Related posts – yay or nay

I’ve read lots of different views on related posts plugins. Some say they’re good, some say they’re bad.

Have tested one – on my very cheap shared hosting plan, it does slow the site down, in spite of using caching plugin (W3TC) and Cloudflare.

What I loved about the plugin was pretty good automatic choice of 2-3 related posts. Most lists didn’t have to be edited. Ability to have them in a widget, sidebar placed, as well as below each post. It also allowed customization of the lists for each post.

I could do it all manually, but it would take a lot more time and effort.
I do link relevant posts within my posts – it’s necessary for many posts in order to provide all the info. But loved the additional functionality. Just wandering what “the cost” of such plugins is.

Question is: what is your experience with related post plugins?
Does it slow your site down as well?
Does it have any bad effects on SEO?
Do you recommend a particular (free if possible) plugin? Ability to manually alter lists is important IMO.

• This topic was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Relja.