As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your most recent blog posts on the main page, unless you set a specific page as your main page.
In a separate post, we’ve also shown you how to create a blog page to display your most recent blog posts.
Whether you choose to have blog post entries on your front page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of items to appear on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’4’, ’15’ etc.)
Your WordPress website will then display blog post entries on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your WordPress site contains more posts than the number of items set to display …
Having the ability to specify how many entries can display on your site is useful.
For example, you can display only the latest blog post you have published. This can be useful for example, if you are promoting a different time-sensitive offer each month, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, set up a monthly corporate 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, With WordPress you have the flexibility to change the number of blog posts that you want to display on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to set the number of blog posts to show up on your blog page.
Setting The Number Of Posts To Display On Your WordPress Blog
WordPress allows you to choose how many posts you want listed on your blog page.
The number of blog posts you want to display 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 specify the number of published blog post entries you want displayed on the blog page of your WP site, click on Settings > Reading from your WP dashboard menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as shown below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Main Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the main page displays your newest post entries, then set your options 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 entries that you want displayed – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished to update your settings…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the front page is a fixed page and your latest post entries 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 blog post items you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when done …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see blog post entries showing either on your front 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 blog post entries you want to have displaying on the blog page of your WP website.
Related Posts
If you are a new WordPress user, you may also find the following related posts useful:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)