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

In another article, we’ve also explained how to create a WordPress blog page to show your most recent blog posts.

Whether you choose to have blog post entries on your home page or your blog page, WordPress lets you set a specific number of blog post entries to appear on these pages (i.e. ’2’, ’5’, ’12’ etc.)

Your WP website will then display your newest blog posts on your blog page up to the maximum number of blog post entries you have specified, even if your WP website contains more blog posts than the number of items you have set to display …

Having the ability to set how many entries will display on your WordPress site can be useful.

For example, you can display only the latest post that you have published. This can be handy for example, if you are promoting a different limited-time offer each week, a ‘deal of the day’ type of offer, publish the latest results of your sports team, post an upcoming event, set up a weekly social page for updates and announcements, etc.

Or, you can use this great feature to fill an empty space on your blog page if your sidebar menu is too long …

Whatever the reason, With WordPress you have the flexibility to specify the number of posts that will show on main blog page.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you are going to learn how easy it is to specify how many blog posts will show on your blog.

Specifying The Number Of Post Entries Displayed On Your WordPress Blog Page

Through its content management system (CMS), WordPress allows you to choose how many published posts you want to have showing on the blog page of your website.

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

Note: We suggest selecting a sensible setting that won’t slow down your page as the content loads on your site. You can always raise or lower the amount of posts displayed.

To set how many blog post entries you want to have displaying on the blog page of your WordPress web site, click on Settings > Reading from the WP navigation menu …

Configure your options in the Reading Settings page as shown below:

Modifying 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 front page shows your most recent post entries, then set your options as described 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 post items that you want displayed – i.e. ‘1’, ’5’, ‘7’, ’15’ etc.)
3. Click the ‘Save’ button when done to update your settings…

To Change The Number Of Posts Displayed On Your Blog Page

If you are using your site as a website, where the main page displays a fixed page and your newest blog posts display on a separate blog page, then edit your settings as described 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 blog post entries that you want to show – i.e. ‘1’, ‘3’, ’10’, ’12’ etc.)
3. Click on Save Changes when done …

Now, when visitors land on your website, they will see your newest blog posts showing either on your home 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:

• How To Use WordPress Post Excerpts And Post Previews

Congratulations! Now you know how to set the number of published posts you would like to have showing 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 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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