Full Posts vs. Partial Posts, on the Homepage
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Mirando Así Arriba by Corazón Girl One of the most immediately noticeable aspects of a blog is whether or not it publishes complete posts on its homepage, or partial posts. Are you going to have to load another page to read the first article in its entirety? Or is it already laid out in front of you?
Many blogs publish partials, and many publish excerpts. Which method is best?
In Favour of Full Posts
Some of the advantages of displaying the complete posts are:
- There are no interruptions. If someone has read the first few paragraphs of your post, then they are involved with it. Giving a partial post breaks the reader’s flow. This can be particularly damaging if the post is dealing with a rather complex idea, where breaking the train of thought may end up with the reader being lost.
- Short posts look good in full. If a post is 5 paragraphs long, and you usually show an excerpt that is 3 paragraphs long, is it really worth loading the second page for the sake of 2 paragraphs?
- The introduction is less important. Every writer has their strong points and their weak points. Knowing those is crucial to succeeding as a writer. If you know that introductions are your weak point, then partial posts might not be for you, as they place a lot of weight on the introduction. You must sell the post in those few lines. Full posts take away this pressure.
- It is easier to do. This isn’t technically an “advantage,” but it is one reason that full posts are a popular solution. As a blogger, they are easier to do. You write your post, and you publish. No hassle, no fuss.
- Readers are used to seeing full posts. This last reason is a rather shaky one I imagine, but worth mentioning nonetheless. Blogs began with complete posts on the home pages, and many readers may still prefer it this way. On the other hand, is there any reason that a blog should look like the stereotypical blog?
In Favour of Partial Posts
- Posts can be scanned. Your latest post may not always appeal to the reader, and even if it does, they may also be interested in any number of the other posts on your homepage. Short excerpts mean that the user can easily scan the page, opening each appealing headline in a new tab. Publishing complete posts on the page makes this sort of scrolling impossible.
- More posts can be placed in the same space. By converting from complete posts to excerpts, you could show twice as many articles, in a shorter space. This allows you to put a larger range of your posts on show to the reader.
- To read the complete post, the user must load the post’s page. This page includes all of the post’s comments, making the user far more likely to read them, and even leave a comment of their own.
- The chance of a duplicate content penalty in the search engines is removed. Posting a complete post on the homepage means that the entire post exists at two separate locations, the homepage and the post page. The SEs will pick up on this, and may infer the duplication content penalty upon your site. (This point is made often online, but personally I think it is a rather shaky one as well.)
As you can see from this site, I am in favour of showing partial posts. Have you heard it being said that, “your blog is only as good as its last post?” With full posts, this phrase reigns true. However with partial posts, your blog can be as good as your last 3 posts, and one can only hope that there is a gem in there somewhere!
Which approach do you take on your blog? Why so?
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About the Author
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design. He works as a freelance web designer, loves WordPress, and has an unhealthy addiction to smilies.
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Bit of background, I came here from David Airey’s site because of the MyAvatars stuff and noticed that your icon is indeed wicked cool.
Then, I started reading this post. I don’t break posts up, but I think you’re right about the commenting thing – I’m leaving a comment now and probably wouldn’t have otherwise! I might consider breaking for my really long posts, but many posts are short enough that breaking it is silly.
As a reader I used to get really annoyed at breaking up the post, sometimes I’d just leave the blog. Perhaps that comes under your fifth point.
I generally break up the posts unless the post is short (eg. 2 paragraphs). However, at my recipe blog, I break up the post just before I reveal the recipe (I start with a 2 or 3 paragraph intro into the recipe). This makes the post tidier, I think and my readers can choose to read the recipe if they want to.
I use partial posts on my homepage because that is what I prefer as a reader. I’m thinking other readers are like me, but obviously that’s not the case (kristarella for example).
Kristarella – It could indeed. Putting your reader first is the most important thing you can do, in any aspect of your blog. If you, as a reader, enjoy full posts on the page, then by all means, stick with that!
pablopabla – Your trick with the recipes sounds perfect. :D
Steven – I like to read posts that way as well. :)
On my site, I go with partial posts on my home page. Why? Well for one reason, it helps lower duplicated content for SEO since only part of the post is showing. Second, it helps you get more page views since the readers have to “read more”. It really depends on the readers of the blog.
Sly from Slyvisions.com
I like the idea that people have to navigate to another page of your blog – they might see a list of related posts or something that holds their attention. I think I’m going to go and cleave some of the longer posts on my homepage. ;-)
When I said I got annoyed and left pages because of this I suspect that I was looking at sites with poor navigability. If you’re going to make people go to another page it is nice to help them get somewhere else (related post, next and previous post, ready link to the homepage etc).
