How to Properly Use the More Block in WordPress

Your website’s homepage is like the front window of a store – it needs to showcase what you offer without overwhelming visitors.

That’s where the WordPress More block becomes incredibly useful. It creates clean, scannable previews that let people quickly find the content they’re most interested in.

Think about it: would you rather scroll through several full-length articles to find something relevant, or browse through short previews and click on what catches your eye? Most visitors prefer the second option.

At WPBeginner, we use the ‘Read More’ link to guide visitors to full posts, and this simple approach has made our site much more enjoyable to navigate.

We’ll show you how to properly add it so your visitors have a smooth, engaging experience every time they visit your site.

When to Use the More Block in WordPress

Many websites use post previews to encourage visitors to check out the full version.

As a WordPress user, you can create these post previews in two main ways: by using the built-in More block or by writing a custom excerpt.

By default, most modern WordPress themes automatically show a preview of your posts on the homepage and blog archives instead of the full post.

For instance, our blog page shows a few words from the post and a ‘Read More’ link to the full post.

This preview text helps visitors see more of your blog’s topics without having to scroll through every post. It also helps increase pageviews since visitors will need to click through to finish reading a post.

You can control exactly what WordPress shows in these previews by using either the More block or an excerpt.

The best choice for your site will vary depending on your WordPress theme. Some themes will ignore any More blocks you create, so you’ll need to use an excerpt instead.

More Block vs. Excerpt: What’s the Difference?

Before we start, let’s quickly look at the difference between the More block and an excerpt. This will help you choose the best option for your website.

• The More Block lets you cut your post content at an exact point. Everything above the More block is shown as the preview on your blog page.
• An Excerpt is a separate, custom-written summary of your post. This text is only used for the preview and won’t appear in the full post itself.

To help you show an engaging preview no matter what theme you’re using, we’ll cover both More blocks and excerpts.

If you prefer to jump straight to a particular method, then you can use the links below:

1. How to Properly Use the More Block in WordPress
2. How to Change the More Block’s ‘Read More’ Text
3. Alternative: How to Set Up Post Excerpts in WordPress
4. Frequently Asked Questions About the More Block

Ready? Let’s get started.

Step 1: How to Properly Use the More Block in WordPress

The WordPress block editor has a built-in More block that allows you to specify the exact cutoff point for the preview text of any WordPress post.

📝 In the classic editor, this block was previously known as the More tag.

You can add the More block anywhere in the post, including mid-sentence or in the middle of a paragraph.

All of the content above the More block will appear on your blog archive pages and wherever else your posts are listed on your WordPress site. WordPress will also add a ‘Read More’ link to the preview, so visitors can click to read the full version of the post.

Before you add a More block to your post, it’s important to check that your site is set up to show the latest posts on the homepage.

If you are using a static page as your custom homepage, then your theme may ignore the More blocks and use its own settings instead.

Not sure if you’re using a static front page as your homepage? You can check it by simply going to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

At the top of this screen, you’ll see a ‘Your homepage displays’ section. If ‘Your latest posts’ is selected, then you should have no problems using the More block.

To get started, simply open the post where you want to add a More block. Then, find the spot where you want to create the cutoff point for your preview, and click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block.

You can then type in ‘More’ and select the right block to add it to your page.

Some themes have a limit on how many words they will show on their homepage and archive pages.

If you include a large number of words in your preview, your theme may override the More block. So, it’s a good idea to create the cutoff point early in the post.

You can now carry on writing your post as normal.

You’ll be able to see the More block when editing your post in the block editor, but your visitors won’t see it when they’re reading the post on your WordPress blog.

Just like any other block, WordPress has some settings that you can use to configure the More block. To see these settings, simply click to select your More block.

In the right-hand menu, you’ll see a setting labeled ‘Hide the excerpt on the full content page.’

By default, the text you placed above the More block (your preview) will also show up at the top of your full post. This toggle lets you control that.

If you want to hide this preview text from the full post page, then just click the slider to turn it blue.

Now, the content above the More block will only appear on your homepage and archive pages, and visitors will see the full post content right away when they click through.

