As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest posts on the home page, unless you fix a page as a home page.
In a previous post, we also explain how to create a WordPress blog page to show your latest published entries.
Regardless of your choice to have blog posts on your main page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of items to show up on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’15’ etc.)
Your WP website will then display posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your site contains more blog posts than the number of items you have set to display …
The ability to specify the number of blog posts display on your site has a number of practical applications.
For example, you can display only the latest entry that you have published. This is useful, if, for example, you are promoting a different expiring offer each week, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a weekly community page for announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, With WordPress you have the flexibility to set the number of posts that you want to display on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to specify how many blog posts to show on your WordPress blog.
Specifying The Number Of Post Entries Displayed On Your WordPress Blog
WordPress allows you to specify how many blog post entries you would like to have displaying on the blog page of your website.
How many blog posts you would like to display is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Select a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the content loads on your site. You can always increase or decrease the amount of items displayed on your blog page.
To specify how many blog posts you would like to have showing on the blog page site, go to the WP dashboard menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as shown in the screenshot below:
How To Edit The Number Of Posts On Your Main Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the main page displays your newest post entries, then set your options 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 entries that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when finished…
How To Specify The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the main page shows a fixed page and your latest 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 blog post entries that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see posts displayed 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 number of blog posts you would like to have displaying on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
- How To Create A Static Home Page In WordPress
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Posts In WordPress
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)