As we’ve discussed in other posts, in a default installation, WordPress treats your site as a ‘blog’ and displays your latest posts on the front page, unless you fix a page as your home page.

In a separate post, we also cover how to create a WordPress blog page to display your latest published posts.

Regardless of your choice to have posts on your home page or your blog page, With WordPress you can set a specific number of published blog post entries to show up on these pages (i.e. ’2’, ’5’, ’15’ etc.)

Your site will then display your most recently published posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your site contains more posts than the number set to display …

Having the ability to set how many blog post items will display on your web site has a number of uses.

For example, you can display only the most recent post that you have published. This can be useful, if, for example, you want to promote a different expiring offer each week, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of a local sports competition, post an upcoming event, set up a quarterly corporate page for updates and announcements, etc.

You can also use this feature to fill an ugly space on your blog if your sidebar menu runs too long …

Whatever the reason, WordPress gives you the flexibility to change the number of blog posts that will show on main blog page.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how to set the number of blog posts you want to show on your blog.

How To Change The Number Of Post Entries To Display On Your WordPress Blog Page

Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to specify how many published blog post entries you want displayed on your site’s blog page.

How many blog posts you want to display is completely up to you. there is no limit to this amount …

Note: Pick a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the entries load on your site. You can always increase or decrease the number of posts displayed on your blog page.

To specify the number of published posts you would like listed on your blog page website, go to your WordPress admin menu and click on Settings > Reading …

Configure your settings in the Reading Settings screen as shown below:

How To Specify The Number Of Posts On The Home Page

If you are using your site as a blog (i.e. the default installation option), where the main page shows your latest posts, then set your options as shown below:

1. Front page displays: Set this to Your latest posts
2. Blog pages show at most: X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of blog posts you want to show – e.g. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
3. Click on Save Changes when done to update your settings…

Editing The Number Of Posts Displayed On The Blog Page

If you are using your site as a website, where the home page shows a fixed page and your most recent posts show up on a separate blog page, then edit your settings as shown below:

1. Front page displays: Set this to A static page, then select Posts page: > your Blog Page from the drop down menu
2. Blog pages show at most: X posts X posts (where ‘X’ is the number of items you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
3. Click the Save Changes button when done to update your settings …

Now, when visitors come to your site, they will see your most recently published blog post entries showing 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:

• How To Use WordPress Post Excerpts And Post Previews

Congratulations! Now you know how to set the number of blog post entries you would like to have showing on your WP site’s blog page.

Related Posts

If you are learning how to use WordPress, you may also find the following related posts useful:

• How To Set Any Page In WordPress As The Static Home Page
• How To Create A Blog Page To Display Your Latest Posts In WordPress

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