Description
SEO Read More Buttons plugin by AyudaWP.com automatically converts all «read more» links on your blog and archive pages into button elements, providing significant SEO benefits while maintaining excellent usability and accessibility.
Why Use Buttons Instead of Links?
Traditional «read more» links create several SEO problems:
* Duplicate links – Each post has two identical links (title + read more) pointing to the same URL
* Wasted crawl budget – Search engines waste time crawling redundant links
* Poor link juice distribution – Link equity gets diluted across duplicate URLs
* Repetitive anchor text – «Read more» appears hundreds of times across your site
By converting these links to buttons, you eliminate these issues while keeping the user experience intact.
Key Features
- Universal theme compatibility – Works with Astra, OceanWP, Kadence, Blocksy, Twenty themes, Elementor, Divi, and more
- Inherits theme styles – Buttons automatically match your theme’s read more link styling
- SEO optimized – Reduces crawl budget waste and improves link juice distribution
- Advanced accessibility – Full WCAG compliance with customizable ARIA labels and keyboard navigation
- Granular control – Configure which post types and pages should use buttons
- Customizable – Configure button text and behavior through admin settings
- Lightweight – Minimal performance impact with efficient JavaScript
- Translation ready – Full internationalization support
SEO Control Features
- Post type selection – Choose which post types (posts, products, custom types) should have buttons
- Page type control – Enable on blog homepage, category archives, tag archives, search results, etc.
- Minimum posts threshold – Only apply when pages have sufficient posts
- Smart detection – Automatically detects WooCommerce products and other custom post types
Accessibility Features
- Custom ARIA labels – Personalize screen reader announcements
- Enhanced keyboard navigation – Full Enter and Space key support
- Visual focus indicators – Improved keyboard navigation visibility
- Screen reader support – Additional context text for assistive technologies
- WCAG compliance – Meets accessibility standards out of the box
Supported Themes
This plugin has been extensively tested with:
* Astra and Astra Pro
* OceanWP and OceanWP Pro
* Kadence and Kadence Pro
* Blocksy and Blocksy Pro
* Twenty Twenty-Five, Twenty Twenty-Four, and other Twenty themes
* Hello Elementor and Elementor Pro
* StoreFront and WooCommerce themes
* Divi and Extra by Elegant Themes
* Most Gutenberg Full Site Editing (FSE) themes
* Standard WordPress themes following coding standards
How It Works
- Detects existing read more links using comprehensive selectors
- Captures styling information from your theme’s read more links
- Removes the original read more links to eliminate SEO issues
- Creates properly styled and accessible button elements in their place
- Maintains functionality – buttons still navigate to the full post
The process is completely automatic and requires no theme modifications.
Performance
- Lightweight JavaScript (less than 3KB)
- Only loads on archive/blog pages (not single posts)
- No external dependencies
- Minimal DOM manipulation
- Efficient caching and optimization
Customization
While the plugin automatically inherits your theme’s styles, you can add custom CSS through the WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS) if you want to further customize the button appearance. The plugin settings page includes helpful CSS examples to get you started.
Technical Details
Supported Post Types
- Posts
- Pages (when displayed in archives)
- WooCommerce products
- Custom post types
- Works on any archive page displaying multiple posts
Accessibility Compliance
- WCAG 2.1 AA compliant
- Proper ARIA labeling
- Keyboard navigation support
- Screen reader compatibility
- Focus management
- Semantic HTML structure
SEO Benefits
- Eliminates duplicate internal links
- Improves crawl budget efficiency
- Reduces link juice dilution
- Maintains user experience
- No impact on single post pages
Customization
- Inherits theme styles automatically
- Optional custom CSS via WordPress Customizer
- Configurable button text
- Selective post type and page type activation
- Comprehensive accessibility options
Minimum Requirements
- WordPress 5.0 or higher
- PHP 7.4 or higher
- Modern browser with JavaScript enabled
Support
Need help or have suggestions?
Love the plugin? Please leave us a 5-star review and help spread the word!
About AyudaWP
We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.
Screenshots
Plugin settings page with SEO behavior and accessibility options 
Before: Traditional read more links creating duplicate URLs 
After: Clean buttons that don’t create SEO issues 
Admin settings showing theme compatibility and custom CSS examples
Installation
- Upload the plugin files to
/wp-content/plugins/seo-read-more-buttons-ayudawp/or install through WordPress admin - Activate the plugin through the ‚Plugins‘ screen in WordPress
- Go to Settings > Read More Buttons to configure options
- The plugin works automatically – visit your blog page to see buttons in action
FAQ
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Does this work with my theme?
