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Dave Charest

Speaker | Host | Content Creator | Marketer

RSS: Excerpts Or Complete Posts?

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If you’ve set up an RSS feed for your blog, you’re probably wondering how to display posts: as an excerpt or complete post?

Which is better?

As with much of this new media stuff it depends on what your goals are and how your audience responds.

But here are some things to think about as you make your decision.

First, what is RSS?

I’ve heard the acronym described in two ways:

  1. Rich Site Summary
  2. Really Simple Syndication

Each one of these descriptions creates a different perception in my mind. Rich Site Summary sounds like it’s all about the site and only a summary. Whereas, Really Simple Syndication sounds more like it’s about getting information out to your audience simply.

Basically, RSS allows your audience to pull information from a bunch of sources into one central location, like Google Reader.

So if you click on the “Free Blog Updates” link up above you can subscribe to this blogs posts. Go ahead. I’ll wait.  The posts will now be automatically fed to your reader. Your audience can do the same with your posts.

So the question remains, excerpts or complete posts?

Here’s how I look at it: Excerpts are for you, complete posts are for your audience.

An excerpt means someone has to click through, which in the end means more traffic for you. But as a reader I don’t want to have to click through, I just want to read the info. Most times I won’t click through on an excerpt to a blog post, but if I read a post I like I will click through so I can share it. Weird I know but that’s how it goes.

Excerpts also kinda screw up my flow. I’m actually looking for stuff to share. I’m curating information I think my audience will find useful. If I have to click through, it slows me down.

Will you slow your audience down?

Sure, some of the big guys can afford to make people click. But these huge news site are reaching large amounts of people, as an indie artist you most likely have a much smaller audience. I suggest let them get the info without having to click.

But be aware you’re still competing with the other information fill up your audience’s feed reader. It’s extremely important to write headlines that get noticed and create compelling and useful content.

Which do you prefer excerpts or complete posts? If you use one over the other, why? Tell me in the comments.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I campaign actively for full post.
    And it’s not for ads. Go ahead and put ads in your feed, that doesn’t bother me a bit.

    I pull all of my info into one place because I read A LOT (I I have 8500 posts waiting for me). An excerpt (or worse JUST TITLE) has such a ridiculous barrier to click through that I will oftentimes unsubscribe because I’m not touching your feed anyway.

    • Thanks for the comment, Travis.

      I agree on the unsubscribing. I do the same when the titles/headlines of posts are so cryptic I have no idea what the post is about.

      Can you elaborate on what you mean by this though?

      “And it’s not for ads. Go ahead and put ads in your feed, that doesn’t bother me a bit.”

  2. Totally agree Dave and Travis, excerpts make me angry!

    The question to ask is ‘do you want people to read your content or not’. If you do, then it’s full feed all the way. I’m sure people are more likely to share that way.

    And a lot of people read via Twitter and Facebook anyway so they will be clicking direct to your site and boosting your site stats.

    • Hi Milo, thanks for the comment.

      I believe you’ve hit on the right question, “do you want people to read your content or not?”

      I’d rather have people reading, otherwise what’s the point?

  3. I have always thought an excerpt would be a better option because some readers don’t actually read the whole thing unless they’ve got more time. Personally, though, I hate having to click to read more. I think I have just contradicted myself here. 😀

    • Thanks for the comment Anne.

      Yep. I think you did contradict yourself. 🙂

      I’d rather have a full post with sub-heads to break up the text so it’s perceived as quicker and easier to read. But I’m with you, having to click through is frustrating.

  4. I have to weigh in and back up Travis and Milo. In my Google reader, I rarely ever click on excerpts because there’s so much to read and so little time– and what if the post isn’t as good as the title? Including the full post reels me in and makes it easy for me access content, which in turn makes it easier for me to share cool posts with people in my online network. The bottom line? For me, a full post increases the likelihood that I’ll both read the post and pass it along to others. Thanks for this thought-provoking post, Dave!