Once you’re finished, you can go ahead and save your changes by clicking on the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button.

Now if you visit your homepage or blog archive page, you’ll see the preview you just created for this post.

🤔 Are you seeing something different? Then your WordPress theme may be ignoring your More blocks.

Some themes are designed to show excerpts and will override all of your More blocks. If your homepage and blog archives aren’t showing the preview you created using the More block, then you may need to use excerpts instead.

Step 2: How to Change the More Block’s ‘Read More’ Text

By default, the More block will show a Read More link on your archive and homepage.

There are several ways to change this text, but depending on your WordPress theme, you may get slightly different results. Some themes will override your changes with their own default settings.

To start, it’s worth checking whether you can change the Read More text using the WordPress post editor.

To do this, simply open any post that has a More block. You can then click on the default ‘READ MORE’ text and type in the text that you want to use instead.

After that, either update or publish the page as normal. You can then visit your homepage or blog archive to see whether the Read More text has changed.

If you’re still seeing the original Read More link, then you may need to override your theme’s settings using code.

You can either create a site-specific plugin or use a code snippets plugin like WPCode (recommended) to add the following code to your site:

function modify_read_more_link() {
    return '<a class="more-link" href="' . get_permalink() . '">Check out the full post</a>';
}
add_filter( 'the_content_more_link', 'modify_read_more_link', 999 );

This replaces the default ‘Read More’ text with ‘Check out the full post,’ as you can see in the following image.

You can use any text you want by replacing ‘Check out the full post’ in the code snippet. The get_permalink() part of the code automatically adds the correct link to your full post, so you don’t need to worry about changing it.

Alternative: How to Set Up Post Excerpts in WordPress

WordPress has two different ways to show a post preview. We’ve already covered the More block, but you can also create a preview using excerpts.

For visitors to your WordPress blog or website, previews are created using excerpts, and the More block looks exactly the same. However, some themes are coded to use excerpts, which means they will ignore your More blocks and show an excerpt instead.

If you don’t add an excerpt to a post manually, then WordPress will create one automatically based on the excerpt length defined by your theme. This can lead to previews that cut off mid-sentence.

With that in mind, you can choose to create an excerpt manually instead. To do this, simply open a post and then click to expand the ‘Excerpt’ section in the right-hand menu.

In the ‘Write an excerpt’ box, you can then either type in or paste the excerpt that you want to use for the post.

Don’t see an ‘Excerpt’ box in the right-hand menu? Then you can enable this setting by clicking on the three-dotted icon in the upper-right corner.

Once you’ve done that, let’s click on ‘Preferences.’

In the popup that appears, simply click on ‘Panels.’

You’ll now see all the settings that you can add to the right-hand menu. Simply find ‘Excerpt’ and give it a click to turn it from white (disabled) to blue (enabled).

Then, simply close this popup. You should now have access to the ‘Excerpt’ settings in your right-hand menu.

Now, you can create an excerpt following the same process described above.

Once you’ve done that, simply save your changes and visit your site. You will now see your custom excerpt on the homepage and blog archive.

Frequently Asked Questions About the More Block

Here are some questions that our readers frequently ask about the More block in WordPress:

What is the difference between the More block and an excerpt?

The More block lets you place a “read more” break anywhere inside your content. Everything above the block is used as the preview on your blog page.

An excerpt is a separate, hand-crafted summary that you write in the post settings. Some themes are designed to use excerpts only and will ignore the More block.

Why isn’t my More block working?

The most common reason is that your WordPress theme is overriding it. Many themes are coded to use excerpts by default and will ignore the More block completely.

This can also happen if you are using a static front page instead of showing your latest posts on the homepage.

Can I change the default ‘Read More’ text?

Yes, you can often edit the text directly inside the More block in the editor. If that doesn’t work, it means your theme has its own default text.

You can override your theme’s settings by adding a small code snippet. We recommend using a plugin like WPCode to do this safely without editing theme files directly.

We hope this article helped you learn how to use the More blockin WordPress properly. You may also want to check out our guide on how to add multi-column content in WordPress posts or how to add tables in WordPress posts and pages with no HTML required.

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