How to Insert More Tag in WordPress or Read More Tag on Pages Without Plugin

Do you want to show a summary of your article on your homepage with a read more link? Then you can easily add more tags in wordpress and in wordPress we have an option of built-in methods that allows you to insert more tags. One of these methods is known as the More Tag. So, let’s see in detail below.

You can now insert and add wordpress read more expand without plugin and add more tags and also change read more texts and if you are using elementor then also you can insert read more tag in elementor

Adding the More Tag in WordPress

Adding more tags in wordpress is pretty simple and straightforward and all you need to is click on more tags wherever you want and add them and you can also add it to the new article or for an existing article.

Once you’re done writing, we need to click on a line where we would like to end the summary and show a read more link. Next, click on the More Tag button from the toolbar.

We will notice that a dashed line with ‘More’ in the centre will appear in your blog post. We can insert the more tag anywhere in the post, like in the mid sentence, in the middle of a paragraph, or after the first paragraph.

If we are using the text editor, then we can use the ‘more’ button in the toolbar or manually enter the more tag like this:

<!–more→

Also Read:

1) How to Enable Debug Mode in WordPress

2) How To Fix Error Too Many Redirects Issue In WordPress

3) How to Fix Crawled Currently Not Indexed Solutions

What’s the Advantage of using More Tag vs Excerpts

Remember earlier we mentioned that WordPress comes with two built-in methods for showing the post summary with a read more link. Those methods are More Tag and Excerpts.

We can add an excerpt for any post using the Excerpt box in our post editor screen. If we do not see that box, then click on the screen options tab on the top right hand corner and check the excerpt option.

This will display an excerpt meta box below your post editor.

While excerpts may sound like an easier option, there are two downsides to using an excerpt.

The first is that excerpts are completely theme dependent. If your theme does not use the_excerpt tag, then no matter what we type in the excerpt box, your theme will show the full content of your post on your homepage and archive pages.

The second downside to using excerpts is that they do not show images or any other formatting for that matter. They’re displayed as plain text.

Whereas the More Tag is completely theme independent meaning it will work on all well-coded WordPress themes. Second, it allows us to display images and all post formatting such as links, quotes, bold/italics, etc in your post summary.

What’s the Downside of using More Tag

The biggest downside of using the WordPress More Tag is that it is something you have to manually enter in all of your posts whereas excerpts are automated.

While WordPress allows you to enter a custom excerpt in the excerpt box, it can also auto-generate an excerpt based on your character count.

Depending on your preference, this may be a downside.

The other downside of using a More Tag is if we use a theme that uses excerpts, then it will override the More Tag and provide an excerpt with the length defined by your theme.

Whether we use More Tag or excerpts, it’s important that you show a summary on your homepage and archive pages rather than showing full content. See our article on the topic, full Text vs summary (excerpt) in your WordPress archive pages.

Common WordPress More Tag Problems

The biggest issue we hear with WordPress More Tag not working is when it comes to pages.

By default, we cannot use the More Tag in WordPress pages. However, there is a quick fix that allows you to add read more tag in WordPress pages.

Another common issue is more tag not working on homepage. If w are using a static page as your custom homepage, then the link above should fix the issue.

The only other reason why more tag won’t work on the homepage is if your theme is designed to show excerpts on the front page in which case your more tag is being overridden, and you should use excerpts instead.

We hope this article helped you learn how to properly use the more tag in WordPress.