As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your most recent blog posts on the main page, unless you fix a page as your front page.
In another post, we also show you how to create a blog page to display your latest published content.
Whether you choose to have blog posts on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of published blog post entries to appear on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your website will then display your newest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog posts you have set, even if your WordPress site contains more blog posts than the number set to display …
Having the ability to specify the number of posts can display on your web site has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can display only the latest single post you have published. This can be handy for example, if you promote a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post an upcoming event, set up a weekly team page for updates and 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 may be, With WordPress you have the flexibility to change the number of posts that will show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily set how many blog posts to show up on your blog page.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Posts To Display On Your Blog Page
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress lets you choose how many published blog posts you want to display on your website’s blog page.
The number of blog posts you would like displayed is entirely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Select a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the content loads on your site. You can always raise or lower the amount of posts displayed.
To set the number of published blog posts you want displayed on the blog page of your WordPress site, go to your WordPress admin menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure your settings in the Reading Settings screen as shown in the screenshot below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts On Your Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page displays your most recent published entries, then set your options as shown 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 showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Modifying 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 latest post entries show up 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 posts that you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done …
Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see blog post entries displayed 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 set the number of published blog posts you want to show on your website’s blog page.
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