Contextly Recommends

Description

Contextly is the most powerful and customizable related posts plugin for WordPress.
Contextly provides related, popular and evergreen post recommendations to help you build a loyal audience by getting readers to read more of your content and come back to your site.

Contextly’s smart recommendations can be shown in modules at the end of posts, in the body of stories and in the WordPress sidebar.

Additionally, Contextly is the only related posts plugin that lets readers subscribe by emails to the topics on your site they care about so they can get notified by email when a new post is published – with no extra work by you.

Our algorithms run on our servers, not yours, so we never slow your site down. You can filter out older posts, non-relevant tags and categories and posts with keywords. You can even choose related links for each story.

We also boost your SEO by making it dead simple to add links in the body of your post to previous stories, and Google crawls our links.

We also send daily, weekly and monthly reports to you that let you and your team know how what’s doing well on your site and how Contextly is performing.

Plus we don’t track your users, so we’re GDPR- and CCPA-compliant.

Contextly comes with a free trial (no credit card required), but operates on a paid subscription basis. You can see our pricing and learn more about what we do on the Contextly website.

Features

• Multiple Recommendation Modules – You can give readers multiple chances to go deeper, via the Main Module at the end of a post; a Siderail that shows up next to posts (what WordPress calls the Sidebar) and mid-story recommendation modules (automatic or curated).

• Related Recommendations – Related content gives your readers an opportunity to dive deeply into a topic and is the most effective strategy to get readers to read more. Our related content is actually related, looking deeply at the content of posts, not just tags and categories. These are computed in our data center, not in your database, so you won’t be slowed down. Top webhosts that ban most relate posts plugins recommend us.

• Popular Recommendations – Readers are often interested in your most recent and best content. That is why we make this content available on every page, because every page is the new home page. We use a smart algorithm to identify 10 to 15 popular stories so we keep the popular section varied, no stale top 5 lists here.

• Evergreen Recommendations – Good stories should be read well after they have been showcased on the home page. We identify “oldies but goodies” and let you choose to resurface them to users. This increases the lifetime value of every story you write.

• Advanced Filters – You can exclude content from recommendations by tag, category or url. You can also set time limits on recommendations, either globally or by individual tags and categories.

• Channels Subscriptions – You can let readers subscribe to be notified by email when new stories are published about the topics they care about. This requires no work on your end and you control what the email notifications look like.

• Privacy – Contextly is GDPR and CCPA-compliant. We don’t share your data with anyone and don’t track your readers.

• Wicked-Fast Performance – Contextly does all the hard work on its servers, so we don’t hit your database like most related post plugins do. We host all our files on a fast, global CDN so images load quickly. That means your site stays fast and if you get a lot of traffic, Contextly won’t bring your site down. That’s also why the top WordPress hosting services ban other plugins and recommend Contextly.

• Editorial Control/Curation – We believe high-quality content is the result of a happy marriage between humans and smart algorithms. Our curation tools allow writers and editors to control what related posts show up on a story. We then use that info to make better recommendations for the entire site.

• Responsive Designs – We have multiple designs and image sizes to choose from, and they all look great on mobile and desktops. You can customize their look and feel with a few clicks, while advanced users can customize the CSS.

• Analytics – We send daily, weekly and monthly analytics reports that let you easily see which of your posts are doing well and how engaging they are. You can have these sent to everyone on your team.

• Custom Post Types – If you use custom post types, you can choose which ones to show Contextly recommendations on, and which to keep out.

• Video Recommendations – Our recommendations are not limited to blog posts. We can easily integrate your Youtube channel content. Videos will be displayed where they are most relevant.

• SEO – The best SEO comes from links in the body of stories linking to previous content. We make it super-easy for writers to add these links without having to leave the post to go search in Google.

• Internal Promotional Links – If you have a newsletter or an event you’d like to promote, Contextly makes it dead-simple to include that in the recommendation module. That puts promotions where users will actually see them.

About Contextly

Contextly helps publishers build loyal and return audiences. We do that by creating engagement tools that are good for publications, writers and readers. If you have questions, please write us at [email protected].

Screenshots

Blocks

This plugin provides 2 blocks.

