How to Add Related Posts to Your WordPress RSS Feed (2026)

A related posts list was the first plugin I ever installed on WordPress, back in 2006. Showing readers more of your articles on the same topic keeps them clicking, and it works in your feed as well as on your site. Here’s how to add related posts to your WordPress RSS feed in 2026, without hacking core feed files the way we had to back then, so feed readers and email subscribers find their way back to your site.

Quick answer: The easiest way to add related posts to your WordPress RSS feed is the free Contextual Related Posts plugin, which can show related posts on your site and in your feed after each post. You can also append links with a small the_content filter that runs only on feeds. Use a full-text feed, keep the list to three to five links, and check the result in a feed reader.

Why add related posts to your feed?

Suggesting related articles targets each reader’s interest better than “previous / next” or “latest posts” links. On the site it raises pageviews, and in a feed it gives subscribers a reason to click through to your site instead of reading only in their feed reader or inbox. It also adds links back to your site in scraped copies of your feed; see more ways to stop RSS feed scraping.

Method 1: Use a related posts plugin with feed support

• Contextual Related Posts: free and actively updated. It shows related posts on your site and can add them to your feed after the content, with no template editing. Set how many posts to show in the feed separately from the site.
• YARPP (Yet Another Related Posts Plugin): has a “display related posts in feeds” option, but its plugin page warns it hasn’t been tested with recent WordPress releases, so check compatibility first.
• Jetpack Related Posts: easy to switch on for your site under Jetpack’s Traffic settings, but Jetpack doesn’t document feed support. Read our Jetpack plugin review.

Method 2: Add related links to the feed with code

In 2006 I had to edit WordPress’s wp-rss2.php file and paste the related posts code before the description and content tags, and redo it after every upgrade. Never edit core feed files today. Instead, add a filter in a child theme’s functions.php or a code snippets plugin. This simple version lists three recent posts from the same category, only inside feeds:

add_filter( 'the_content', function ( $content ) {
    if ( ! is_feed() ) {
        return $content;
    }
    $cats = wp_get_post_categories( get_the_ID() );
    if ( empty( $cats ) ) {
        return $content;
    }
    $related = get_posts( array(
        'category__in'   => $cats,
        'post__not_in'   => array( get_the_ID() ),
        'posts_per_page' => 3,
    ) );
    if ( $related ) {
        $content .= '<p><strong>Related posts:</strong></p><ul>';
        foreach ( $related as $post ) {
            $content .= '<li><a href="' . esc_url( get_permalink( $post ) ) . '">' . esc_html( get_the_title( $post ) ) . '</a></li>';
        }
        $content .= '</ul>';
    }
    return $content;
} );

Back up your site before adding code, and test on a staging copy if you can.

Tips for related posts in feeds

• Use a full-text feed. In Settings > Reading, set “For each post in a feed, include” to Full text. Related links added to the content may not appear in excerpt-only feeds.
• Keep it short. Three to five links is enough. I once showed ten related posts on the site but only wanted five in the feed; modern plugins let you set the two separately.
• Clear your cache. Caching plugins can delay feed updates; see how to fix caching plugins delaying RSS feeds.
• Check your feed. Open yoursite.com/feed/ in a browser or a reader such as Inoreader to confirm the links show up.

What happened to FeedBurner?

Back then I sent my feed through FeedBurner and had to switch off its “Summary Burner” for related posts to appear. Google put FeedBurner into maintenance mode in 2021 and ended its email subscriptions, so most sites now serve their own WordPress feed and use a newsletter tool for email. We also wrote about FeedBurner feed size limits.

FAQ

Can I show related posts in my RSS feed?

Yes. Use a plugin with a feed option, such as Contextual Related Posts, or add a the_content filter that runs only on feeds.

Will related posts in my feed increase pageviews?

They give subscribers more reasons to click through to your site, which can increase pageviews from feed and email readers.

Why don’t my related posts show in the feed?

Check that your feed shows full text, that the plugin’s feed option is on, and clear any page cache. Some feed readers also cache feeds for a while.

Should I edit wp-rss2.php to customize my feed?

No. Core files are overwritten by updates. Use plugins or filters in a child theme instead.