March 30, 2014

Show Related Posts on Blogger with LinkWithin




If you have been blogging for some time, you might have notice that your older content need a promotional strategy to get more eyes into it. Obviously, your SEO strategies may help new readers discover your content through search engines, internal links will invite readers to keep engaged, and effective navigation aid them to explore your older content. Got more strategies to keep your readers engaged with older content?


Older Content Matters?


You should be focusing on fresh content, and work on content to be published (ONLY)? If you believe so, you might wanna start experimenting and feel the power of content.

Just because a blog post published two - three years ago doesn't mean their value has been depreciated. They can be outdated or old fashioned, but still may brighten up a day of someone out there seeking information.

Even if you don't promote your content, search engines and readers who find them interesting won't leave your content alone. They may recommend and invite new readers to your blog, whom never enjoyed your older content. Do you see, what I see? The potential ;)

Don't you feel you should be focusing on your older content too?


Discovering Older Content


Plethora of content marketing platforms, social networks and groups / communities / forums are some resources that can aid you on promoting your older content. How about promoting your content on your own blog?

If you have been coming over to this blog long enough, you might recall some solutions we discussed under the topic of Content Discovery. The common critical factor I adore in them is that you don't have to devote your time on promoting your older content. You just need to worry about the initial set up and rest is assured.

In case you have missed, here's some topics relevant to the Blogger blogging platform,



Now I'd like to welcome the new addition to this list. A simple widget helps visitors discover your old content and increase pageviews - LinkWithin.


LinkWithin


LinkWithin is a widget capable of populating older but related content, along with the fresh blog posts you publish on your blog. It keeps your readers engaged for extended period of time, and boosts the interaction on your older content too.


Promoting your older content without spending time on promoting. How convenient?

LinkWithin widget is easy to set up and no sign up required either. You can customize the number of posts to be displayed on this widget, and it is suitable for both lighter and darker backgrounds. Plus, it is FREE!

Think it's time to increase traffic and keep readers engaged? Proceed with the steps below. Your readers may thankful too.


Steps:

1. Go to LinkWithin website.

2. Fill out the required details in the given form. Make sure to set Platform as Other and Width to preferred number of stories you would like to show off.


3. Now click Get Widget button.

4. You will directed to a new page which holds the widget code snippet for your blog. Copy your code snippet and will proceed to add to your blog.


5. Go to Blogger Dashboard.

6. Click on your Blog Title.

7. Navigate to Template tab.


8. Search for following tag within the template.

</body>

9. Now add your widget code just above the </body> tag.

10. View your blog and you will find LinkWithin widget appears just above the post footer.

Note: If you find an empty LinkWithin widget like follows, don't panic.


Usually LinkWithin widget takes some time to crawl your content and display related posts. It may take up to several hours, depending on number of blog posts you have published on your blog.


More Information:

* If you would like to change the default text appears above the widget, add following line into your widget code snippet, just after the first <script> tag.

linkwithin_text='Your custom text:';

Then, change the highlighted text to the custom text you wanna display.

* By default, LinkWithin widget appears on post pages and homepage. If you don't wanna show related stories on homepage but on posts only, enclose your widget code as follows.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item";'>
[LinkWithin Widget Code]
</b:if>

* When indexing your blog posts, LinkWithin takes your labels into account. Hence, from my experience, the key to avoid irrelevant topics being listed as relevant posts is that having relevant labels set up for your blog posts. If your posts are labeled appropriately, your readers will find most relevant content listed beneath your posts.


Enjoy :-)




Awesome! Thanks for coming by and taking your time to read this post :) I hope you have learnt something today. Now you can share it with your friends and I'd love to hear from you too.






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Bren said...

I've been seeing this a lot on some of the blogger posts I follow. Very good info Maryura! Gladly passing it along!

Harleena Singh said...

Hi Mayura,


Yes, Linkwithin related posts are visible on most blogs, and I think as you mentioned, they are always a welcome read, especially when you want to tap the older posts.


I have put up another one, but I do have it on my blog too, though I keep trying various kinds to see what really works well, and it does get a few clicks, depending on the topic that interests the readers.


Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead :)

Noufal Binu said...

Mayura,
linkwithin is a superb widget for blogger but it i have removed on my blog,
Main thing It have Not more advanced options and customization. anyway it is awesome to pick related old articles automatically, No tension about old posts :D
Thank you so much Mayura.

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Brenda,

I've noticed LinkWithin widget on many Blogger blogs too :) Guess they find it easier to implement as no signup required.

Thanks for contributing your thoughts and sharing with your friends too dear :)

Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Harleena,

Like Brenda mentioned :) Well, I agree there as I've noticed it on many Blogger blogs too. We can't expect more exposure on older content without promoting them. Can we?

Yeah, experimenting is the best as there are similar solutions available for free. I used to have LinkWithin, but switched to nRelate. I hope bloggers will go with the best solution they prefer :) Wish they could offer impression and click insights too.

Thanks for coming over, and sharing your thoughts and experience on using Related Posts widgets, Harleena :)

Enjoy the wonderful week too dear!

Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Noufal,

I agree mate :) It's simple and invite readers to explore the older content, but limited customization and advanced features.