• Contextly Manual Sidebar
• Contextly Auto-Sidebar

Installation

1. Install using the WordPress Gallery for the easiest installation or upload the contextly-related-links folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
3. Click on one of our buttons in the Visual Editor or go to Settings- -> Contextly -> Get API Key to get to the set-up wizard. You can then choose your display and get your API key. Save the API key.
4. Contextly will automatically display related and interesting content suggestions. Advanced options can be found under Settings -> Contextly -> Settings -> Big Settings Button

FAQ

What will be displayed if I don’t choose related posts?

We’ve got your back. We’ll automatically show related, evergreen, popular and personalized stories on all posts.

But, we also value editorial wisdom and control, so we make choosing related posts and adding links in the body of the story as easy as possible.

Is Contextly free?

Contextly offers a free, no credit-card-required 21-day trial. After the free trial, sites can subscribe to a monthly or annual plan.

Why does Contextly charge?

Contextly is a premium service, using state-of-the-art technology and high-powered servers to provide the best recommendations possible. Unlike many related post plugins, we don’t sell reader information or show ads. Being supported by our users means we can continue to build the most powerful reader engagement service for WordPress.

Will Contextly slow down my site?

No. Our service works outside of WordPress so we don’t slow down your database. Many related posts plugins use your database and can crash your site if you get substantial traffic.

We also wait to load the recommendations until the rest of your site loads, using asynchronous JavaScript, so readers start reading immediately. And, if for some unforeseen reasons Contextly temporarily stops working — say if zombies destroy our servers — your site will still load quickly.

How do I use Contextly to promote my event, email list, product, etc?

Go to Settings -> Contextly -> Settings -> Big Settings Button. Then look for Promo Links. Give us a title and an url of what you want to promote and we’ll add it to the section you choose.

I just installed Contextly and I don’t see recommendations. Where are they?

It takes us a bit of time to learn and spider a site. Please give us an hour or two and if you still don’t see related stories, email us at [email protected]

Can I modify the way the content recommendations are displayed on my site?

Yes. Our service makes it possible to make many changes with a simple point-and-click interface. For those who want more control, you can create your own custom CSS stylesheet or make CSS changes in the settings panel.

Will I be able to see how well Contextly is doing?

Yes. You will get a daily email with statistics about your traffic and related links. Contextly links will also show up in Google Analytics and other traffic measurement software.

You can also see what’s happening in Google Analytics. We use Events to track clicks. Go to Content -> Events and look for Contextly Sidebar and Contextly Widget. You can dive deep into this.

How does the Custom Section work?

You give us an RSS feed of content you want us to show off. This can be a category on your site you like, an RSS feed from a sister site, and for our Business and Enterprise customers, we can include YouTube/Video and product feeds.

If you just want to choose some items, copy and paste your main RSS feed into the Custom box. Then go to Promo Links and add links you want us to show off and choose the Custom section. Be creative, but there’s one limitation: you can’t sell this spot to advertisers unless you arrange that with us first. That’s because there are certain safeguards against fraud that need to be in place for online ads. Putting external ads in that section without permission is grounds for termination of service.

Reviews

Smart, Easy, and Works.

ssalpietro March 29, 2019 1 reply

As a non-profit, we’re always looking for most bang for less buck. When trying to get “related reading” and “you might like” content suggestions on our website, we kept finding that our host banned most of these plugins because they are extremely resource intensive. Especially for childmind.org, which gets over 1MM visits monthly. Contextly helped us offload this task, provides smart recommendations, and gets better over time. Install simple, or install complex and customize. Whichever way, the guys at Contextly are always there to help. Additionally, we get a 10-15% click rate, which adds thousands of page views (and reduced bounce rates) across our website.

Contextly – great plugin, great developer support.

nakita_dog February 20, 2019

Contextly is truly a great plugin for adding additional links at the end of your blog posts. They also have great plugin support which is something that you don’t always get with WordPress plugins. Thanks, Contextly!

Works as Advertised

rasseya February 20, 2019

I evaluated dozens of “You might like” related content plugins. Of all of them, this one was cloud based (which my hosting site made a requirement, and disabled my original one) and had the best set of features available for my environment. A few other plugins stated some nice features, but every time I tried them out, they didn’t work as advertised. The support, if you happen to run into an issue, is stellar. They are professional and expeditious. I would recommend this plug-in!

Helps me bring new life to old articles

docpop March 1, 2017 1 reply

Contextly is a life saver for me. I don’t get a lot of traffic on my site, so it’s great to see visitors landing on one article, then bouncing over to other related articles because of the Contextly recommendation.

