As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest blog posts on the home page, unless you set a fixed page as your home page.
In a separate article, we also discussed how to create a blog page to show your most recent blog posts.
Regardless of your choice to have display your blog posts on your main page or your blog page, you can set a specific number of published posts to appear on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’4’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your WordPress website will then display blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your WordPress web site contains more posts than the number of items set to display …
Having the ability to specify the number of entries display on your blog page can be useful.
For example, you can display only the latest post item that you have published. This can be useful for example, if you want to promote a different limited-time offer each week, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a monthly social page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts that will display on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to specify how many blog posts to show up on your blog page.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Post Entries Displayed On Your WordPress Blog Page
WordPress allows you to specify how many published blog post entries you want to have showing on the blog page of your website.
The number of entries you would like to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
Note: Choose a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the entries load on your site. You can always raise or lower the amount of posts displayed on your blog page.
To set how many published posts you would like listed on the blog page of your WP website, select Settings > Reading from the WordPress admin menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
How To Specify The Number Of Posts On The Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the main page shows your latest post entries, 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 items that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the main 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 blog post items that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see your latest blog posts 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 published blog posts you would like to have displaying on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are a WordPress newbie, you may also find the following posts useful:
- How To Make A WordPress Page Your Static Front Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Blog Posts In WordPress
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group