WordPress ‘More’ Tag – Are You Using It Or Not ?

When you use ‘more’ tag on your blog post, you only display a part of your post and to read the rest the reader will have to click the ‘more’ tag. I use ‘more’ tag on all my blogs and I love it.

If you don’t use the ‘more’ tag, then you will display the entire content of your post on the homepage – and not just of one post, but the number of posts your homepage is set to display – So, if your homepage is set to display 5 posts then you will be showing full content of your most recent 5 posts.

Displaying full posts like this can make your blog look quite ugly. And also the reader is going to get bored by lengthy content and might move away from your homepage after just scrolling through one or two posts.

If you have ‘more’ tag then only excerpts of your posts will be displayed and the reader can quickly scan through the different posts you have recently written and if he likes to read one, he can start by reading the excerpt and then click the ‘more’ tag – so you are not missing out anything by using ‘more’ tag, in fact you are gaining.

At What Point Shoud I Insert My ‘More’ Tag ?
This is what I do – My ‘more’ tag is usually placed after 5 to 8 sentences of my post. I place it at a point where I am just about to give my readers more information – They can’t read my more information until they click the ‘more’ tag.

So basically I place it just when I have aroused curiosity in my readers. I also like to insert an image before my ‘more’ tag – This way the image will be displayed in the excerpt itself – Images can beautify the post and also will make the post look exciting rather than just plain, boring content. So, I highly recommend using an image in the excerpt.

Where Is My ‘More’ Tag & How Do I Insert It ?

‘More’ tag is in the quick tags of your wordpress.

Just click the ‘more’ tag at the point you want to insert it – That simple !!!

Can I Customize My ‘more’ Tag?
Yes, you can. You can change the text the ‘more’ tag displays – example: ‘Read More’, ‘Continue Reading’ etc etc…

You can either change the text in one place so that the change is reflected on all your posts. Or you can change it one post at a time. I have changed it in my index.php file (my wordpress theme’s files) – This change in php file will flow through to all my posts – and I prefer it this way.

If you like to change in individual posts, then click and paste your more tag and then enter your custom text – It will look something like this (without quotes and enclose it in <>):

“!–more This is my custom more text–”

If you like you can even place an image right next to the ‘more’ tag – There is heaps of information on this topic in wordpress help pages – Here is a link – WordPress ‘More’ Tag Help

When you use a ‘more’ tag, your rss feed will show only the excerpt and not full post – I don’t see any harm in this – Again, if the reader finds your excerpt interesting and useful for him then he will definitely click for more.

Do you use more tag? If no, would love to hear your reasons behind…If yes, do you find it helpful?

Best,