Thanks for the post – which is one of the questions I’ve been pondering since I started blogging two months ago. Now I don’t break them up to let the readers read more without another click – but the page is getting long… Pros and cons – still not decided yet…
Sly – I suppose the extra pageviews might help with adverts. Are you paid cpm?
kristarella – You’re very good at getting into the mindset of a reader. I agree entirely on the benefits of good navigation. :)
Shine with Grace – I suppose the best way to find out is to experiment. For one week, you could post partial posts on the homepage. At the end of the week, compare stats with a normal week, e.g. number of comments and adsense earnings. You might find there is very little difference, or you might find a big difference that will make your decision for you. :)
Hi Michael,
Thanks for the reply. Great advice x 2. I will carry out the experiment as recommended.
Have a nice weekend.
Sounds good. Let me know how it turns out. :)
And thanks. You too!
On my Site I’ve decided to write a full Posts – one full page in Word with Times Roman – Size 12.
Why?
Well i think that short posts can’t deliver suficient informations.
I explain a lot and I Think that all users like that.
Regards,
Lernen.
Lernen, if your readers like long in depth posts then that’s excellent, but you’re wrong to say “all users like that.” A post would have to be really interesting to keep me involved for a long time and even if I really want to read a post, if it’s too long and I haven’t got time to read it in one sitting, or get bored, then it generally gets lost in the ether. I’d hazard to say that I’m not the only one out there who finds that. ;-)
Michael, since we’re on the topic, I thought I’d mention that your RSS feed shows only the post above the ‘more’ tag. Frustrating for those who read offline. :)
Kristarella – Sorry about that! I didn’t realise WordPress was doing this until I read my own feed on Thursday. Sorry!
(And it also does that when you use the_excerpt! Sometimes WP bugs me… :lol: )
I’ve been experimenting with partial posts on my homepage for the past week. Your suggestions will help me know the best way to continue with that. Great site you have here… it’s going to be one of my regular stops :)
Thanks Adino! Glad to hear it. Let me know how your experiment goes. It would be good to hear which method worked best for you. :)
I’ve been on the fence about this for awhile. I’ve never liked the look of full posts on my site but then again when I go to other people’s sites I don’t really like having to click to a new page to read the full post.
I think the advantages with no duplicate content and the possibility of getting more comments has sold me on the partial post thing. I’ll give it a try… one I figure out how to make the change, that is.
Hey Kirsty – It’s well worth a try, and swapping back is easy.
The possible methods are explained here, and there is a mention of a plugin in that article that you’ll probably want to take a look at. :)
This has always been an area where I have gone back and forth. Currently on the majority of my blogs I lean towards full posts for at least the top post.
I have not come to a conclusion yet on what is best.
That’s a good point Jake. I’ve seen it being done well on quite a few blogs. Featuring the entirety (Or a good sized excerpt) of the most recent post can be a “best of both worlds” solution.
It’s a very hard topic to judge. Have your readers ever said anything on the method they prefer?
As a reader I much prefer full posts because the partial posts make me feel as if the blogger is jerking me around, and I really dislike that feeling. I will click to read the rest of the post if it is very interesting to me, but if I feel it’s mediocre I won’t bother.
I’m not trying to get many readers since my blog functions as a diary, not as a business. But I always did wonder why people did the partial post thing, so I’m pleased to have found this explanation. :-)
How lucky I am. I’ve been thinkin about this issue for some hours this day. This most popular post quickly grabbed my attention :wink:
What eek said is interesting. I think me too dont wanna be jerk around. I think we can act from this information; make your partial post, but dont leave the reader in quriosity or incomplete state/feeling. We can still relate the post without making the reader feel unfulfilled, if you know what I mean.
eek – hmm… I can definitely see how it’s more hassle, especially on a personal blog like your own, but on a more advice/article driver blog, partial posts do hold a few good advantages. :)
Maximillian – Well said. The partial posts are only effective if you can get across the purpose of the article within that extract. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time, as you said.
On my main blog I have about 10 partial posts on the front page. The post page then shows the full article.
On my other blogs front page, I have;
1 full post
9 partial posts
Then on the actual post page (single.php) I show a partial post as well, with a “click to read more” link which uses jQuery to show the rest of the post. It works particularly well.
That’s an interesting setup Gary. Why do you only show part of the post at first on your single post pages?
If they’ve loaded that page from your home page (Or even landed there from a search engine), then surely you can assume that they do want to read the article.
Personally, I use full posts. I don’t want to slow people down or annoy them, and in my eyes that’s what partial posts do. I show about four full posts on my homepage. :)
Fair enough. Have you ever played about with excerpts though? They might perform better than you expect. :)
Using an excerpt forces people to get used to clicking if they want to “read more”. Clicking is good on a monetized site.
I use a Blogger blog. I can’t figure out how to do partial posts. Is it even posible with blogger?
Thanks, Chad
There is no duplicate content penalty for content ON THE SAME WEBSITE.
