As we’ve discussed in previous posts, by default, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your latest post entries on the home page, unless you set a fixed page as a home page.
In a previous tutorial, we also discuss how to create a WordPress blog page to display your latest post.
Whether you choose to have your most recent published articles on your front page or your blog page, WordPress lets you specify the number of blog post entries to show up on these pages (i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ’12’ etc.)
Your site will then display blog post entries on your blog page up to the maximum number of items you have specified, even if your site contains more blog posts than the number of items you have set to display …
The ability to specify the number of blog post items will display on your blog page has a number of practical applications.
For example, you can display only the latest single blog post that you have published. This is useful, if, for example, you are promoting 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 social page for announcements, etc.
You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu is too long …
Whatever the reason, With WordPress you have the flexibility to set the number of posts that will display on main blog page.
Let’s show you, then, how to change the number of blog post entries you want to show on your WordPress blog.
Changing The Number Of Blog Posts Displayed On Your WordPress Blog Page
WordPress lets you choose how many published posts you want to have showing on the blog page.
How many blog posts you want to display is entirely up to you. WordPress doesn’t limit this amount …
Note: Select a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the content loads on your site. You can always increase or decrease the amount of items displayed.
To set how many published blog post entries you want to have showing on the blog page of your web site, select Settings > Reading from the WP dashboard menu …
Configure your options in the Reading Settings panel as per the screenshot below:
How To Change The Number Of Posts On The Front Page
If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default WordPress option), where the front page shows your newest 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 entries that you want showing – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’12’ etc.)
- Click the Save Changes button when finished…
Changing The Number Of Posts Showing On The Blog Page
If you are using your WordPress site as a website, where the home page displays a fixed page and your latest posts show up 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 entries you want to display – e.g. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
- Click on Save Changes when done …
Now, when visitors land on your site, they will see blog posts showing 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 set the number of posts you want to show on your site’s blog page.
Related Posts
If you are new to WordPress, you may also find the following posts useful:
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group