Implementing Read More Link For Your Blog — an archived discussion from the APG vNext support community.
About This Topic
This thread covers implementing read more link for your blog in the context of APG vNext, the ASP.NET forum and community platform. The community includes APG developers and experienced administrators who can help with similar questions.
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Read More Links in APG vNext Blog Posts
The Read More feature in APG vNext blog posts allows authors to define where the excerpt ends on the listing page, giving readers a meaningful preview that encourages click-through to the full post. This is essential for blog listing pages that aggregate many articles — without excerpt control, either all posts are shown in full (creating an extremely long page) or the excerpt is auto-truncated in mid-sentence, which looks unprofessional and confuses readers about the post's actual topic.
Inserting the Read More Break Manually
In the APG vNext blog post editor, position the cursor at the exact point where you want the excerpt to end — typically after the opening paragraph or after a compelling hook that makes readers want to continue. Click the Insert Read More button in the editor toolbar (scissors icon or horizontal-rule-with-arrows). The editor inserts an <!--more--> HTML comment marker at that position. On the blog listing page, only the content above the marker is shown, followed by the Continue Reading link. On the post detail page, the full content is rendered with the marker invisible to readers.
Best Practices for Writing Excerpts
The content above the Read More break functions as the post's sales pitch — it needs to clearly communicate the topic, establish credibility, and create enough curiosity to motivate a click. Aim for 150-250 words before the break, ending on a complete sentence that implies more value follows. Avoid placing the break in the middle of a list or code block, as the excerpt will show a partial list or broken code that looks unfinished. For technical posts, a strong excerpt typically starts with the problem statement and one key insight, then cuts before the solution — readers who have the problem are motivated to continue for the fix.
Configuring Auto-Excerpt Fallback
For posts created without a manual Read More break, APG vNext falls back to automatic excerpt generation by truncating the content at the configured character limit (default 300 characters, configurable in Admin Panel → Blog Settings → Auto-Excerpt Length). Set the fallback to 200-350 characters to produce a preview of approximately 2-3 lines of body text. The auto-excerpt strips HTML tags before truncating to avoid cutting inside a tag, then re-applies basic inline formatting for clean display. If the automatic excerpt produces poor results for a specific post type (e.g., posts that start with a code block), add a short introductory paragraph before the code block and place the Read More break after it.
Read More and SEO
From an SEO perspective, excerpt pages are distinct from post detail pages. APG vNext ensures the listing page and the post detail page do not create duplicate content issues by assigning each page its own canonical tag. The listing page canonical points to the listing URL, and the post detail page canonical points to the post URL. Google indexes both pages separately — the listing page ranks for broader category queries while the post detail page ranks for the specific post topic queries. Well-written excerpts improve click-through rates from both search results and the listing page, which Google uses as a positive engagement signal in its ranking algorithm.
Related Resources
Tracking Read More Click-Through Rate
Measure the effectiveness of your Read More excerpts by tracking the click-through rate from the blog listing page to each post's detail page. In Google Analytics 4, configure an Event that fires when a Continue Reading link is clicked — use the GA4 Enhanced Measurement for link clicks or add a custom click event listener in the forum theme. Compare the click-through rate across different posts to identify which excerpt styles drive the most engagement. Posts with high impression count but low click-through rate have weak excerpts that fail to communicate value — revise the excerpt to better represent the post's most interesting insight or practical takeaway. Improving excerpt quality is one of the highest-ROI content optimisation activities for blog sections, since better excerpts directly increase pageviews without requiring new post creation.
Excerpt Caching and Cache Invalidation
APG vNext caches rendered blog listing pages for performance. When a blog post is updated and the excerpt content changes, the listing page cache must be invalidated to show the new excerpt. APG vNext automatically invalidates the listing page cache when a post is published or updated through the admin panel. If you edit a post's content directly in the database (for bulk migrations or data imports), manually clear the APG vNext output cache from Admin Panel → System → Cache Management → Clear Blog Cache after the edit to ensure the listing page reflects the updated excerpt content. Failing to clear the cache after a direct database edit is a common cause of cached listing pages showing outdated excerpt content after bulk content operations.
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