How to Display Post Excerpts in WordPress Themes

Excerpts give visitors a short preview of your content, helping them quickly understand what each post is about and encouraging them to click through to read more. They’re especially helpful on blog listings, archive pages, and search results.

Displaying post excerpts can also make your site look cleaner and load faster by showing only a portion of each post. However, many WordPress themes don’t display excerpts by default, which can leave your blog pages feeling cluttered or incomplete.

At WPBeginner, we display excerpts on both our home and blog pages. This lets us highlight more posts at once and makes it easier for visitors to browse our content. Over time, we’ve also customized and optimized many WordPress themes to improve readability and performance.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add post excerpts to your WordPress theme.

Why Display Post Excerpts in WordPress?

By default, WordPress will show full posts on the homepage, blog page, and archive pages across your website.

However, switching to post excerpts offers several key advantages:

• Better User Experience: Excerpts let users quickly scan topics and find the content they want to read, rather than scrolling past full articles.
• Improved Site Speed: Since only a portion of each article is loaded, your pages will load much faster, which improves performance.
• Mobile Optimization: Showing full posts causes excessive scrolling, which is a poor experience for smartphone and tablet users. Excerpts solve this problem.
• Increased Engagement: By highlighting more posts upfront, you increase the likelihood that users will click through to read multiple articles, boosting your pageviews.

WordPress does have built-in support for post excerpts, but not every theme uses them.

Now, let’s show you how to display post excerpts in any WordPress theme.

How to Check if Your WordPress Theme Supports Post Excerpts

Most popular WordPress themes include a setting that lets you display post excerpts instead of the full post.

To see if your theme supports post excerpts, visit the Appearance » Customize page in the WordPress dashboard.

The location of these settings will vary depending on your WordPress theme, but you need to look for any settings labeled ‘Blog.’

For example, if you are using the Sydney WordPress theme, then you will need to select ‘Blog’ and then click on ‘Blog Archives.’

You can then scroll down to the ‘Post Elements’ section and expand the ‘Content’ tab. Once you do that, select the ‘Excerpt’ option from the dropdown menu under ‘Content Type’.

If your theme has a ‘Theme Settings’ or ‘Post General Settings’ option, then you may also be able to enable post excerpts in these sections.

Once you’ve done that, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button. Now, if you visit the blog, archive, or homepage, you should see a list of blog excerpts rather than full posts.

If your theme doesn’t have built-in support for post excerpts, then you will need to add it. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:

Method 1: Add Post Excerpts to WordPress Using Code (Easy)

If your WordPress theme doesn’t support post excerpts by default, then you can always add this feature manually.

Step 1: Create a Child Theme

You can edit your WordPress theme files directly, but we recommend creating a child theme instead. That way, when you update your WordPress theme, you won’t lose the changes you’ve made.

For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to create a WordPress child theme.

Step 2: Locate the Template Files

After doing that, you will need to find the template that controls each page where you want to show post excerpts. For most themes, this will be home.php, content.php, category.php, and archive.php.

For help finding the right file, see our beginner’s guide to WordPress template hierarchy.

Step 3: Replace Content Tag with Excerpt Tag

Once that is done, simply locate the following code in each file:

<?php the_content(); ?>

Then, replace this code with the_excerpt tag:

<?php the_excerpt(); ?>

With that done, save the file and then check your website. You should now see post excerpts where the full article used to be.

Change the Default WordPress Excerpt Length

By default, WordPress will show the first 55 words of each post and then add an ellipsis (…) to show that there’s more content.

You can change this to show more or fewer words by adding code to your WordPress website. While it is possible to edit the theme files directly, this can be complicated.

A simple mistake can also cause lots of common WordPress errors and may even completely break your site.

For that reason, we recommend using WPCode. It makes it easy to add code snippets in WordPress without having to edit your theme files. That way, you can update or change your theme without losing the custom code.

Step 1: Install and Activate WPCode

First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more information, you can see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Step 2: Add a New Snippet

Upon activation, visit the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the ‘+ Add Custom Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

Next, you need to select the code type from the options that appear on the screen.

