When you write blog excerpts you provide your readers a straight to the point summary and a reason to click-through to read the full post.
1. Write Blog Excerpts So They Appear On Archives
If your WordPress theme is set up to use excerpts you can craft a few sentences that will provide readers a snippet of what the post is about.
The problem with having a theme setup to use excerpts but then not write one, is that all the paragraphs run together when the excerpt is displayed. That’s because WordPress will grab the first 240 characters or so from your blog post and use it as an excerpt if none is available.
- excerpts appear in category archives and search results
- write blog excerpts to influence your readers to click-through
- make searching and scanning easier for readers
Below is an example from this blog where I have used some HTML to format the excerpt and provide a to the point summary on what the post is about.
2. A well crafted excerpt can also be your meta description
An excerpt can be longer than a meta description so be careful what you write. The first 140 characters is all that will show in search engine results, making your first sentence the most important.
Where to write blog excerpts
To add an excerpt use the “Excerpt” dialogue box under the editor in WordPress. A sentence or two is fine and you can use HTML in the excerpt to make it readable.
The difference between a Meta Description and an Excerpt
If you write a meta description it will become the excerpt when sharing on Facebook or LinkedIn, not your excerpt. If you don’t write a meta description or an excerpt the first few sentences from the post are used and it all runs together with no styling.
The excerpt will appear with a thumbnail image along with the title and a link to the rest of the article.
It is good practice to write blog excerpts, it will help you focus and stay on topic when writing the full post. An excerpt can be used as the basis to write a meta description and will help your readers find what they are looking for faster. For these reasons what you write for your excerpt is important.
