As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your most recent published entries on the main page, unless you specify a page as your main page.
In a previous article, we’ve also explained how to create a blog page to show your latest blog post entries.
Regardless of your choice to have your blog posts on your front page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of items to show up on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’4’, ’15’ etc.)
Your WP site will then display your most recent published articles on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your site contains more posts than the number set to display …
The ability to set how many entries can display on your web site has a number of uses.
For example, you can display only the latest single entry you have published. This can be useful, if, for example, you are promoting a different expiring offer each month, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post upcoming events, set up a monthly social page for updates and announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to set the number of blog posts to show on main blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to specify how many posts to show on your blog.
Changing The Number Of Posts To Display On Your WordPress Blog
WordPress allows you to specify how many posts you want listed on the blog page.
The number of 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 entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of items displayed on your blog page.
To set the number of published blog post entries you want listed on the blog page web site, go to the WP dashboard menu and click on Settings > Reading …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
How To Specify The Number Of Posts On Your Home Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page displays your newest post entries, 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 to display – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts On Your Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the home page displays a fixed page and your latest post entries show up 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 post items you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see your newest blog posts displayed either on your main 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 amount of published posts you would like to have displaying on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are a new WordPress user, you may also find the following related posts useful:
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