Are you looking to increase the engagement on your WordPress website? A proven method to captivate your audience is by highlighting your top-viewed posts. By organizing your content according to popularity, you can direct visitors to your most successful articles, thereby increasing both the number of visitors and their interaction with your site. How to Display a Popular Blog Post in WordPress?
If you’re unsure about how to showcase your most popular posts on your WordPress site, don’t fret. There are two methods available to accomplish this task. The first is through a WordPress plugin, and the second is by coding it yourself.
In this guide designed for beginners, we’ll take you through the steps to implement and display your top-viewed posts by views on your WordPress site. So, let’s get started!
Method 01: Display Popular Posts Using a Plugin
To get this tutorial up and running, we’ll be utilizing the WordPress Popular Posts plugin. You might be curious as to why we’ve opted for this particular plugin. We’ll delve into that topic in the upcoming section. Let’s kick off the tutorial, shall we?
Step 01: Get the WordPress Popular Post Plugin Installed
If you’re already familiar with the process of installing a WordPress plugin, you can bypass this step. Installing the WordPress Popular Post plugin is quite straightforward, much like installing any other WordPress plugin.
Head to your WordPress dashboard -> Plugins ->
Add New Plugin, then look for the “WordPress Popular Post” plugin in the plugin search. Once you’ve found it, proceed to install and activate the plugin from the search results.
Step 02: Add the Popular Post Block
Once the plugin is installed and activated, it’s time to integrate the popular post block. To achieve this, navigate to the Widgets section within the Appearance tab.
Now, decide the placement of your popular posts. In this guide, we’ll position them on the Main Sidebar.
Here’s a screenshot illustrating the WordPress widgets area. Expand the Main Sidebar and insert the “WordPress Popular Posts” block.
This screenshot demonstrates the process of adding the WordPress popular posts block.
Step 03: Personalize the WordPress Popular Posts Block
With the block in position, we’re ready to personalize it. Luckily, this customization is straightforward, involving just basic textbox entries and drop-down menus. Let’s quickly review the available options.
At the top, you’ll find the Title field. Enter a name to assist users in understanding the purpose of this section. For instance, it could be something simple like “Most Popular Posts” or a name that aligns with your selection criteria.
Consider, for example, if you’re sorting by the most popular blog posts of the day.
In such a scenario, “Trending Blogs Today” would be an excellent choice. Ensure that visitors are aware of the content of the posts.
Below the title, you’ll find the option to select the number of posts to display. The default is 10, which might be too many entries for your widget area, so adjust this number to suit your needs. In this tutorial, we’ll showcase 2 blogs.
Next, choose the criteria for the block to determine the most popular posts. By default, it will select posts with the highest views. Other options include the number of comments and average daily views.
Then, select the Time Range. We’re showing the most popular blogs based on All-time views. You can also choose “Last 24 hours,” “Last 7 days,” “Last 30 days,” or “Custom.”
This screenshot illustrates how to customize the Most Popular Posts block.
You will now see the Filters section within the block. This allows you to exclude certain posts or entire categories from appearing in this section.
There are additional filtering options available, such as Authors or Tags, and the ability to exclude individual posts if necessary.
Finally, you’ll notice a list of options that configure the display of the posts and whether to include any stats alongside them. These options are all checkboxes, so simply enable or disable the features as desired.
This is a screenshot that shows how to customize the WordPress Popular Posts block.
And with that, the block is complete. Click on the “Update” button to save the changes you’ve made to your widget area. How to Display a Popular Blog Post in WordPress?