Icheb,
That could be true. Personally, I just don’t know. I think that it would make sense if there was though. What would you think of a site that artificially inflates its total number of pages just by duplicating its content all over the place?
I can’t see why Google and such would find any problem with a blog that has a few of its posts on the homepage and on their own individual pages as well though…
What an awesome post. I have often wondered at certain times while writing what the best option would be. Your post has me thinking a little more clearly. I appreciated the objective tone.
Brett,
It’s hard to say which is best exactly, but I’m glad you found my views helpful :)
Great post, it’s really helped me understand and think through different ways of designing my own site. An idea I came up with while reading your post is to, by default, display a partial post and include two things: the generic permalink to the full story’s page, but then also a “Read the Rest” link that would display the full article where the partial post had been. I was getting ready to set up something like this on my own site, even pulling out my list of to-dos, but then I read that search engines can give out duplicate content penalties and am now scared to implement such a little system. If I was to do what I thought of, would it count as duplicated content?
Thanks for this great article. I usually breaks the posts I write (usually these are kind of long articles/tutorials), but I don’t break the post after 2 paragraphs. I usually check where the interesting part of, say the tutorial, begins with some explanation and screenshots.
I think I would stick much easier with a post if I saw how a tutorial is explained and what the article really is about when reading it in full.
I love your list of advantages and disadvantages! Currently I’m showing full posts, but I’m thinking about switching to partial posts on the main page. I hope people will get past the homepage that way and they will be able to see the “related posts” etcetera.
I’ll always go for partial posts on my own site. I tend to ramble once I start going on about a topic and so a post that at first might only have been pretty short can end up being pages and pages long!
See I’m in this dilemma now. I just can’t decide. I think it also depends on the blog layout. Mine currently is 2 side bars (1 either side) with the stream of content down the middle, where I feature full posts.
I think I will move over to partial posts as soon as I design ‘that amazing layout’ which is long overdue. My content also varies a bit, so it’d be better for people to see what else is there.
Thanks for posting!
I’m also looking to change my wordpress home page posts, so that only partial post is visible on home page instead of currently the full post.
Jaspal Singh’s Latest Post: How my new personal blog got google page rank 0 to PR4 in just 28 days
I’ve been toying with the idea of going to partial posts on the front page of our blog for a while now . . . I think your article, along with a few others I’ve read (along with examining those sites that are successful) has me convinced to make the move.
Thanks!
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Thanks for sharing,
My concerns are two –
1. duplicate content in the view of SE.
2. High load time for the homepage.
If you are having 300 posts and your homepage contains even partial posts, you generate about 30 unusefull pages that many of them are indexed by SE.
In the SE side, I guess that this may lower your site’s ranking.
I believe in encouraging children to independence, but only in baby steps. ,
How does he make the tenuous jump from collective culture to superstitious people cowed into passivity? ,
How do you actually display the post partially? I am using WordPress and I never managed to do that!
My other concern is that different categories display my articles differently than my front page!
If I set the default visible articles, it affect the whole site! 7 short posts will look not enough on the front page, and will be way overwhelming in my Articles section where everything is displayed Full Post!
Thank you for the tips. I hope to improve the blog on my website from this information
Great information, still favor the partial post myself..
Full post and partial post have their own characteristics and they are both reliable to use. It just depends on the user on which they prefer to use.
thanks dear its usefull
it’s very good, i like .
i fetch all the rss feed news from other site but now problem is its not displaying in single post in wordpress. How can i display rss news in single post. Right now its displaying in a single paragraph. seems used excerpt function. My site url is:
http://iraqi-dinarnews.com/
Help will be appreciated.
Thanks
I can see both sides of this and agree with elements of both but I get really annoyed when a page is miles and miles long due to full length posts all being displayed in one section, I think from a usability perspective and being able to scan posts that are relevant to what you are looking for is much more important than being stopped part way through a post. If you want to see how popular certain posts are also having these additional pages are a good way of keeping track.
I’m a fan of partial posts… struggling to get them implemented on my site though
Hi Michael
I found your site whilst searching for the answer of whether I should use full or partial posts on the front page of my new blog. I chose to go with partial posts.
I was actually so impressed with the content of the article and the value of some of the comments that I wrote my own post about your post! I hope you don’t mind.
Here it is:
http://brlees.com/blogging-tips/should-your-front-page-posts-be-full-or-excerpts
Hello There. I found your blog using msn. This is a very well written article. I will make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of 301 Moved Permanently . Thanks for the post. I’ll definitely comeback.
Interesting discussion.
With only a blurb and a thumbnail, you need to be really creative to lure someone who is marginally interested to click on ‘more.’ They may well click right on out of there.
However, when the whole thing is staring him in the face, you get the added help of an attractive page, image and/ or graphics -that just might be inviting enough for the visitor to stick for a few minutes.
Obviously, both strategies have their place.
Dave Potts