As we’ve discussed in previous posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your most recent post entries on the front page, unless you fix a page as your front page.
In a previously published article, we’ve also covered how to create a blog page to show your latest published posts.
Regardless of your choice to make blog posts on your home page or your blog page, With WordPress you can specify the number of items to appear on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’4’, ’15’ etc.)
Your site will then display your most recently published blog post entries on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have set, even if your WordPress website or blog contains more posts than the number set to display …
The ability to specify the number of blog posts can display on your blog page can be useful.
For example, you can set your blog to display only the latest single post that you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you want to send your readers to 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 monthly community 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, WordPress gives you the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts that you want to show on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how easy it is to specify the number of blog posts you want to show up on your WordPress blog.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Post Entries To Display On Your Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you specify how many published blog post entries you want to display on the blog page of your web site.
The number of blog posts you want displayed is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
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 items displayed on your blog page.
To set the number of blog posts you would like displayed on your site’s blog page website, click on Settings > Reading from the WP navigation menu …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings screen as shown in the screenshot below:
Editing The Number Of Posts Showing On The Front Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page shows your newest 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 post items you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when finished…
Editing The Number Of Posts On The Blog Page
If you are using your WP site as a website, where the home page is a fixed page and your latest blog 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 blog post entries you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see posts showing either on your main 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 posts you would like listed on the blog page of your web site.
Related Posts
If you are a WordPress newbie, you may also find the following topic-related posts useful:
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