How to Display Posts Category Using a Shortcode in WordPress

Display posts from a specific category inside a WordPress page or post can enhance user experience by organizing related content. Instead of manually updating post lists, you can use a WordPress shortcode to dynamically display category-based posts.

In this tutorial, we will create a custom shortcode that allows you to insert category posts anywhere on your website.

Why Use a Shortcode for Category Posts?

Using a shortcode for displaying category posts provides multiple advantages:

1️⃣ Dynamic Content: Shortcode automatically updates when new posts are added to a category.
2️⃣ Easy to Use: No coding required after setup just insert the shortcode in any post or page.
3️⃣ Customization: You can modify the output to include excerpts, images, or custom styles.
4️⃣ Performance Friendly: Uses WP_Query to fetch only necessary data.

1: Add the Display Posts Shortcode Function

To enable this feature, add the following PHP function to your functions.php file or in a custom plugin:

function get_category_posts_shortcode($atts) {
    $atts = shortcode_atts(array(
        'category' => '',
        'limit'    => 5
    ), $atts, 'category_posts');

    if (empty($atts['category'])) {
        return 'Please specify a category.';
    }

    $args = array(
        'category_name'  => sanitize_text_field($atts['category']),
        'posts_per_page' => intval($atts['limit']),
        'post_status'    => 'publish'
    );

    $query = new WP_Query($args);

    if (!$query->have_posts()) {
        return 'No posts found in this category.';
    }

    ob_start();
    echo '<ul class="category-posts-list">';
    while ($query->have_posts()) {
        $query->the_post();
        echo '<li><a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></li>';
    }
    echo '</ul>';
    wp_reset_postdata();

    return ob_get_clean();
}
add_shortcode('category_posts', 'get_category_posts_shortcode');

2: How to Use the Display Posts Shortcode

After adding the function, you can display category-specific posts anywhere on your site using this shortcode:

[category_posts category="technology" limit="5"]

🔹 Replace "technology" with the slug of your target category.
🔹 Adjust "limit" to change the number of displayed posts.

For example:

Displays 3 posts from the News category.

[category_posts category="news" limit="3"]

Displays 10 posts from the Recipes category.

[category_posts category="recipes" limit="10"]

3: Display Posts With Excerpts and Styling

To make the list more engaging, you can modify the function to include post excerpts:

echo '<li><a href="' . get_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a>';
echo '<p>' . wp_trim_words(get_the_excerpt(), 20, '...') . '</p></li>';

This will show a short preview (20 words) below each post title.

To add some CSS styling, include this in your theme’s style.css file:

.category-posts-list {
    list-style: none;
    padding: 0;
}

.category-posts-list li {
    margin-bottom: 15px;
}

.category-posts-list a {
    font-size: 18px;
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #0073aa;
    text-decoration: none;
}

.category-posts-list p {
    font-size: 14px;
    color: #555;
}

4: Benefits of Using Display Posts Shortcode

🔥 Better User Engagement

Displaying related posts keeps visitors on your site longer, reducing bounce rates.

🎯 SEO Benefits

Internal linking boosts SEO by improving site structure and indexability for search engines.

⚙️ Flexible Customization

You can add featured images, post dates, and more to make the output visually appealing.

Conclusion

This shortcode is a powerful way to display category posts dynamically. By adding excerpts, styles, and other elements, you can customize it to fit your website’s design.

🚀 Try it out and let me know if you need any modifications!

Tags:

WordPress, Shortcode, Category Posts, WP_Query, WordPress Development, PHP, Custom Shortcode, Blog Categories, WordPress Coding, How-To Guide