How to Display Blog Post Excerpts on Shopify: A Step-by-Step Guide

Blogging on Shopify can be a fantastic way to engage with your audience, share valuable insights, and improve your store's SEO. But if your blog posts are lengthy, displaying the entire content on your homepage or blog list can overwhelm visitors. This is where displaying blog post excerpts comes in handy. A well-crafted excerpt can entice readers to click through and read more, improving engagement and keeping your site looking tidy and professional.

In this guide, I'll walk you through the process of displaying blog post excerpts on your Shopify store. We'll cover everything from understanding the benefits of excerpts, setting them up in Shopify, to customizing them to fit your brand. By the end of this, you'll have a sleek and organized blog that invites readers to explore further.

Understanding Blog Post Excerpts

So, what exactly is a blog post excerpt? Think of it as a teaser or a summary of your full blog post. It's a snippet that gives your readers a glimpse of what's inside without overwhelming them with too much information right off the bat. Typically, an excerpt includes the first few sentences or a summary of the post content.

Excerpts serve several purposes:

• Improved Readability: They make your blog page more scannable, allowing readers to quickly find what interests them.
• Increased Engagement: By piquing curiosity, they encourage readers to click through to the full post.
• SEO Benefits: Search engines love structured content, and excerpts can help organize your blog better.

Now that we know what excerpts are and why they're beneficial, let's move on to setting them up in Shopify.

Setting Up Excerpts in Shopify

Shopify doesn't automatically display excerpts, but you can configure them with some tweaks. Here's how you can set them up:

Editing Your Theme

First, you'll need to edit your current theme's code. Don't worry if you're not a coding expert; this process is straightforward. Follow these steps:

1. Log into your Shopify admin panel.
2. Go to Online Store > Themes.
3. Next to your current theme, click Actions > Edit code.
4. In the sidebar, locate and open the blog.liquid file under Sections or Templates.
5. Find the line that displays blog content. It usually contains {{ article.content }}.
6. Replace it with {{ article.excerpt }} to use Shopify's built-in excerpt functionality.
7. Save your changes and preview your store to ensure excerpts are displaying correctly.

With these changes, your blog should now be showing excerpts instead of the full post content.

Creating Custom Excerpts

Shopify provides an automatic excerpt by default, which usually takes the first few sentences of your post. However, for more control and creativity, you might want to write custom excerpts.

Steps to Create Custom Excerpts

To create custom excerpts, follow these steps:

1. While editing your blog post, scroll down to the bottom of the edit page.
2. You'll find a section labeled Excerpt or Summary.
3. Write a compelling excerpt that summarizes the key points of your post.
4. Use engaging language and include a call-to-action if appropriate, like "Read more to discover...".
5. Save your changes and check how it looks on your blog page.

Creating custom excerpts allows you to tailor your blog's appearance and engage readers more effectively.

Optimizing Excerpts for SEO

While excerpts primarily serve to improve user experience, they also provide an opportunity to boost your blog's SEO. Here are some tips to optimize your excerpts:

• Include Keywords: Use relevant keywords naturally within your excerpt to help search engines understand the context of your content.
• Keep It Concise: Aim for around 50-100 words. This length is enough to provide value without overwhelming readers.
• Engage with Action Words: Use verbs that encourage action, like "discover," "learn," or "explore."

By optimizing your excerpts, you can improve both click-through rates and search engine visibility.

Styling Your Excerpts

Once you've set up excerpts, you might want to style them to match your brand's look and feel. Shopify lets you customize your theme's CSS to achieve this.

Customizing Excerpt Appearance

Here's how you can style your excerpts:

1. In the Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes.
2. Click Actions > Edit code for your current theme.
3. Locate the theme.scss.liquid or styles.css.liquid file under Assets.
4. Add custom CSS to style your excerpts. For example:


.excerpt {
font-size: 16px;
color: #333;
line-height: 1.6;
}


With custom styling, you can ensure your excerpts fit seamlessly into your overall store design.

Testing and Troubleshooting

After setting up and customizing your excerpts, it's vital to test and make sure everything looks and works as intended. Here are some common issues you might encounter and how to resolve them:

• Excerpts Not Displaying: Double-check that you've replaced {{ article.content }} with {{ article.excerpt }} in your theme files.
• Styles Not Applying: Ensure your CSS selectors match the HTML elements correctly. Use browser developer tools to inspect and adjust as needed.
• Excerpts Too Long or Short: Adjust the length in your Shopify settings or refine your custom excerpts to suit your needs.

Regular testing and troubleshooting will help maintain a smooth and appealing blog experience for your readers.

Enhancing User Engagement with Excerpts

Excerpts are not just a way to tidy up your blog page; they can significantly boost user engagement. Here are some strategies to make the most out of them:

• Use Strong Headlines: Pair your excerpts with compelling headlines to grab attention.
• Include a Call-to-Action: Encourage readers to click through with phrases like "Read more" or "Find out how."
• Experiment and Iterate: Try different excerpt styles and lengths to see what resonates most with your audience.

By focusing on engagement, you can transform casual blog visitors into loyal readers and potential customers.

Customizing Excerpts for Mobile

With a significant number of users browsing on mobile devices, it's crucial to ensure your excerpts look good on smaller screens. Here's how you can optimize for mobile:

Responsive Design Techniques

Utilize responsive design techniques by adding media queries to your CSS. For example:


@media (max-width: 600px) {
.excerpt {
font-size: 14px;
}
}


This snippet reduces the font size for devices with a width of 600px or less, ensuring readability on mobile screens.

Test your changes on various devices to confirm that your excerpts look great everywhere.

Utilizing Apps for Enhanced Excerpt Features

If you're looking for more advanced features than what's available out of the box, Shopify's App Store offers several apps that can enhance your blog excerpts. Here are a few options:

• BlogFeeder: Automatically imports content from other platforms and formats it with customizable excerpts.
• Blog Studio: Provides drag-and-drop functionality to design your blog layout, including excerpt customization.
• PageFly: A versatile page builder that can help you create unique blog layouts with excerpt features.

These apps can add more functionality and flexibility to your Shopify blog, making it even easier to manage and display excerpts.

Final Thoughts

We’ve covered a lot of ground here, from understanding what blog post excerpts are and why they’re useful, to setting them up, customizing, and optimizing for SEO. By applying these steps, you’ll be able to keep your Shopify blog organized and engaging, encouraging readers to explore your content further.

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