Post Excerpts versus Full Posts
Daniel at Daily Blog Tips has brought up an interesting topic that has me pondering my own position on how my posts are displayed.
Would search engines really penalize bloggers for full posts?
I suppose it’s possible when you think about the post appearing in two places at once. One on the front page and one on the individual post which could ultimately raise the red flag of duplicate content.
But — my thought is, if search engines were going to penalize for such practice, wouldn’t Blogger be set up to display only post excerpts?
I can’t imagine Google promoting a deficient product that their search engine would frown upon.
On the other hand, there are so many blogs popping up every single day, that I’m sure there are new directions being considered to ensure that only the strong survive.
While I am a fan of the More Tag for lengthy posts and for increasing page views, I’m not quite sold on the whole concept that if I don’t use it I run the risk of being dropped from search engines just yet.
Thoughts?
Tags: Tags, Google, Search Engines, Blogger, Wordpress, duplicate content
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POSTED IN: MomGadget
6 opinions for Post Excerpts versus Full Posts
Daniel
Jul 20, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Gayla, my main concern was the usability of the site. I wanted to provide more posts on the front page, making it possible for the readers to scan through them easily.
I agree that SEO should not be a problem, there are many huge blogs using full posts and they seem to be doing fine.
Gayla
Jul 20, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Daniel, I think this is a brilliant topic. I think it’s important to consider the possibilities where search engines are concerned. You’ve really got me thinking! It’s been a while since I’ve had something to ponder that’s quite this deep :)
Aside from search engines, I wonder if this is one of those things that might vary between blog topics. It seems those that are more techie might benefit from the excerpts while other topics might benefit from full posts.
A simple topic really, with very complicated answers.
Angela
Jul 20, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I prefer to have full posts because as a reader that’s how I want the posts to show up in my news reader.
I don’t want to have to go to the site to read the rest of the post. If I have to do that then I wind up unsubscribing from the blog all together.
I want to be able to read the entire post in my news reader and then if I feel compelled to leave a comment - I click through to the site.
The search engine gods are very smart people and I’m sure they have all sorts of formulas that they use depending on the format of the site.
Honestly, I think we are all over thinking this and perhaps KISS would be in order so that we don’t lose incite as to why we blog in the first place.
Especially if you are in it for the love of writing! If you are in it for the $$ then your content better be damn good!
Laura
Jul 20, 2007 at 4:52 pm
This is something that I’ve wondered about myself. I really don’t know the answer. I see lots of blogs using both methods. I’d be interested in seeing more research.
Brown Baron
Jul 21, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Most of my posts aren’t long so I rarely use the more tag. I’ve never really been sure which is better though.
Heather Bixler
Jul 23, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Hmm….I’ve been hearing this too, and sometimes I use the more tag, and sometimes I don’t. I don’t kow if this is really a valid concern, but I do know there are ways to program Wordpress blogs to help with duplicate content penalties resulting from this very situation. But like I said, I’m not too concerned. :)
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