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The plugin is designed to work with most WordPress themes, especially those following WordPress coding standards. It has been specifically tested with the most popular themes including Astra, OceanWP, Kadence, Blocksy, Twenty themes, Elementor, and Divi.
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My theme is not compatible, is there a solution?
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If the plugin doesn’t work correctly with your theme, we’d be happy to add compatibility! Please open a support thread in the WordPress.org plugin forum and provide:
- Your theme name and version
- Where you downloaded the theme from (WordPress.org, theme author’s website, ThemeForest, etc.)
- A link to your site where we can see the issue
- Any relevant details about how your theme displays read more links
We regularly update the plugin to add compatibility with popular themes. Most requests are implemented within 1-2 weeks depending on complexity.
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Will this break my site design?
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No. The plugin captures styling information from your existing read more links and applies it to the new buttons, ensuring visual consistency.
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Does this affect single post pages?
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No. The plugin only works on archive pages, category pages, and the blog homepage where multiple posts are displayed. Single post pages are unaffected.
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Yes. You can:
* Change the button text in settings
* Toggle theme style inheritance on/off
* Add custom CSS through the WordPress Customizer (Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS)
* Configure which post types and pages use buttonsThe plugin settings page includes helpful CSS examples you can use as a starting point for customization.
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How do I configure accessibility settings?
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The plugin includes comprehensive accessibility options:
* Customize ARIA labels for screen readers
* Enable/disable enhanced keyboard navigation
* Configure visual focus indicators
* Add additional context text for assistive technologiesAll settings are available in Settings > Read More Buttons under the Accessibility section.
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Is this good for SEO?
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Absolutely. This plugin addresses a common SEO issue where duplicate «read more» links waste crawl budget and dilute link juice. By converting links to buttons, you eliminate these problems while maintaining usability.
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Does it work with WooCommerce?
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Yes. The plugin automatically detects WooCommerce products and other custom post types. You can enable or disable buttons for products specifically in the post type settings.
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Does it work with page builders?
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Yes. The plugin works with Elementor, Divi, and other popular page builders, as well as Gutenberg block themes.
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Is it compatible with caching plugins?
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Yes. The plugin uses client-side JavaScript that runs after page load, making it fully compatible with all caching plugins including WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, and WP Super Cache.
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Can I exclude specific pages or post types?
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Yes. The plugin includes granular controls to:
* Select which post types should have buttons (posts, products, custom types)
* Choose which page types to apply buttons on (blog, categories, tags, archives, search)
* Set minimum post thresholds for activation -
What if my theme updates?
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The plugin automatically adapts to theme changes by capturing current styling information each time the page loads.
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Is it accessible for users with disabilities?
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Yes. The plugin is built with accessibility in mind and includes:
* Proper ARIA labels for screen readers
* Full keyboard navigation support
* Visual focus indicators
* Additional context for assistive technologies
* WCAG compliance features -
Why can’t I uncheck all post types or page types?
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The plugin requires at least one post type and one page type to be selected in order to function. If you don’t want the plugin to work on any pages, you should deactivate it instead. This validation ensures the plugin settings remain meaningful and prevents accidental misconfiguration.
Reviews
Contributors & Developers
“SEO Read More Buttons” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
“SEO Read More Buttons” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate “SEO Read More Buttons” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.1
- Fixed: Minor typo changes
1.0.1
- Fixed: Settings validation now correctly prevents saving empty post type or page type selections
- Fixed: Admin notices no longer display duplicate messages
- Improved: Settings page now shows single, clear validation messages
- Improved: Better user feedback when attempting to save invalid configurations
1.0.0
- Initial release
- Universal theme compatibility system
- Style inheritance from theme read more links
- Comprehensive admin settings panel
- SEO behavior controls (post types, pages, minimum posts)
- Full accessibility features suite
- Support for major themes: Astra, OceanWP, Kadence, Blocksy, Twenty themes, Elementor, Divi
- WooCommerce product support
- Gutenberg FSE theme support
- Enhanced keyboard navigation
- Customizable ARIA labels
- Visual focus indicators
- Screen reader support
- Translation ready with text domain