Give “Read More” precedence over excerpt() word count
Here’s the hacky way I figured it out: if ( preg_match( ‘/<!–more–>/’, $post->post_content ) ) { $content = apply_filters( ‘the_content’, get_the_content( ” ) ); echo ( $content ); } else { the_excerpt(); } (Note that I have a separate “Read More” link after this snippet; if you’re wanting to use The Content’s default Read More … Read more