As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your most recent post entries on the front page, unless you specify a page as your front page.
In a previous tutorial, we also explain how to create a blog page to display your latest blog posts.
Regardless of your choice to make your most recent published articles on your front page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of published post entries to appear on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’5’, ’15’ etc.)
Your site will then display your blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your WP site contains more posts than the number of items set to display …
Being able to specify the number of blog post items can display on your blog page can be useful.
For example, you can display only the most recent entry you have published. This can be useful, if, for example, you are promoting a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, set up a weekly office page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason may be, WordPress gives you the flexibility to set the number of posts to display on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to specify the number of posts you want to show on your blog page.
How To Set The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog
WordPress lets you choose how many published blog post entries you would like to have showing on the blog page of your web site.
How many entries you want to display is completely up to you. there is no limit to this amount …
Note: Choose a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the content loads on your site. You can always raise or lower the amount of posts displayed.
To specify how many published blog posts you would like to display on your blog page website, go to your WordPress admin menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings page as per the screenshot below:
How To Edit The Number Of Posts On The Home Page
If you are using your WP site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page shows your latest post entries, then edit your settings as shown 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 items you want displayed – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished…
How To Modify The Number Of Posts Showing On The Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the main page is a fixed page and your newest blog posts show up on a separate blog page, then set your options as shown 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 items you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see your most recently published articles showing either on your front page or blog page, as per the settings you have specified …
To learn how to change the length of your post excerpts, see the tutorial below:
Congratulations! Now you know how to change the amount of blog posts you want to display on your WordPress site’s blog page.
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