Building an audience is one of the most challenging aspects of creating online content.
You pour your energy into writing, publishing, and refining your work, but finding readers who genuinely connect with what you create takes time and effort.
What if your readers could help your blog grow? What if the writers you love could introduce their audience to yours?
That’s the idea behind recommended blogs, a feature now available in the WordPress.com Reader that lets you share the blogs you enjoy most with your own audience.
Where to see recommended blogs in the Reader
When you find a blog you genuinely enjoy, you can add it to your personal recommendations list.
Your subscribers and readers can then see these recommendations when they visit your profile in the Reader or hover over your gravatar anywhere in the Reader.
This creates a network effect — bloggers recommending other bloggers, helping each other discover new audiences authentically.
Rather than relying solely on algorithms or paid promotion, you can grow through the trust of fellow creators.
How to recommend a blog
There are several ways to recommend a blog.
First, you can add or edit your recommendations in the Reader by visiting Lists > Recommended Blogs.
Alternatively, visit your Subscriptions page in the Reader and recommend a blog using the Recommend toggle.
Or, use the “Recommend this blog” button that appears on the blog page in the Reader.
You can recommend any blog shown in the Reader and update your recs as your interests evolve.
This includes blogs on WordPress.com, Jetpack, or any blog with an RSS feed.
If someone recommends your blog, you’ll receive a notification — a small reminder that your work is resonating with other creators.
Connect with creators who inspire you
If you haven’t spent much time with the Reader, it’s the place where you can discover new blogs, follow your favorites, and engage with people from across the WordPress.com community.
You’ll find personalized streams of posts from sites you subscribe to, can browse by topic, and interact with other creators.
It’s designed to help you stay connected to the sites you care about while discovering new voices that align with your interests.
Unlike sites that feel like social media, the Reader is built to be a calm platform where you can read what you like and find a community with similar interests.
Time to hand out the recs
Ready to make a recommendation? Visit the Reader and share the blogs you love with your followers.
We’re continuing to refine how recommended blogs work based on your feedback.
It’s all about building a network where creators support each other’s growth, one thoughtful recommendation at a time.
WordPress.com News 
is this in the jetpack or wordpress app? I hope this feature works with screen readers.
Recommended blogs are available in the Jetpack mobile app. Go to the Reader -> Lists, then click recommended blogs to see your feed. Currently, you can only view, not add or edit.
I just tested and confirmed that recommended blogs do work with screen readers. But if the experience isn’t up to your expectations, please let us know.
this is awesome 👍
This is nice. This is what WordPress used to be about. Good to see it coming back. Many people missed the Freshly Pressed days. It was a big motivator to produce quality content.
I agree! Stay tuned, we’re continuing to explore more ways to build a stronger community and elevate creators.
Maybe this will help to offset the lost organic traffic caused by the shift to AI summaries. Even if a site shows up in an AI summary, the click-through rates to the actual post continue to fall.
Now this is something I can get behind. No AI crap, just real people connecting.
Heck yeah! Glad you’re excited about it as we are 🙂
Wow, what a cool feature! It replaces the feature from long ago that used “swimming” as a way to find new blogs and connect…
That’s great. I love how WordPress is making it easier for bloggers to support each other. Recommending blogs you enjoy feels so much more genuine than paid promotion as it’s real community growth.
There used to be a “discover” blog around here somewhere and it was always great to check once in awhile to discover new places to go. Will check out this new feature.
Glad to hear it! Perhaps you’re referring to Reader Discover? It suggests recently popular posts based on the tags you’re following.
Thanks for the creation of this new feature.
Can’t find the Recommend facility anywhere in the Jetpack app on iOS on my mobile. It doesn’t appear in the places you recommend. Any suggestions?
Recommended blogs are available to view in the Jetpack mobile app. Go to the Reader -> Lists, then click recommended blogs to see your feed. Currently, you can only view, not add or edit. We’re working on adding that soon.
Thanks Rob
I onew about this feature in the reader, but WordPress used to have an actual blog that I think was ran by staff. They would pick “best blogs” and post them. I think it was called WordPress Discover, or something like that. Oddly enough I can’t find it now. I can’t even find it on Google now. Posts to it ended a long time ago. Maybe this feature was put in place to replace it. I didn’t know it hunts blogs down based on the hashtags you follow. Now I need to go follow more tags. Thanks!
Yes, good memory! It was called Freshly Pressed and it was sunset around a decade ago. But stay tuned, we’re looking at the best ways to highlight the best blogs and help people find content they’re interested in.
Totally off topic: We used to have a schedule feature for sharing posts to social media before the dashboard was switch over to what it is. Somebody said some time ago that were getting it back. Any word on that?
Sites with a Premium plan and above can schedule social media sharing.
This is really cool! Thank you.
Oh, wow this is a great feature! I’m back after 10 years absent from WordPress so still discovering all these new features! Thank you!
Is this jetpack
Recommended blogs are a feature in the WordPress.com Reader, but it is available for Jetpack users! The only thing that’s needed is a WordPress.com account. Just visit wordpress.com/reader to start using it.
Wow! This is actually really helpful! I’m still new to WordPress, and figuring out how to grow an audience feels like a whole journey on its own. Features like this make it a lot easier to connect with other writers and discover blogs that actually inspire you. Love the idea of recommendations being part of the Reader.
This is 👍♥️