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Anthony was mentioning that the posts on the blog were taking up way too much space on the main index page … and he’s right. Today I remembered a plugin I’d read about months ago that is designed to help you manage how much of each post you want to show on the main page and how many posts, etc.
The free plugin is from Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips and it’s called Homepage Excerpts WordPress Plugin.
I’ve done a video to show you how to go download the plugin to your hard drive and then go into your WordPress admin panel and upload the plugin there. I also show you how to activate it and how to go in and configure it the way you want it to display.
Not only will this clean up your main index page and make it look much cleaner it can really help your SEO efforts too. When you hear about duplicate content it is referring to having duplicate content on the same domain name or URL. And if you think about the way a WordPress blog is set up you are putting up a lot of duplicate content (without even knowing it). While a new post is on my main/index page in its entirety it is also being placed in its entirety on the single post page for that post. So if I only post a portion of it on my main page that will definitely help with this problem.
It also strips the html out of the post on the main page (removing links, images, audio, video and such) so I’d imagine this will also help with the load time of my main page (please let me know if you were experiencing any problems with the load time).
Here’s the video:
So … what do you think of the new look and feel on the main page? Do you use excerpts on your main page or do you post articles in their entirety? Have you considered using excerpts? Did you understand how to add and configure this plugin? Let us hear from you! *SmiLes* Suzanne
UPDATE:
P.S. I want to thank those who reminded me about the excerpt feature that’s in your WordPress admin panel. Some prefer it because they can decide how much of each post they’d like on the main/home page on a case by case basis. I’m still making my final decision between the two and I’ve enjoyed hearing the different opinions on this. I do miss seeing images on the page … but I also like the clean, uniform look that the plugin creates.
Please keep sharing your thoughts on this ok?
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16 Comments
Tony Tovar
on 4th Nov, 09 10:11am
You can also just hit the button to divide the content. Then it only shows everything above that and you don’t need to bother with a plug in. Once someone clicks on the article to read more, the get the full version. This may work better with certain themes but I’m not positive. Thanks for the 411 though Suze. I like thew blog look. It is a little easier on the eyes actually.
Respectfully,
Tony Tovar
Tony Tovar´s last blog ..Wakeboard Vests; Safety is Important!
Tony Tovar
on 4th Nov, 09 10:11am
The More Tag button is what is called. sorry.
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* Suzanne
on 4th Nov, 09 10:11am
Hey Tony ~ Thank you so much for the comments! So … I’ll go look for the button … are you talking about in the admin for each post? Do you happen to know if it leaves the html in there or not? I might try it both ways and of course let Anthony see it both ways and see which is better for our blog and theme. Thanks again … you’re awesome!!!!!!
Tamahome Jenkins
on 5th Nov, 09 11:11am
In my experience, the problem with the More Tag is that some themes don’t always work well with it. So, if you ever change your design, you could be creating a lot of work for yourself. I like the idea of this plugin because when you don’t need it anymore, you can just deactivate it.
Tamahome Jenkins´s last blog ..Could the Iranian Revolution Have Been Avoided?
Austin Franco
on 4th Nov, 09 11:11pm
Hey Mom Nice Post… This helped… this is kinda what ken was asking bout last night. Love you =)
* Suzanne
on 4th Nov, 09 11:11pm
Austin – how do you add plugins to your blog? Do you do it the “old” way via ftp or do you use the admin panel in WP? LOL … Love you too!
Online Printing Company
on 4th Nov, 09 11:11pm
Great! I think there’ll be no excuse for unorganized pages anymore. It’s fun to visit blogs that are organized.
* Suzanne
on 5th Nov, 09 12:11am
Thanks! It does look more organized and uniform. I’m open to all ideas and suggestions for the blog.
Luca Di Nicola
on 5th Nov, 09 03:11pm
Hey Suzanne, great video and plugin resource. I thought that the excerpt feature was a setting within WordPress until I went looking for it. This plugin is perfect to clean up the home page and also gives readers a quick overview of other recent posts on the blog. I’ll try it out.
Luca Di Nicola´s last blog ..How To Increase Blog Traffic By Using A Twitter Retweet Plugin
Dennis Edell
on 5th Nov, 09 04:11pm
I see it also does not affect the feed as so many of these do. Good job.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Only 4 Ad Spots Left – Meet The First Advertiser! And The Pot Just Got Sweeter.
Young
on 5th Nov, 09 09:11pm
It is a great tutorial, Suzanne Franco is good at tutorial.
But I prefer to write the excerpts manually, so I can totally control what will be exactly displayed.
Young´s last blog ..Draw Traffic Accident Sketches Online with AccidentSketch
Suzanne
on 6th Nov, 09 10:11pm
Yes … this is a good option for some people too. I like how your images still show up on your index page … and it’s something I’ll consider too. Thanks!
Wordpress Help
on 6th Nov, 09 10:11am
Well, this plugin will work well – and I’ve used it for a long time myself on a number of blogs. But the last 6 months or so I’ve been on a kick to remove as many WP plugins that I didn’t need as I could. Most people don’t know that the more plugins you have intstalled – the slower your blog is. And many plugins (like this one) are just a quick fix for people that don’t know how to customize their own theme.
If you go to “Appearance->Settings” and edit your “index.php” you’ll find somewhere in the middle a line of php code that has the phrase: the_content();
This is the code that makes the page display full posts. If you change it from the_content(); to the_excerpt(); the home page will display excerpts instead of full posts. The only exception is if your theme has a home.php file, if it does you have to change that one to change the home page post display instead.
You can change the other options of the plugin by using custom code in your theme as well, but I thought I’d just throw out this quick fix for those brave enough to start hacking their own theme!
Wordpress Help´s last blog ..What to Do When Your Blog Content is Stolen or Scraped
Suzanne
on 6th Nov, 09 10:11pm
LOL … Well … this is some great info to add to the post Thanks JT! Now … for people like me who just look at their theme and it falls apart … it might take some convincing to attempt this … but if I do hopefully I’ll remember to keep a copy of the file before I get started! LOL
Dennis Edell
on 7th Nov, 09 03:11pm
Hey JT – does this effect how the feed feeds? Excerpts in feeds are not really a good thing.
Btw, thanks so much for the email, I will respond soon.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED! – In Need Of Help – Blog May Shut Down!
Wordpress Help
on 7th Nov, 09 10:11pm
No, not at all. It won’t affect your feed, because that’s a different setting in the dashboard – this only affect home page display.
Wordpress Help´s last blog ..Will Work for Backlinks