How To Set The Number Of Blog Posts To Display In WordPress

Learn how to set the number of published blog posts to display on your WordPress blog page …

Tutorial - Specifying The Number Of Published Posts Showing On Your WP Blog PageAs we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest posts on the front page, unless you set a specific page as a main page.

Tutorial: Setting How Many Posts Display On Your Blog Page

In a separate article, we’ve also shown you how to create a WordPress blog page to display your most recent published entries.

Regardless of your choice to make display blog post entries on your home page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of blog post entries to show on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’15’ etc.)

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

Tutorial - Specifying The Number Of Published Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog

Having the ability to set the number of blog post items can display on your web site has a number of uses.

For example, you can display only the latest post you have published. This is useful, if, for example, you want to send your readers to a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post an upcoming event, set up a monthly corporate page for updates and announcements, etc.

Or, you can use this feature to fill an empty space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …

Step-By-Step Tutorial - Changing The Number Of Post Entries To Display On Your Blog Page

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

Let’s show you, then, how to easily change how many posts you want to display on your blog page.

How To Specify The Number Of Post Entries Displayed On Your WordPress Blog Page

Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to choose how many published posts you want to have showing on the blog page.

Tip

The number of posts you would like to display is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …

Tutorial: How To Set The Number Of Published Blog Posts To Display On Your WP Blog Page

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

To set how many published blog posts you would like displayed on your blog page site, go to the WP admin menu and click on Settings > Reading

Tutorial - Setting The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog

Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as shown in the screenshot below:

How To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Front Page

If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page shows your latest blog posts, then edit your settings 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 entries you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
  3. Click on Save Changes when finished…

Specifying How Many Published Blog Posts Show Up On Your WP Blog: Tutorial

Specifying The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog Page

If you are using your site as a website, where the front page shows a fixed page and your most recent blog posts display on a separate blog page, then set your options as shown 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 entries that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
  3. Click the Save Changes button when done …

Tutorial: Specifying How Many Posts Show Up On Your Blog Page

Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see posts displayed either on your home page or blog page, as per the settings you have specified …

Tutorial - Specifying The Number Of Published Blog Items Showing On Your WP Blog Page

Tip

To learn how to change the length of your post excerpts, see the tutorial below:

Congratulations! Now you know how to change the amount of blog posts you want to have showing on the blog page.

Related Posts

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

***

"Your training is the best in the world! It is simple, yet detailed, direct, understandable, memorable, and complete." Andrea Adams, FinancialJourney.org