As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest published entries on the main page, unless you set a fixed page as a home page.
In a separate tutorial, we also address how to create a blog page to display your most recent published articles.
Regardless of your choice to make posts on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of published post entries to appear on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’4’, ’15’ etc.)
Your WordPress website will then display your blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your website contains more posts than the number set to display …
Being able to specify how many posts can display on your web site has a number of uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the latest single entry you have published. This is handy for example, if you want to send your readers to a different limited-time offer each month, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, 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 if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to change the number of posts that you want to display on main blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to set how many blog posts will show up on your WordPress blog.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you specify how many posts you want to have displaying on your blog page.
The number of posts you want displayed is entirely up to you. there is no limit to this amount …
Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always raise or lower the number of items displayed on your blog page.
To specify how many published blog post entries you want to have showing on the blog page of your site, choose Settings > Reading from your WordPress admin menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
Modifying The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Home Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page shows your latest post entries, then set your options 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 posts you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done to update your settings…
To Edit The Number Of Posts On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the front page shows a fixed page and your newest published posts display 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 post items you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when finished …
Now, when visitors come to your website, they will see blog post entries displayed either on your main 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:
Congratulations! Now you know how to set the amount of posts you want listed on the blog page of your website.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
- How To Make Any WordPress Page Be A Static Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your WordPress Posts
***
"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now