As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and displays your latest post entries on the front page, unless you fix a page as your front page.

In a previously published tutorial, we also cover how to create a WordPress blog page to show your most recent blog post entries.
Whether you choose to have posts on your home page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of blog posts to appear on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’6’, ’12’ etc.)
Your site will then display posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your WP website or blog contains more blog posts than the number set to display …

The ability to specify how many posts can display on your web site can be useful.
For example, you can display only the latest single post item you have published. This can be useful, if, for example, you want to promote a different time-sensitive 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 monthly team page for updates and announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu is too long …

Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of posts that will display on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to specify the number of blog post entries you want to show on your site’s blog page.
How To Set The Number Of Post Entries Displayed On Your Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you choose how many published blog post entries you would like to show on the blog page.
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How many posts you would like to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …

Note: Choose a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the entries load on your site. You can always raise or lower the number of posts displayed on your blog page.
To specify the number of published blog posts you would like to display on your site’s blog page web site, select Settings > Reading from your WP admin menu …

Configure your settings in the Reading Settings screen as shown in the screenshot below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Main 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 entries you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done…

How To Modify The Number Of Posts On The Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the home page displays a fixed page and your newest posts display 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 posts that you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …

Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see blog posts showing either on your front page or blog page, as per the settings you have specified …

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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 published blog posts you want to display on the blog page of your web site.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group