There are several common ways to show only an excerpt, or only the title, for posts on a WordPress homepage. Which one you should use depends on how much control you need and whether you want to edit the theme.
Table of Contents
1. Use the More Tag
The simplest solution is to insert WordPress’s more tag at the point where the homepage should stop showing the full post:
<!--more-->When a theme uses the_content() on archive or homepage templates, WordPress will show only the content before this tag and add a link to continue reading the full post.
This method is useful when you want to decide the break point manually for each article.
2. Set the Excerpt Manually
WordPress also has a built-in excerpt field. In the post editor, enable the excerpt box if it is hidden, then write a short summary manually.
A manually written excerpt is usually better than an automatically generated one because it can be concise, readable, and written specifically for the homepage or archive page.
For this to work, the theme must display excerpts with the_excerpt() instead of full content with the_content() in the relevant template, such as index.php, home.php, archive.php, or a template part used by those files.
A typical theme loop might use:
<?php the_excerpt(); ?>instead of:
<?php the_content(); ?>3. Use an Automatic Excerpt
If you do not want to write excerpts manually for every post, an automatic excerpt can be generated from the beginning of the article.
A plugin such as Easy Custom Auto Excerpt can provide this behavior and usually lets you control the excerpt length, read-more text, and where excerpts should appear.
This is a practical option if you do not want to edit theme files, but it adds another plugin dependency. After enabling any excerpt plugin, check the homepage, category pages, tag pages, and search results to make sure the output is consistent.
4. Show Only Titles on the Homepage
If the goal is to show only post titles, edit the theme loop so that it prints the title and removes the content or excerpt output.
A minimal loop item might look like this:
<article id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
<h2 class="entry-title">
<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>">
<?php the_title(); ?>
</a>
</h2>
</article>Before changing a theme directly, it is better to use a child theme. Otherwise, theme updates may overwrite the change.
Quick Check
After making the change, verify these pages:
- Homepage
- Category archive
- Tag archive
- Search results
- Single post page
The single post page should still show the full article, while homepage and archive pages should show only the excerpt or title, depending on the intended design.