As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your newest post entries on the main page, unless you set a specific page as a home page.
In another tutorial, we have also shown you how to create a blog page to show your most recent post.
Whether you choose to make your blog posts on your main page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of published blog post entries to appear on these pages (i.e. ’2’, ’6’, ’12’ etc.)
Your site will then display your most recently published content on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have set, even if your WordPress web site contains more blog posts than the number of posts you have set to display …
Having the ability to specify the number of posts can display on your WordPress site can be very useful.
For example, you can display only the latest entry that you have published. This is handy for example, if you are promoting a different expiring 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 team page for announcements, etc.
Or, you can use this great feature to fill an ugly space on your blog page if your sidebar menu runs too long …
Whatever the reason, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of posts that you want to show on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to easily set the number of posts you want to show on your site’s blog page.
How To Specify The Number Of Blog Post Entries Displayed On Your Blog Page
WordPress allows you to choose how many blog posts you want to have showing on the blog page of your web site.
The number of entries you want displayed is entirely 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 raise or lower the number of posts displayed on your blog page.
To specify how many blog post entries you want to have displaying on the blog page website, go to the WP admin menu and choose Settings > Reading …
Configure your settings in the Reading Settings screen as per the screenshot below:
How To Specify The Number Of Posts Showing On The Front Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the front page displays your most recent 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 items you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished to update your settings…
How To Modify The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the main page is a fixed page and your newest posts display 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 blog posts that you want showing – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see posts displayed 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 change the amount of blog posts you would like to have displaying on the blog page of your website.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
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