As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest post entries on the front page, unless you set a fixed page as a static main page.
In a separate post, we also discuss how to create a WordPress blog page to show your latest blog posts.
Regardless of your choice to have display your most recently published articles on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of items to show on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’4’, ’10’ etc.)
Your WP site will then display recently published post entries on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your WordPress site contains more blog posts than the number of items you have set to display …
Having the ability to specify the number of blog posts will display on your site can be very useful.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent post that 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 your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a quarterly office 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 runs too long …
Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to change the number of blog posts that will show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily set the number of posts will show on your blog.
How To Change The Number Of Post Entries Displayed On Your Blog
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you choose how many blog post entries you want displayed on the blog page.
How many posts you would like to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Choose 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 posts displayed on your blog page.
To set the number of published blog post entries you want to have showing on the blog page of your WordPress website, select Settings > Reading from your WordPress dashboard menu …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
Changing The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the home page displays your latest post entries, 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 blog post items you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done…
To Change The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the home page is a fixed page and your newest post entries show up 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 entries you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished to update your settings …
Now, when visitors come to your website, 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:
Congratulations! Now you know how to set the number of published blog posts you want to display on your website’s blog page.
Related Posts
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