As we’ve discussed in other posts, by default, WordPress treats your website as a ‘blog’ and displays your newest published posts on the main page, unless you set a specific page as the home page.
In a previously published tutorial, we also show you how to create a WordPress blog page to show your most recent post.
Regardless of your choice to make blog posts on your front page or your blog page, With WordPress you can specify the number of items 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 posts you have specified, even if your WP site contains more blog posts than the number set to display …
Being able to specify the number of blog posts will display on your site is useful.
For example, you can display only the most recent blog post item that you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you want to promote a weekly special, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post upcoming events, set up a weekly social page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog page if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to set the number of blog posts that will show on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to change how many posts you want to show on your blog.
Specifying The Number Of Posts To Display On Your WordPress Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to choose how many published blog post entries you would like listed on the blog page of your site.
The number of entries you would like displayed is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the content loads on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of items displayed on your blog page.
To set the number of blog posts you would like listed on your blog page site, go to your WP admin menu and select Settings > Reading …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings section as per the screenshot below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Home Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page shows your latest posts, 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 posts you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished to update your settings…
How To Modify The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the home page displays a fixed page and your most recent posts 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 entries that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see 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 amount of blog post entries you want to show on the blog page of your WP website.
Related Posts
If you are a new WordPress user, you may also find the following posts useful:
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"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