Excerpts are summaries or teasers of your content. Excerpts are displayed as content previews instead of the full content.
Excerpts can be added manually or automatically generated from the words at the beginning of your content. Automatic excerpts will end with [...] Continue Reading
Adding a manual excerpt will allow you to control exactly what is displayed in the preview, and it makes it look neater too.
In general, we recommend taking the time to create a manual excerpt for your content, even if your website doesn’t display them. This is because excerpts can be displayed in previews outside of your site too.
When you configure the Yoast SEO plugin like we recommend, the excerpt is displayed by default as meta descriptions for search engines and preview text in social media.
Create an Excerpt
- Edit your post, or create a new post
- Under the Document settings on the right of the editor click on Excerpt.
- Type your short excerpt.
- Publish your content
Related: Instead of using excerpts, you may prefer to split your posts with Read More
Tips for good Excerpts
A good excerpt provides a summary or teaser of your post. It tells the reader why they should take the time to click on the post to read it in detail.
Excerpts should be no longer than 1 paragraph.
Remember that the meta description or social preview text only uses the excerpt as a default – you can craft custom meta descriptions and social preview text from the Yoast SEO options box. Learn how.
Using Excerpts in the Classic Editor
This section is only relevant if you are still using the Classic Editor.
Start by ensuring that the Excerpt option box is displayed on the edit screen. You can do this by clicking the Screen Options tab and selecting the Excerpt checkbox.
The Excerpt option box will now appear towards the bottom of the screen.
Type in your excerpt and publish or update your content.