Pay to earn or pay to engage

Michael Bryner September 3, 2016

What is up with that? It makes no sense at all. If you are offering to monetize, that is stupid because everything you earn goes to the monthly charges. So whats the point? To give all the money back, and if it is not monetizing then it is still not worth it because there are so many options out there to go for free. So to me their tactic is way off.

This plugin is a fraud

janomix September 3, 2016 1 reply

Is not free. Jetpack work best and for life.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

6.1.3

• Bug fix: Fixed a bug where for some users the Advanced WordPress settings choice to not include posts would revert to on

6.1.0

• Better image loading performance
• Small CSS updates for displays
• Bug fix: Fixed a bug where for some users the Advanced WordPress settings choice to not include posts would revert to on

6.0.9

• Bug fixes
• Performance improvements

6.0.8

• Bug fixes

6.0.7

• Enables new reader notifications

6.0.6

• Fixed bug affecting display on some sites with custom page types

6.0.5

• Minor bug fixes

6.0.4

• Enables sites to turn off Contextly Analytics on non-article pages

6.0.3

• Minor bug fixes

6.0.2

• Updated to allow analytics about the home page, as well as category and tag pages
• Added ability to have different display settings for mobile and desktop

6.0.1

• Minor bug fixes

6.0.0

• Removes the dependence on jQuery

5.0.7

• Fixes manual sidebar preview displaying incorrectly in some edge cases

5.0.6

• Fixes for compatibility issues with Toast and Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)

5.0.5

• Small update to fix compatibility issue with the Yoast SEO plugin for sites using the Classic Editor

5.0.4

• Adapted the Contextly Sidebars to the new Gutenberg editor. This allows writers to add Auto-Sidebars and manually curated sidebars to posts as a content block. You can find these under Widgets

5.0.3

• Minor bug fixes

5.0.2

• Refactored internal code to standardize naming
• Performance enhancements

5.0.1

• Accessibility improvements

5.0.0

• Significant performance update
• Removes reliance on easyXDM
• Consolidates CSS files
• Reduces number of JavaScript calls to Contextly servers

4.2.1

• Minor bug fixes

4.2

• Added support for new Channel button

4.1

• Support for new Personalization module
• Allows auto-placement of Auto-Sidebars in every post
• Support for Tweets rendered with web components in Social Reactions module
• Support for sharing async WebFontLoader with the website
• Minor fixes and UI improvements

4.0

• Added internal hooks for infinite scroll
• Small performance enhancements
• Full HTTPS
• Reconfigured personalization so that readers who block tracking scripts still see Related, Evergreen and Popular recommendations.

3.4

• Updated plugin to run completely under HTTPS for better reader security HTTPS Everywhere compatibility
• Minor changes to personalization methods

3.3

• Enables a carousel display of social content (Enterprise and Business customers)
• Small performance enhancements

3.2

• Improved Auto-Sidebars to let writers insert them into any story from the editing interface, using the Sidebar button. The shortcode [contextly_auto_sidebar] can also be put in any post to show related content.

3.1

• Enables new Siderail display (for WordPress Sidebars)
• Minor performance fixes

3.0

• Modernized the styling of main display and sidebars. This removes the color bars, which are replaced with clear headings
• Improved display rendering performance and flexibility
• Embedded Tweets support
• Better handling of larger images in sidebars
• Better support for IE8+

1.4.2

• Minor bug fixes
• Enables FollowUp button for Enterprise customers

1.4

• Removed unneeded cross-site communication file from plugin
• Updated Sidebar button to make it easier to edit existing sidebars. It’s no longer necessary to highlight the shortcode to edit a story’s sidebar –
  simply press the sidebar button on any story to edit the sidebars in that story
• Updated the Sidebar button to make it easier to add previously created sidebars from the Sidebar Library

1.3.7

• Fixed an issue where sidebars displayed intermittently for some sites

1.3.6

• Moved video and branding CSS into our CDN
• Reconfigured the cookie setting code to reduce conflicts with other plugins
• Improved error logging

1.3.5

• Improved and larger display for Video recommendations

1.3.4

• Bug fix to make sure images are always served from https for sites using HTTPS
• New video icon in CSS
• Minor video overlay fix
• JavaScript for display now loading from our CDN
• Minor bug fixes for Settings panel login

