blogs to social media
How to create a blog post template in Squarespace
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