For this tutorial, choose ‘PHP Snippet.’

On the next screen, type in a title for the code snippet. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.

Step 3: Enter the Custom Code

With that done, simply paste the following into the code editor:

return 100;
}
add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length');

// Changing excerpt more
function new_excerpt_more($more) {
return '...';
}
add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

This code changes the post excerpt length to 100 characters. You can change the ‘100’ to any number you want.

Step 4: Save and Activate the Code Snippet

After pasting the code, toggle the switch from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ in the top right corner and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.

For more tips on how to fine-tune your post excerpts, please see our guide on how to customize WordPress excerpts with no code.

Method 2: Add Post Excerpts Using the Full Site Editor (Block Themes Only)

If you are using one of the newer block WordPress themes, then you can add post excerpts using the full site editor.

Step 1: Open the Full Site Editor

To get started, head over to Appearance » Editor in the WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Select Templates

By default, the full site editor shows your theme’s home template, but you can add an excerpt to any template.

In the left-hand menu, simply click on ‘Templates.’

You will now see a list of all the templates that make up your WordPress theme. Depending on your theme, you may want to add excerpts to the archive, index, search, or similar template.

Simply find the template that you want to edit and give it a click.

Step 3: Edit the Template

WordPress will now show a preview of this template.

To go ahead and edit the template, click on the small pencil icon.

Step 4: Add the Post Excerpt Block

Now, click on the ‘+’ icon.

In the search panel that appears, type in ‘Post Excerpt.’

When the right block appears, drag and drop it into your layout.

You can repeat this process to add multiple post excerpts to the template.

Step 5: Customize the Block Settings

To fine-tune how the excerpt looks, just click to select the Post Excerpt block.

In the right-hand menu, you can start by choosing whether the ‘Read More’ link appears on the same line as the excerpt using the ‘Show link on new line’ toggle.

You can also adjust the maximum number of words displayed by changing the ‘Excerpt length’ setting in the block sidebar.

With that done, select the ‘Styles’ tab. Here, you can change the text color, add a background color, change the font size, and more.

As you make changes, the live preview will update automatically, so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.

Step 6: Save Your Changes

When you are happy with how the post excerpt is set up, click on the ‘Save’ button to make your changes live.

Do you want to show post excerpts on more pages and posts? Then, simply repeat the above steps, but this time choose a new template from the left-hand menu.

Method 3: Add Post Excerpts to WordPress Using a Theme Builder (Advanced)

If you want complete control over how the archive, blog page, homepage, and the rest of your site look, then you can create a custom theme.

This allows you to design your own pages and show excerpts anywhere on your website.

SeedProd is the best WordPress theme builder that allows you to easily create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code. It also has a ready-made Posts block that you can drag and drop onto any page.

Step 1: Install and Activate SeedProd

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the SeedProd » Settings page and enter the plugin’s license key. You can find this information in your account on the SeedProd website.

After entering the license key, you are ready to create a custom WordPress theme using the SeedProd theme builder.

Step 2: Choose a Template Kit

First, you need to go to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page.

Here, you can either use one of the ready-made SeedProd site kits and templates as a starting point or manually create a template from scratch.

We recommend starting with an existing theme, as it automatically creates all the necessary template files and gives you a head start.

With that being said, click on the ‘Theme Template Kits’ button.

Step 3: Select a Theme

You can now choose any of the available templates.

All of these themes are fully customizable, so you can fine-tune them to perfectly suit your WordPress blog or website.

After choosing a theme, SeedProd will automatically create all the theme templates you need.

You can think of this as the draft version of your custom WordPress theme.

Step 4: Edit the Blog Template

You can now customize each template using SeedProd’s drag-and-drop editor.

Since we want to add post excerpts to our website, hover your mouse over the template that controls your blog listing (often named ‘Blog Index, Archives, Search’) and click on the ‘Edit Design’ link when it appears.

This will load the SeedProd drag-and-drop builder.

To the right, you’ll see a preview of the template. By default, the blog page template will show the heading, archive, title, and all your posts.

