As we’ve discussed in other posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and displays your most recent posts on the front page, unless you set a specific page as your home page.
In a separate article, we’ve also explained how to create a blog page to show your most recent blog posts.
Whether you choose to have your most recently published post entries appear on your front page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of posts to appear on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’12’ etc.)
Your WP site will then display posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have set, even if your WordPress website contains more blog posts than the number set to display …
Having the ability to specify the number of blog posts display on your site has a number of uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the latest single post item you have published. This is handy for example, if you want to send your readers to a different time-sensitive offer each month, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post an upcoming event, set up a weekly social page for updates and announcements, etc.
You can also use this great feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts to display on your blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to change the number of posts you want to display on your blog.
How To Set The Number Of Blog Post Entries Displayed On Your Blog Page
WordPress allows you to specify how many published blog post entries you want to show on the blog page of your website.
How many entries you would like to display is completely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the content loads on your site. You can always increase or decrease the amount of posts displayed.
To specify how many blog posts you would like to have showing on your blog page site, go to your WordPress dashboard menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure the options in the Reading Settings section as per the screenshot below:
Editing The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Main Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page displays your most recent blog posts, then edit your settings as described below:
- Front page displays: Set this to Your latest posts
- Blog pages show at most: X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of blog post entries that you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Editing The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the front page shows a fixed page and your newest posts display on a separate blog page, then set your options as described below:
- Front page displays: Set this to A static page, then select Posts page: > your Blog Page from the drop down menu
- Blog pages show at most: X posts X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of blog posts you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see blog post entries showing either on your home page or blog page, up to the maximum number of posts you have specified …
To learn how to change the length of your post excerpts, see the tutorial below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to set the amount of blog post entries you want to have displaying on your WP website’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
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