Page Excerpts in Search Results

[jhoysradt]

Hi there,
From reading other posts I know that by default in Wordpress, pages don’t show text excerpts in search results the way that posts do. However, I’m noticing on my site that some pages do, in fact, show a 60 word excerpt in search results and some don’t. I can’t account for this as I know I haven’t done any custom coding or settings on these pages.

For example, when searching by one of our brand names https://solutions.nextcomputing.com/?s=nextserver

Pages on the first page of results have an excerpt (NextServer-X and NextStation-TR are both pages, not posts), but on the second page of results, pages like “NextStation-X” do not. All of our pages use the same template, same settings, etc.

I know how to enable manual excerpts, but it would be much more convenient if each page could create its own excerpt from the first 60 words (like the NextServer-X does in this example). Can anyone account for why some pages work and some don’t, or if there is some way to force every page to create its own excerpt from the first 60 words?

Thanks,

[tristup]

Hi @jhoysradt,

Thanks for writing to us.

After we examined your website we assumed that the NextStation-X is not showing any excerpt content whereas others are showing.
If that is the case, NextStation-X is a product and may not have the product short description added.
Please add the Product Short Description by editing the product.

And visit the URL again to check whether it showing the data or not.
If you still find the same issue, please provide the details of your site in a secure note, including:
Remember that excerpt is a WordPress limitation, which only applicable for the post by default.

– Link to your site
– WordPress Admin username / password

To create a secure note, click the key icon underneath any of your posts.

Hope it helps.

[jhoysradt]

Hello Tristup,
In the example I provided, the NextStation-X isn’t a product, it’s a page, so there is no place place to add a short description. I have followed other instructions to enable a place to write a manual excerpt, but it would be much easier if Wordpress would automatically generate an excerpt from the the first 50 characters of the page like it has for the NextServer page (seen at the beginning of the search results).

I assume that can be done because it already has done it for the NextServer page. Thanks,

[ruenel]

Hello @jhoysradt,

Thanks for the clarifications. It’s Wordpress standard, and it’s not theme related. Pages are usually used as the landing page, where the post is for blog articles and that’s what separates them. And the theme will adhere to the default standard provided by Wordpress.

It still doable, but again, would require customization. Example,

https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/add-excerpts-to-your-pages-in-wordpress/ (for adding excerpt support for Pages).
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-add-featured-image-or-post-thumbnails-in-wordpress/ ( for adding featured image support for Pages)

Wordpress made it that way, else, there should be no pages as they will have the same features.

Thanks.