As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your newest blog posts on the main page, unless you specify a page as your front page.
In a previous tutorial, we’ve also covered how to create a blog page to show your latest published articles.
Regardless of your choice to make blog post entries on your home page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of published posts to show up on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’5’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your site will then display blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your WordPress website contains more blog posts than the number of posts you have set to display …
The ability to specify the number of post items display on your web site can be very useful.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the latest entry that you have published. This can be useful for example, if you are promoting a different limited-time offer each week, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post upcoming events, set up a quarterly office page for 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, WordPress gives you 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 set the number of blog post entries to show up on your blog page.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Post Entries To Display On Your Blog Page
WordPress lets you specify how many published blog post entries you would like listed on the blog page.
The number of posts you would like to display is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
Note: We suggest selecting a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of posts displayed on your blog page.
To set how many published blog post entries you would like displayed on the blog page website, go to your WP dashboard menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings page as shown below:
How To Modify The Number Of Posts On The Front Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page displays your newest published items, then edit your settings 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 post items that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the main page is a fixed page and your most recent 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 items that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see your most recently published articles 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 amount of posts you would like to have displaying on the blog page of your WP website.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
- How To Make A WordPress Page Your Static Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your WordPress Posts
***
"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org