Show summary or full RSS feed for wordpress blog

RSS feed is a great way to read new updates from your favorite blog(s). Few blogs shows full article content including images and complete text in their RSS feed. While few blogs prefer to show only teaser post content displaying article title and excerpts which inlude first few words of the article.

Switch between Full & Summary RSS Feed

You can easily switch between full or summary RSS feed for your WordPress blog. This can be changed from “Reading Settings” page in your WordPress blog’s dashboard.

In WordPress dashboard, goto Setting > Reading, then click to check either “full text” or “Summary” option next to “For each article in a feed, show”. Make sure you click “Save Changes” button for settings to take effect.

Which RSS option should I choose

This decision depends on type of blog, how you intend to make money, what type of server you use. Full RSS will allow readers to view full article within RSS Feed reader, hence they will not come to your actual webpage and interact with advertisements from where you intend to earn. It can put strain on server serving full page articles laden with images in RSS Feed. It makes task of scrappers easier to quickly copy your whole blog content through full RSS Feed.

Summary RSS Feed may be turn off for users wanting to read whole article within RSS feed reader, so few users may unsubscribe your RSS feed. However, summary RSS feed has advantage as it prevents RSS feed scrappers (to some extent) from quickly copying your content. It also sends visitor to your actual blog webpage allowing them to interact with ads (hopefully make money). Personally, summary RSS Feed seems better option – though others may think differently.