As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and shows your latest post entries on the front page, unless you set a fixed page as your main page.
In a previously published post, we’ve also addressed how to create a blog page to show your most recent published articles.
Regardless of your choice to make blog post entries on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of blog post entries to show on these pages (e.g. ‘1’, ’6’, ’15’ etc.)
Your WordPress site will then display your most recent published articles on your blog page up to the maximum number of posts you have specified, even if your website or blog contains more blog posts than the number you have set to display …
Being able to specify how many entries display on your blog page has a number of practical uses.
For example, you can display only the most recent post item you have published. This is handy for example, if you want to send your readers to a different expiring offer each month, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post upcoming events, set up a weekly community page for updates and announcements, etc.
You can also use this great feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason may be, WordPress gives you the flexibility to specify the number of blog posts that will show on your blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to change how many posts to display on your blog.
Specifying The Number Of Blog Post Entries To Display On Your Blog Page
WordPress allows you to specify how many posts you want to display on the blog page.
The number of entries you would like to display is completely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Select 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 items displayed.
To specify the number of published posts you want displayed on the blog page of your web site, select Settings > Reading from the WordPress dashboard menu …
Configure the options in the Reading Settings page as per the screenshot below:
Editing The Number Of Posts Showing On The Main Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the home page shows your latest blog posts, then set your options 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 entries you want to display – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished to update your settings…
Specifying The Number Of Posts Showing On Your Blog Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the front page is a fixed page and your latest blog posts display 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 posts you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’10’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when finished …
Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see your most recently published articles displayed either on your front 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 amount of posts you want to have displaying on the blog page of your WP web site.
Related Posts
If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following related posts useful:
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