The left-hand side shows a menu with all the different blocks you can use.

You can add new blocks by dragging them onto the page and then rearrange them by dragging them up and down with your mouse.

You can customize any block by clicking on it and then using the settings in the left-hand menu. When you make a change, the SeedProd preview will automatically update to show those changes in action.

Step 5: Select the Posts Block

Since we want to customize the post excerpts, simply click to select the ‘Posts’ block in the live preview.

After doing that, select the content you want to show in this block using the settings in the left-hand menu.

For example, you can change the column layout, display pagination, show the featured image, and change the title tag.

Step 6: Enable the Excerpt

To show the post excerpt, simply click on the ‘Show Excerpt’ toggle so that it turns orange.

Once you’ve done that, you can change how many characters SeedProd shows in the excerpt by typing a new number into ‘Excerpt Length.’

SeedProd can also add a ‘Read More’ link to each excerpt, which will encourage readers to open the full article.

You can add or remove this link using the ‘Show Read More’ toggle.

You can also replace the ‘Read More’ text with your own messaging by typing into the ‘Read More Text’ field.

Step 7: Save Your Changes

When you are happy with how the post excerpt is set up, click the ‘Save’ button in the upper right corner of your screen.

You can now customize the other SeedProd templates by going to SeedProd » Theme Builder and following the same process described above.

To show the post excerpts to visitors, you first need to enable your SeedProd theme. To do this, go to SeedProd » Theme Builder and then click on the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ toggle so that it shows ‘Yes.’

Now, if you visit any of your blog pages, you’ll see the post excerpts live.

Bonus: Show Excerpts For Password-Protected Content

If you have a membership site, then you may have some content that is unavailable for the general audience. However, it is still a good idea to show an excerpt for your password-protected content.

This can intrigue users and encourage them to buy your subscriptions to get access to exclusive content on your website.

You can easily do this using Restrict Content Pro, which is a popular content protection plugin. Upon activation, simply open a post of your liking in the WordPress block editor where you can add an excerpt for it from the block panel.

After that, you can configure the restriction settings from the dropdown.

Finally, publish the post and then visit your WordPress site.

Here, the users will be able to see the post excerpt and title for the restricted content just like any other post. However, the content itself will be hidden from the audience.

For detailed instructions, you can also see our tutorial on how to show an excerpt of a password-protected post in WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions About Showing Posts in WordPress

Here are some questions our readers have frequently asked about showing posts and their excerpts in WordPress:

How to display excerpts in a WordPress page?

You can display post excerpts on any WordPress page using the built-in ‘Latest Posts’ block. Simply add the block to your page, then in the block settings panel, toggle the ‘Post content’ option and select ‘Excerpt’ to show a summary instead of the full article.

How to preview a post in WordPress?

To preview a post, click the ‘Preview’ link located in the top-right corner of the content editor. You can then select ‘Preview in new tab’ to see exactly how your post and its excerpt will look to visitors on desktop, tablet, or mobile before you publish it.

How to display popular posts in WordPress?

The easiest way to display popular posts is by using a plugin like MonsterInsights. It automatically tracks which articles get the most traffic and displays them in a ‘Popular Posts’ widget or block, helping you keep visitors engaged with your best content.

For more information, see our tutorial on displaying popular posts in WordPress.

How to display recent posts in WordPress?

You can display recent posts anywhere on your site using the ‘Latest Posts’ block or the ‘Recent Posts’ widget. Once added, you can customize the display settings to include the post date, featured image, and a short excerpt to entice readers to click.

To get started, check out our beginner’s guide on how to display recent posts in WordPress.

How to display specific posts in WordPress?

To display specific posts, you can use the ‘Latest Posts’ block and filter the results by a specific category or tag. For more advanced control, visual builders like SeedProd allow you to manually select specific post IDs to create a curated list of content.

We hope this article helped you learn how to display post excerpts in WordPress themes. You may also want to see our guide on how to create interactive images in WordPress and our expert picks for the best WordPress full site editing themes.

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