This archived community thread from the APG vNext support forum discusses: Display Blog Post Excerpts on Blog Listing Page.
About This Topic
APG vNext has the ability to show only excerpts on the blog listing page (~/Blog). To show only excerpts instead of full blog posts on the listing, you need...
Getting Help with APG vNext
APG vNext is a powerful ASP.NET forum and community platform. For questions related to this topic:
- Browse the Knowledge Base for documented solutions
- Search the community forum for similar threads
- Check the FAQ for common questions and answers
- Review the Installation and Upgrade guides
If you need direct assistance, the support team is active in the community forum.
Displaying Blog Post Excerpts on the APG vNext Blog Listing Page
By default the APG vNext blog listing shows the full content of each post, which makes the page extremely long and slow to load. Switching to excerpt mode shows only the first N words of each post with a "Read More" link. This is better for SEO (avoids duplicate content across paginated blog pages), better for performance, and better for UX (members can scan multiple posts quickly).
Enabling Excerpt Mode
<!-- web.config -->
<add key="APG.Blog.ListingMode" value="Excerpt" />
<!-- Options: Full | Excerpt | Title -->
<add key="APG.Blog.ExcerptWords" value="80" />
<add key="APG.Blog.ExcerptReadMore" value="Continue reading..." />Manual Excerpt Delimiter
Blog authors can mark exactly where the excerpt ends by inserting a "read more" marker in the post editor. Everything before the marker appears in the listing; the full post is only shown on the individual post page:
<!-- In the blog post HTML: -->
<p>First paragraph that appears in the listing...</p>
<!-- apg:more -->
<p>Rest of post - only shown on the full post page.</p>Excerpt Styling
.apg-blog-excerpt {
color: var(--apg-color-text);
line-height: 1.6;
margin: .75rem 0;
}
.apg-blog-read-more {
display: inline-block;
color: var(--apg-color-primary);
font-weight: 600;
margin-top: .5rem;
}
.apg-blog-read-more:hover { text-decoration: underline; }Pagination Performance
<add key="APG.Blog.ListingPageSize" value="10" />
<!-- With excerpt mode, 10 posts per page loads in under 1 second -->SEO Benefits of Blog Excerpts
Full-content blog listing pages contain the same text as the individual post pages, creating duplicate content that can negatively affect SEO. Search engines often struggle to determine which URL to rank when the same content exists at multiple URLs — the listing page and the individual post page. Excerpt mode solves this by ensuring the listing page contains only a short preview of each post, while the full unique content lives exclusively on the individual post URL. This clearly signals to search engines which page to index and rank for each piece of content.
Additionally, excerpt mode allows the blog listing page to include more posts per page without becoming an excessively long page. A listing page with 10 excerpts of 80 words each (800 words total) loads much faster than a listing page with 10 full posts averaging 600 words each (6,000 words), and provides a better user experience by allowing members to quickly scan headlines and summaries to find content worth reading in full.
Structured Data for Blog Excerpts
When using excerpt mode, APG vNext generates schema.org BlogPosting structured data for each post on the listing page, using the excerpt as the description property. This enables rich snippets in search results — Google may display the excerpt text beneath the post title in search results, increasing click-through rate:
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "BlogPosting",
"headline": "How to Configure Email Notifications in APG vNext",
"description": "APG vNext supports configurable email notifications for replies, mentions...",
"url": "https://yourforum.com/community/blog/email-notifications-m12345.aspx",
"datePublished": "2026-02-15",
"author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Forum Admin" }
}
</script>Custom Excerpt Templates
Beyond the automated word-count excerpt, you can define a custom excerpt for each blog post in the post editor. A custom excerpt allows the blog author to write a compelling teaser that is better suited for the listing page than an auto-generated word-count truncation, which may cut off mid-sentence. Enable custom excerpts in Admin Panel → Blog → Enable Custom Excerpts. Authors then see an "Excerpt" text field below the main post editor when composing or editing blog posts.
Blog Listing UX Design Considerations
When switching from full content to excerpt mode on the APG vNext blog listing page, take the opportunity to review the overall layout of the listing. The excerpt card design should clearly communicate the key information a reader needs to decide whether to click through: the post title (always H2 for SEO and accessibility), the author name and publish date, the excerpt text, the category or tag if applicable, and a clearly labelled read more button. Avoid designs where the entire card is clickable with no visible link — this pattern is accessible only to users who understand that clicking anywhere on the card navigates to the post, which is not obvious to all users.
A well-designed blog listing page with excerpts significantly outperforms a full-content listing page on both desktop and mobile. Users spend more time per session on excerpt-mode listing pages because the scannable format invites browsing across multiple posts rather than committing to reading a single full post immediately on arrival. This deeper engagement is a positive signal to search engines and improves the forum's overall session metrics.
Related Resources
Looking for more help? Browse the support forum or check the Knowledge Base.