Post excerpts explained
Learn what WordPress post excerpts are, how to write them, and where they appear on your site.
An excerpt is a short summary of a blog post. It's a few sentences that give readers a taste of what the full article is about. Excerpts appear in blog post listings, search results, and social shares — they're the first impression of your content.
Quick summary
When editing a post, scroll down to find the Excerpt field and write a 1–3 sentence summary. If you leave it blank, WordPress automatically generates one by cutting off the beginning of your post content. Writing your own is almost always better.
What you'll need
Beginner 3 minutes per post- Editor or Administrator access to WordPress
What is an excerpt?
When visitors browse your blog, they typically see a list of posts — each with a title, maybe a featured image, and a short snippet of text. That snippet is the excerpt.
Excerpts are also used by:
- SEO plugins — Some use the excerpt as the default meta description (the text shown in Google results)
- Social media plugins — When sharing a post, some tools pull the excerpt for the preview text
- Email newsletters — If your site connects to a newsletter tool, the excerpt often becomes the post summary
How to add an excerpt to a post
Open the post you want to edit in the WordPress block editor.
Find the Excerpt panel in the right sidebar. You may need to scroll down to see it. If it's not visible, click the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the editor, go to Preferences → Panels, and make sure Excerpt is checked.
Click inside the Excerpt text area and write your summary. Aim for 1–3 sentences — enough to give a real sense of what the post is about without giving everything away.
Click Update (or Publish) to save.
What makes a good excerpt?
A good excerpt is:
- Accurate — It reflects what's actually in the post
- Engaging — It makes someone want to read more
- Complete in itself — It reads as a proper sentence or two, not a cliffhanger sentence cut mid-thought
- Under 160 characters if you're also using it as your SEO meta description — though excerpt boxes typically allow more
Compare these two:
| Approach | Example |
|---|---|
| Auto-generated (cutting off the article) | "If you've ever wondered how to market your business on social media, you're not alone. Many business owners face the same…" |
| Hand-written excerpt | "Five practical social media tactics for small businesses — without needing a big budget or a full-time marketing team." |
The hand-written version is cleaner, more focused, and more compelling.
What happens if you don't write an excerpt?
If the excerpt field is empty, WordPress automatically creates one by taking the first 55 words (approximately) of your post content. This "auto excerpt" often:
- Starts mid-thought if your post begins with a personal anecdote or scene-setting
- Gets cut off at an awkward point
- Doesn't highlight what's most valuable about the post
It works, but it's never as good as writing your own.
The more tag (<!--more-->)
Older WordPress themes use a different system: you insert a "Read More" block inside your post content to split it. Content before the break becomes the excerpt on archive pages. This approach still works but is less common than the dedicated Excerpt field.
SEO connection
Your SEO plugin (Yoast SEO or Rank Math) may use your excerpt as the default meta description — the text shown in Google search results. If you've written a good excerpt, it often serves double duty.
For important pages, it's worth writing both a dedicated excerpt and a separate meta description in your SEO plugin. They can be the same, or you can tune the SEO description for search while keeping the excerpt focused on readability. See Editing SEO titles & descriptions.
Common questions
Related guides
- How to write & publish a blog post
- Setting featured images
- Using categories & tags
- Editing SEO titles & descriptions
- Writing for the web
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