As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your most recent post entries on the front page, unless you set a fixed page as your home page.
In a previous post, we also cover how to create a WordPress blog page to show your latest published posts.
Regardless of your choice to have blog post entries on your main page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of published blog post entries to show up on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’7’, ’12’ etc.)
Your WP website will then display posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your web site contains more blog posts than the number set to display …
Having the ability to set how many blog posts display on your WordPress site has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent blog post item you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you want to send your readers to 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 weekly office page for updates and announcements, etc.
You can also 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 set the number of posts that you want to display on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily specify the number of blog posts to show up on your blog.
Changing The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog
WordPress allows you to specify how many published blog posts you want listed on your blog page.
The number of blog posts you would like displayed is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
Note: We recommend that you select 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 items displayed.
To set the number of posts you would like to show on your blog page site, select Settings > Reading from your WordPress admin menu …
Configure the options in the Reading Settings section as shown below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts Showing On The Front Page
If you are using your WP site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the front page shows 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 you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts On Your Blog Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the main page displays a fixed page and your most recent post entries show up on a separate blog page, then edit your settings 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 display – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see your most recently published post entries showing either on your main 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 set the amount of blog posts you would like to show on the blog page of your web site.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
- How To Make The WordPress Page You Want Be The Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Posts
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