As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and displays your newest post entries on the main page, unless you set a specific page as the main page.
In another article, we also discussed how to create a WordPress blog page to show your latest published posts.
Whether you choose to have your blog posts on your main page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of posts to show up on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’6’, ’10’ etc.)
Your WordPress website will then display recently published content on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog posts you have specified, even if your WP website contains more posts than the number set to display …
Having the ability to specify how many blog posts will display on your blog page can be very useful.
For example, you can display only the latest single blog post item that you have published. This is useful for example, if you are promoting a weekly special, 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 community page for updates and announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an empty space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to change the number of posts to show on main blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to specify the number of blog post entries to display on your WordPress blog.
Changing The Number Of Blog Post Entries To Display On Your Blog
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you choose how many published posts you would like to have displaying on the blog page.
How many blog posts you want to display is completely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Choose 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 on your blog page.
To set how many blog posts you want to have showing on the blog page of your web site, go to the WordPress admin menu and click on Settings > Reading …
Configure the options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page shows your newest post entries, then set your options 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 items that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done to update your settings…
Specifying The Number Of Posts On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the main page displays a fixed page and your latest published blog entries show up 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 post items you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors come to your website, 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 published posts you would like to have showing on the blog page.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following related posts useful:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now