As we’ve discussed in other posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest published posts on the main page, unless you set a fixed page as your front page.
In a previously published tutorial, we also cover how to create a blog page to display your most recent published articles.
Regardless of your choice to make blog posts on your home page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of blog post entries to show on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’6’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your WordPress site will then display blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your WordPress website or blog contains more blog posts than the number of items set to display …
The ability to set how many posts can display on your blog page has a number of uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent blog post you have published. This is 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 an upcoming event, set up a weekly community page for announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this great feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts that you want to show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily specify how many posts will show on your blog page.
Specifying The Number Of Posts To Display On Your Blog
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you specify how many published blog post entries you want to have showing on the blog page of your site.
How many posts you would like to display is completely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Choose a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always raise or lower the amount of items displayed.
To specify how many posts you want to have displaying on the blog page of your web site, select Settings > Reading from the WP dashboard menu …
Configure your settings in the Reading Settings page as shown in the screenshot below:
How To Edit The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Home Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the front page shows your latest post entries, then edit your settings 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 post entries that you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when finished to update your settings…
How To Specify The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the main page is a fixed page and your newest blog posts display on a separate blog page, then set your options as described 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 blog post entries that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see your latest blog posts showing 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:
Congratulations! Now you know how to change the number of blog post entries you want displayed on the blog page.
Related Posts
If you are a new WordPress user, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
- How To Set Any Page In WordPress As The Static Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Section In Your WordPress Site
***
"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