As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your newest blog posts on the home page, unless you set a fixed page as a front page.

In a previously published article, we also cover how to create a blog page to display your most recent post.

Whether you choose to make present posts on your home page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of blog post entries to display on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’12’ etc.)

Your site will then display your newest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your WP web site contains more posts than the number set to display …

The ability to set the number of entries display on your WordPress site can be very useful.

For example, you can display only the most recent blog post item you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you promote a weekly special, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a quarterly community page for updates and announcements, etc.

You can also use this feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu is too long …

Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to set the number of posts that will show on your blog page.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to change how many blog posts you want to show up on your site’s blog page.

Changing The Number Of Blog Posts To Display On Your Blog Page

WordPress lets you choose how many blog posts you want listed on your blog page.

How many posts you would like displayed is completely up to you. there is no limit to this number …

Note: Select 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 post entries you want displayed on the blog page of your web site, go to the WP admin menu and select Settings > Reading …

Configure the settings in the Reading Settings screen as per the screenshot below:

Editing The Number Of Posts On Your Front Page

If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the home page displays your newest posts, 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 entries you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
Click the ‘Save’ button when finished to update your settings…

Editing The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page

If you are using your WP site as a website, where the front page shows a fixed page and your most recent posts 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 items you want displayed – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your settings …

Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see your newest blog posts 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:

How To Use WordPress Post Excerpts And Post Previews

Congratulations! Now you know how to set the amount of published blog posts you want displayed on the blog page of your WP site.

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

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