As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your latest post entries on the main page, unless you fix a page as the main page.
In another article, we also discuss how to create a WordPress blog page to display your latest post.
Regardless of your choice to have your blog posts on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of published blog posts to show up on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’4’, ’15’ etc.)
Your site will then display blog post entries on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your WordPress web site contains more posts than the number of posts set to display …
Being able to set how many posts will display on your web site can be very useful.
For example, you can display only the latest single post you have published. This is handy, if, for example, you promote a weekly special, a ’book of the month’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a quarterly corporate page for updates and announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this great feature to fill an empty space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason may be, WordPress gives you the flexibility to change the number of posts to display on main blog page.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how to easily set how many posts you want to show on your blog.
How To Specify The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your Blog
Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to choose how many blog post entries you want to show on the blog page.
The number of posts you would like displayed is completely up to you. there is no limit to this amount …
Note: Choose a sensible setting that won’t overload your page as the entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of items displayed.
To specify the number of posts you would like listed on your blog page web site, go to your WP navigation menu and select Settings > Reading …
Configure the settings in the Reading Settings screen as per the screenshot below:
How To Specify The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Home Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the home page displays your most recent published posts, 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 blog post entries you want displayed – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished to update your settings…
Changing The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your site as a website, where the front page displays a fixed page and your latest post entries display on a separate blog page, then set your options 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 showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when done …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see recently published blog post entries 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 number of blog posts you would like displayed on your website’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
- How To Set A WordPress Page You Specify As Your Website’s Home Page
- How To Create A Blog Section In WordPress
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)