As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your newest posts on the front page, unless you fix a page as a front page.
In a separate tutorial, we have also addressed how to create a blog page to show your latest published content.
Whether you choose to make your blog posts on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of items to display on these pages (e.g. ’2’, ’6’, ‘9’ etc.)
Your website will then display posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your WordPress website contains more posts than the number of posts set to display …
The ability to set the number of blog posts display on your web site has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can display only the latest single blog post item that you have published. This is handy for example, if you want to promote a weekly special, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a monthly office page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog page if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason may be, WordPress gives you the flexibility to change the number of posts that will display on main blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to specify the number of blog posts will display on your site’s blog page.
How To Change The Number Of Blog Post Entries Displayed On Your Blog
WordPress allows you to specify how many published posts you would like displayed on your blog page.
The number of blog posts you would like displayed is entirely up to you. there is no limit to this number …
Note: Choose 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 posts displayed.
To set how many posts you would like to show on the blog page website, go to the WordPress dashboard menu and select Settings > Reading …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings panel as shown below:
How To Specify The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Front Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page displays your newest blog posts, then edit your settings 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 blog post entries you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Changing The Number Of Posts Showing On The Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the home page is a fixed page and your latest posts 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 items you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the ‘Save’ button when done to update your settings …
Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see your newest blog posts displayed 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 amount of blog post entries you would like listed on the blog page of your WordPress website.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
- How To Set Any Page In WordPress As A Static Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your WordPress Posts
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"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