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Adam Greenwell

Getting Started With The Hits List

Requirements

  • WordPress 6.2 or newer, tested up to WordPress 7.1.
  • PHP 7.4 or newer.

Installation

  1. Upload the the-hits-list folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
  2. Activate The Hits List from the WordPress Plugins screen.
  3. Open Settings > The Hits List.
  4. Configure tracking and display options.
  5. If Top 10 data is detected, use the import tool to migrate existing counts.

Once active, The Hits List starts tracking views for public content that WordPress can count and display.

Initial Setup

Review the settings screen before placing popular-post output in a visible site area:

  • Decide whether logged-in users should be counted.
  • Choose the tracking method that works best with your cache layer.
  • Decide whether view counts should display automatically on single posts.
  • Review display defaults for popular-post output.
  • Set how long daily view data should be kept. The default is 180 days, and all-time counts are never removed.
  • Import Top 10 data if you are replacing Top 10.

Use the Popular Posts block, the widget, the [thl_list] shortcode, or template tag tools to display popular content.

By default a list is ordered by total views. Switching the order to Trending ranks posts by how fast views are rising instead, which is usually the better choice for a homepage module where you want current activity rather than a stable all-time list.

Common placements include:

  • Sidebar or footer widget areas.
  • Block editor layouts.
  • Post content, using shortcodes.
  • Homepage or section-front modules.
  • Theme templates that need custom placement.

Confirm the active theme renders titles, images, and excerpts cleanly before promoting the output into prominent site surfaces.

Dashboard And Editor Review

The Hits List adds dashboard cards for daily top posts, all-time top posts, recent views over time, trending posts, and refresh candidates. Editors can also review view-count columns on post list screens when checking which content is gaining traction.

Trending and refresh candidates need a couple of weeks of history before they have anything to compare against. On a new install those cards will say so rather than showing thin results.

Next Steps