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What is the “more tag” all about in Wordpress?

If you have used Wordpress to blog for a while you have most likely run into the duplicate content problem I have had with Google post rankings. When I first started experimenting with Wordpress I could not understand why I was not seeing better Google search placement of my posts. After reading many posts about duplicate content issues with Wordpress and taking the appropriate action I saw better search engine ranking results of my posts.

Let me explain what I mean by duplicate content issues with Wordpress. When you publish a post, depending upon the way you have set up your Wordpress website, your post can be found on many different pages within your site. Some examples of where your post will be found are:

• Front page if your use the default home page setting or your post home page.
• Categories
• Tags (even the more tag)
• Authors
• Archives
• etc.

No there is not an error in the design of Wordpress. Wordpress is designed to be flexible and set up in many different ways.

What Is Duplicate Content According To Google?

“Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar.”

Why Does Google Care About Duplicate Content?

“Our users typically want to see a diverse cross-section of unique content when they do searches. In contrast, they’re understandably annoyed when they see substantially the same content within a set of search results.”

What does Google do when it recognizes duplicate content? Google will try and index the page with “distinct information” and not index the duplicate content pages. But Google may take the duplicate content one step further. If Google perceives the duplicate content may have the intent to manipulate the rankings, Google we’ll make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the site.

Ways To Fix Wordpress Duplicate Content

There are many ways to prevent Google or any search engine from trying to determine on their own which page to index and which page to not index. The one tip I will focus on in this Wordpress tip is using the “more tag” when you write and publish a post.

When you place the more tag in a post, lets say after the first 3 sentences, it will cut off the rest of the post on the front page or the post home page and insert a “read more” link at the spot you inserted the more tag. Its like a short teaser. Your readers can click on the read more link and go to the post page to see and read all of your post. This will reduce Google from seeing the same content on the post home page and the post page, in this case the same exact post word for word.

There are two ways to add the more tag when writing your post. If you are in the visual edit mode when writing a post, put your cursor where you want to insert the tag and click on the more tag button (see picture below).

If you use the HTML mode click on the more button or type in the tag < !–more– >.

I would suggest to modify or enhance your “read more” text that actually prints out on the post home page to something that supports your sites keyword strategy instead of just “read more”.

Are There Other Ways To Reduce Duplicate Content On My Word Press Site?

Yes there are many other ways to reduce duplicate content. Using the excerpt function of Wordpress is somewhat similar to the more tag depending upon your theme template.  Installing All in One SEO Pack plug-in is another way of reducing duplicate content. And you can use robots.txt to stop Google from indexing certain pages or URL’s. And search engines now recognizes the use of canonical tags

Here is a link to other search engine optimization (SEO Tips) suggestions for Wordpress.