As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your most recent post entries on the front page, unless you specify a page as a static home page.

In another tutorial, we also explain how to create a blog page to display your latest published content.

Whether you choose to have present posts on your main page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of blog post entries to appear on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’5’, ’10’ etc.)

Your site will then display your latest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog posts you have specified, even if your WordPress website or blog contains more posts than the number of posts set to display …

The ability to specify how many blog post items will display on your blog page is useful.

For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent blog post item that you have published. This can be handy for example, if you want to promote a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, set up a quarterly social page for 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 set the number of blog posts to display on your blog page.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to change the number of blog posts to show on your site’s blog page.

How To Set The Number Of Blog Post Entries To Display On Your Blog

Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you specify how many published blog posts you want to display on your website’s blog page.

How many posts you would like displayed is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …

Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the content loads on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of items displayed on your blog page.

To specify the number of published blog posts you want listed on the blog page site, go to your WP admin menu and select Settings > Reading …

Configure your options in the Reading Settings page as per the screenshot below:

Specifying The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Home Page

If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the main page shows your newest post entries, then set your options as described below:

1. Front page displays: Set this to Your latest posts
2. Blog pages show at most: X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of blog post items that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
3. Click the Save Changes button when done to update your settings…

To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page

If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the front page is a fixed page and your newest blog posts display on a separate blog page, then set your options as described below:

1. Front page displays: Set this to A static page, then select Posts page: > your Blog Page from the drop down menu
2. Blog pages show at most: X posts X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of post items that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
3. Click the ‘Save’ button when done …

Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see 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:

• How To Use WordPress Post Excerpts And Post Previews

Congratulations! Now you know how to change the amount of blog post entries you would like listed on the blog page.

Related Posts

If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following related posts useful:

• How To Set A Page In WordPress As A Static Home Page
• How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Posts In WordPress

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