1.3.2

• Fixed a bug in displaying videos in the overlay

1.3.1

• Updated some Settings dialogs and how new users are instructed to get an API key
• Moved a JavaScript bundling call out of the plugin onto our servers
• Minor technical tweaks

1.2.3

• Fixed an issue where non-admins could be blocked from using the Contextly editor buttons
• Fixed a bug where prompts to choose related posts before publishing couldn’t be turned off

1.2.2

• Brand new editor interface
• Better detection of featured images
• Better communication of updated and deleted posts
• CSS fixes for displays
• New video player
• Added minor bug fixes in CSS and JS to help with displays

1.2

• Brand new editor interface
• Better detection of featured images
• Better communication of updated and deleted posts
• CSS fixes for displays
• New video player
• Minor fixes

1.1.2

• Fix for bug where apostrophes in tags or categories prevented recommendations from displaying
• Small CSS updates to handle edge cases

1.1.1

• Fixed a bug where pots with quote marks in the title would not have a recommendation display

1.1

• Better display support for sites with wide text columns
• Removed the Chrome tabbed display option as the tabs were never almost never clicked and the information density was low.
• Improved ease of adjusting the placement of the main recommendation module. It’s now controlled by a shortcode rather than CSS elements: [contextly_main_module]
• Reduced reliance on a WP API to learn story metadata
• Improved the way Contextly detects featured images for a post
• More reliable detection of deleted/trashed posts
• New CSS/HTML for displays to make them easier to customize
• Entirely new recommendation system

1.0.97

• Updated to include cookies to better track recommendation performance
• Post-story module now movable via shortcode
• Minor display bug fixes

1.0.96

• Minor display bug fixes

1.0.95

• Added SEO support. Search Engines can now see and spider the related results. This boosts SEO.
• Minor display bug fixes
• Made the “nudge” to add related links off by default

1.0.93

• Minor performance tweaks.
• CSS optimization.

1.0.91

• General performance optimizations
• Ability to turn off pre-publication notification
• CSS optimization.
• Improvements to the JavaScript and CSS for display options, including tweaks for mobile devices

1.0.88

• Added Auto-Sidebars. If you turn on this option, a sidebar shortcode will be inserted into every new post when you first create it. You can control the content or you can leave it to our related algorithms
• Improvements to the JavaScript and CSS for display options, including tweaks for mobile devices

1.0.87

• Namespace changes to CSS.
• Changes to make install and activation easier.
• Minor performance tweaks.

1.0.86

• Minor performance tweaks.

1.0.85

• Added support for showing Contextly content on Custom Post types. Checkboxes to add/remove post types are in the Contextly Settings Advanced Tab.
• Added Support for 4 responsive designs (Chrome, Blocks, Blocks – Overylay, Float).
• Added design customization for sidebars (Point&Click & custom CSS).
• Added automatic Related Links for stories without chosen links.
• Added responsive sidebars.
• New Single Link and Sidebar Icons in the Visual Editor.
• Added a related links/sidebar reminder before publishing or updating.
• Moved Related Links master button out of Visual Editor. It’s now above the Publish button.
• Related Links preview now shows up underneath a post in the editor, instead of in the right sidebar.
• Added optional custom third row based off RSS, including YouTube RSS.
• Added support for pop-over video playback of YouTube links.
• Javascript performance fixes.
• Plugin performance tweaks.
• Secure, direct login to Contextly settings panel from WordPress (no Twitter credentials needed).
• Google Analytics data now shows up in Events under Content, not via UTM codes. This provides cleaner and more detailed statistics.
• Sidebar links now used to help populate related links by default.
• New, cleaner branding pop-up with privacy policy link.

1.0.76

• Completely new API
• Ability to add Sidebars into the body of posts
• Support for showing links and sidebars on posts, pages or both
• Option to turn off Contextly content on per page/post basis

1.0.67

• Core JavaScript files now called over HTTPS
• Changed jQuery check to use built-in WordPress function.

1.0.63

• Made a small change to be compatible with sites using Cloudflare

1.0.62

• Added an easier way to get to the settings page and cleaned up the WP settings page

1.0.61

• Added a setting in WP to allow sites to place the related links widget in spots other than at the very end of a post
• Small technical changes to better work with WordPress API