Blogging Tips: How To Publish Excerpts In WordPress

Writing by Brick Marketing on Thursday, 7 of February , 2008 at 2:46 am

This may sound like a strange blogging tip, but for some blogs it may be very useful. Do you have a blog that is filled with ‘how to’ posts? Do you have a blog that has articles that are quite long? If so, then this blogging tip will be appropriate.

It is possible to publish short 55 word excerpts for each post. This forces the reader to click through to the post’s page to read the full version. This has pluses and minuses. It will either dramatically reduce the number of ‘bounce’ pages, or dramatically increase them as readers disappear before reading the post. Think carefully before using this blogging tip.

The process is fairly simple. Goto your Main Index Template and find the following text:

< ?php the_content(); ?>

Change this to:

<?php the_excerpt(__(’Continue Reading This Post’));?>

That is it. Done. This will only publish a short 55 word excerpt on the front page. The excerpt will not print any formating or images from the post. If you wish to maintain your formatting or images then the alternative is to use the “More” option in the editor window. Another word of caution, using the ‘more’ option will truncate your RSS feed at that point. If you want the complete post in your feed then you will need to install a plugin like the Full Text RSS Feed WordPress plugin.

This blogging tip will suit some blogs - for others, the full post is more appropriate. Overall, a better blog equals better blog marketing!

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Category: Blogging Tips

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