I've been using LinkWithin too, but then switched to nRelate. Still I find some bloggers love LinkWithin and reserving the liberty to stick with what's best for them :)

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on having LinkWithin on blogs, Noufal :)

Cheers...

Donna Merrill said...

Hi Mayura,
Again another learning curve for me! I haven't heard about LinkWithin. But have seen many blogs doing this kind of thing. Hmmm....you have me thinking once again. This seems so easy to do and also very effective.
You always make things so easy to do and I appreciate that. Maybe I'll jump into this game!
Many thanks,
-Donna

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Donna,

Thanks for your kind words on this tutorial dear :) Glad I could bring it to your attention. You got it right there! It's very easy to implement and you don't even have to sign up either. Just select WordPress and grab it.

I hope you will think about showing off related posts, with LinkWithin or other similar plugin Donna :) Shouldn't let older content go wasted, right?

Thanks for coming over and contributing your thoughts on LinkWithin widget dear :)

Cheers...

Adrienne said...

Wow, they sure seem to have a lot of things coming out for Blogger blogs now Mayura. I remember when I was on Blogger and they didn't even have different themes. They are getting pretty fancy now and this really does seem like a welcome addition.


I'm sure those using Blogger will be happy to learn this if they haven't already. I'll be sure to pass this one along my friend.


~Adrienne

Jeevan Jacob John said...

I have tried LinkWithin (back when I was with blogger).


It seems like I tried a lot more products back then (maybe because Blogger didn't have much features).


WP, on the other hand, does offer a lot of functionality...But, I suppose that argument is no longer valid. Blogger has improved dramatically.


Anyways, thank you for sharing this, Mayura :)


Right now, I am using YARPP for my related posts, and so far, it has been working well!

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Adrienne,

Oh, those days! ;) Now it's pretty cooler than it used to be and support more third party plugins. Isn't it? I'm sure you know how effective it is to have a related post plugin to promote older posts.

Actually LinkWithin has no advanced features like nRelate does. But as it's about showing off relevant related posts, does the job as it states.

Thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts about LinkWithin and Blogger platform, Adrienne :)

I really appreciate spreading the word around too dear :)

Cheers...

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Jeevan,

User preferences are different, isn't it? :)

LinkWithin was my first choice too. But I switched over to nRelate due to advanced features it offers. However still I find many Blogger users loves LinkWithin though.

Guess they like quick and easy implementation, and as it delivers related posts, advanced features may doesn't really matter.

As yours working pretty well, delivering related posts is not a bad idea as a promotional strategy, right? :) Hope bloggers will take action to drive more traffic into older content.

Thanks for coming by, and adding your thoughts and experiences on promoting older content, Jeevan :)

Cheers...

Manickam Vijayabanu said...

Mayura,
Absolutely right. Very nice tool. I am using since from the beginning to MediaCrayon. It's so handy and the results are very good. The setting features also very users friendly and easy to setup.

I would surely recommend to all my friends. Thanks for the tool tip Bro,

Have a great week ahead. :)

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Manickam,

You're welcome mate :)

Ah... You have been using it :) Glad to hear the results with LinkWithin is pretty good mate. Indeed, the setup is pretty easy and anyone can implement it without any help too.

Thanks for coming by and sharing your thoughts and experience with LinkWithin, Manickam :) Appreciate sharing with your friends too.

Enjoy the brand new week ahead :)

Cheers...

Lindsay A said...

Do you know if there's a way to add more posts to your widget once you've made your selection? For example, right now I have 4 related posts that show up, but I would like to change it to 5.

Mayura De Silva said...

Hi Lindsay,

Yes, you can :) Remove your current LinkWithin implementation / widget, and get the widget again with new settings (Width = 5 stories) from LinkWithin website. Then LinkWithin widget will reflect your new settings on your blog.

Lindsay A said...

I tried that and it didn't work. Thanks though.

Mayura De Silva said...

Oh... I'm sorry to hear that it didn't work out as it should be, Lindsay. Then you can try contacting their Support and let them know what's bothering you.

Hope they will help resolve your issue ASAP :)

Sherman Smith said...

Hey Mayura,

It's been a while since I've been on your blog!

Right now I'm using nRelated plugin but you said LinkWithin is a widget which and be even better. This would be a great option since a lot of people want to limit the number of plugins they have!

But having your older posts is a great way to give your audience more value within your blog. It can be old news for veterans but new news for those beginners! Having something like this can help you kill two birds with one stone!

Thanks for sharing and I hope you're having a great week!

Mayura De Silva said...

Hey Sherman,

Nice to see you back here ;) Actually, I haven't been online much lately.

Why do nothing, when we can boost the interaction for older posts? You are spot on about having a way to promote related older posts, mate.

Right now, I'm using nRelate due to the fact that it offers bunch of advanced customization options. But I used to have LinkWithin up here too.

I believe you are talking about WordPress, so limiting plugins can aid the performance. I hope you will give it a try and find if it does boost the page load speed while promoting your old content.

Thanks for coming over and sharing your thoughts on this topic mate.

You have a fabulous weekend over there, Sherman :)

Cheers...