As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your most recent post entries on the home page, unless you set a specific page as the front page.
In a previously published tutorial, we’ve also addressed how to create a WordPress blog page to display your latest published content.
Whether you choose to make present posts on your main page or your blog page, you can specify the number of items to appear on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’4’, ’12’ etc.)
Your website will then display your most recent published articles on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have set, even if your web site contains more posts than the number of posts set to display …
Having the ability to set how many post items can display on your blog page has a number of practical applications.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the latest entry that you have published. This is useful for example, if you want to promote a different limited-time offer each month, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, set up a monthly office page for updates and announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this great feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason, 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 set how many posts you want to show up on your site’s blog page.
Changing The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you choose how many posts you would like displayed on your website’s blog page.
How many posts you would like displayed is entirely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Select 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 items displayed.
To set how many posts you want displayed on the blog page site, select Settings > Reading from the WP dashboard menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings screen as per the screenshot below:
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Main Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the front page shows your latest posts, 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 posts you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when done…
How To Modify The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the main page displays a fixed page and your newest published post items display on a separate blog page, then edit your settings 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 you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see your most recently published content displayed either on your main page or blog page, up to the maximum number of posts 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 published posts you would like to display on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are a WordPress newbie, you may also find the following posts useful:
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com