As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your newest published content on the home page, unless you set a fixed page as your home page.
In a previous post, we also cover how to create a blog page to display your most recent published articles.
Whether you choose to make blog posts on your home page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of blog posts to display on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ‘3’, ’12’ etc.)
Your WP site will then display your newest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have set, even if your WP site contains more posts than the number of posts you have set to display …
The ability to set the number of blog post items can display on your WordPress site is useful.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the most recent blog post you have published. This is useful, if, for example, you promote a different time-sensitive 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 monthly office page for updates and announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts that will show on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily change the number of blog posts to show on your WordPress blog.
How To Specify The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your WordPress Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to specify how many published blog post entries you want to have displaying on your blog page.
How many posts you want to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this number …
Note: We suggest choosing a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the amount of items displayed.
To set how many published posts you want to have displaying on the blog page of your web site, click on Settings > Reading from your WP dashboard menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
Specifying The Number Of Posts On The Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the home page shows your latest 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 blog post entries that you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On The Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the front page shows a fixed page and your newest blog posts display on a separate blog page, then edit your settings 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 items you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see blog post entries 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 number of published posts you would like to have displaying on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following topic-related 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