As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest published entries on the front page, unless you set a specific page as your front page.
In a previously published tutorial, we have also shown you how to create a blog page to display your latest post.
Whether you choose to have blog posts on your front page or your blog page, With WordPress you can specify the number of blog post entries to appear on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’15’ etc.)
Your site will then display your newest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog posts you have set, even if your WP web site contains more posts than the number you have set to display …
Having the ability to specify how many entries can display on your blog page has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can display only the latest post item that you have published. This can be handy, if, for example, you want to promote a weekly special, a ‘deal of the day’ 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.
Or, you can 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 specify the number of posts that you want to show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily change the number of posts to show up on your blog page.
Specifying The Number Of Posts To Display On Your Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to choose how many published blog post entries you want listed on the blog page of your site.
How many entries you want displayed is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
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 posts displayed.
To set how many published blog post entries you want to display on the blog page of your web site, go to your WordPress admin menu and select Settings > Reading …
Configure your settings in the Reading Settings section as shown below:
How To Modify The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the front page displays your most recent blog posts, then edit your settings 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 showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts On The Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the home page is a fixed page and your latest 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 entries that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see blog post entries showing either on your home 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 number of blog post entries you want to have showing on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are a WordPress newbie, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
- How To Set A Page In WordPress As A Static Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Blog Posts
***
"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