As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and shows your newest blog posts on the main page, unless you set a fixed page as a static front page.
In a previously published tutorial, we also address how to create a blog page to show your most recent published posts.
Whether you choose to have posts on your front page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of items to show up on these pages (i.e. ’2’, ’7’, ’10’ etc.)
Your site will then display your most recently published articles on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have set, even if your site contains more posts than the number of items you have set to display …
Having the ability to set the number of blog posts can display on your web site has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent blog post that you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you want to promote a different expiring offer each month, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post upcoming events, set up a quarterly office page for announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this great feature to fill an empty space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of posts that you want to display on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to specify how many blog post entries to show up on your blog.
How To Change The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog
WordPress lets you choose how many posts you want to display on the blog page.
The number of posts you want to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
Note: Select a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of posts displayed on your blog page.
To specify how many published blog post entries you would like to show on the blog page of your WordPress website, go to the WP dashboard menu and select Settings > Reading …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings page as shown below:
How To Edit The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Main Page
If you are using your WP site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the home page shows your newest blog posts, 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 items that you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the main page shows a fixed page and your most recent published post entries 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 blog post items you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see your latest blog posts showing either on your home 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 published blog posts you would like to display on the blog page of your WordPress site.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum