As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your most recent published content on the front page, unless you specify a page as the main page.
In a separate article, we also discuss how to create a blog page to show your most recent published posts.
Regardless of your choice to have your most recent published articles on your home page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of published post entries to show on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’6’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your WordPress website will then display your latest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have set, even if your site contains more blog posts than the number you have set to display …
The ability to set the number of blog posts will display on your blog page has a number of uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent post item that you have published. This is useful, if, for example, you want to send your readers to a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post an upcoming event, set up a monthly community page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to set the number of posts that you want to show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to set the number of blog posts to display on your blog page.
How To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog
WordPress lets you specify how many blog post entries you want to display on your site’s blog page.
How many posts you would like displayed is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the content loads on your site. You can always raise or lower the number of items displayed.
To specify how many published blog posts you want to display on the blog page of your website, choose Settings > Reading from the WP navigation menu …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings page as per the screenshot below:
How To Modify The Number Of Posts On The Home Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the main page shows your most recent 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 blog posts you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done…
Editing The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the home page shows a fixed page and your most recent post entries 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 blog posts that you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see blog post entries displayed 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 would like to have displaying on the blog page of your website.
Related Posts
If you are a WordPress newbie, you may also find the following related posts useful:
- How To Make A WordPress Page Your Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Blog Posts
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