If you have a WordPress blog (or any blog) and don’t use the MORE tag in all your posts, you’re missing more than you think.
Every once in a while I feel like blogging about blogging…
The MORE tag ensures that only a few lines or paragraphs of a post appear on your home page (how much depends on where YOU put the tag). To read the rest of the post, the reader clicks “Continue reading” or whatever phrase your particular theme uses (my theme uses “Keep reading” by default but I changed it, as you can see here on my home page).
Finding the MORE tag
Look for the MORE tag icon (see below) on the Add New Post page, top row of icons, 4th from the far right (one of my colleagues, AuditMonkey had trouble finding it when I suggested it to him, so now I always tell people where to find it).
UPDATED NOTE: The graphic shown is outdated, but the MORE tag still looks like two rectangles separated by a dotted line.
Using the MORE tag has several benefits:
- It allows more of your posts to be displayed on each page, giving your readers more choices.
- Readers can quickly scroll through your posts and decide which ones to read further (or reject, ouch!)
- You (the blogger) will know which posts readers actually looked at because they have to click a Continue reading link to read the post in entirety (or skim it). If you don’t use the MORE tag, you won’t know if someone read one article on your home page or all of them (you might find your post clicks “go up” when you start using the tag).
I crossed the following out as this links are no longer valid…Here’s two good links from onecoolsitebloggingtips.com that explain more about the MORE tag and provide tips on using it:
Using the read more tag in a wordpress blog
One last thing to remember when using the MORE tag: when you Preview or View your post, you won’t see the MORE tag in action. The MORE tag is active only on your home page. Keep that in mind, and you won’t wonder why the tag isn’t active as you’re writing and previewing a post.
The funny thing is that I often forget to insert the tag and notice it days later! If you see me do that, please give me a poke.
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For more on the MORE tag, see Increase Blog “Traffic” Instantly
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