Comments on: How Many Posts Should You Show On Your Blog’s Front Page?

By: Jazz

Jazz — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:20:28 +0000

I have 15 full articles, another 15 headlines for slightly older content, and 10 headlines for hot topics in the last week.

Having just done a survey of my readers they (mostly) want even more content than the 15-20 posts a day that currently goes up. The downside of this of course is the ability to find it once it falls off the front page.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 23:28:29 +0000

Well, it definitely depends upon the nature of the blog IMHO. My posts are stories; short humor pieces that wouldn’t go off so well in the “snippet” format. I only put two posts up per page; full length posts with images so the page load time is short. You have to keep in mind those people still on dialup. So while snippets may work well for blogs that offer a variety of topics / help (like this one) so readers can scan for what they are looking for, for one like mine, full posting is best.

By: kosmo @ The Casual Observer

kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:41:51 +0000

I went with 5. Just a gut feeling on the look. More than that just seemed like a lot.

By: Mind Power Blog

Mind Power Blog — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:33:42 +0000

Well. I show 5 posts on the main page.

By: p@r@noid

p@r@noid — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:10:25 +0000

i suggest 4-5 post is great…it look neat..and if user find even a single post interesting..they will keep moving on and on..!!! in search of some post which entertain them

By: Axel

Axel — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:31:47 +0000

I just recently put a new version of my blog online, and I am trying out 4 excerpts on the front page. I am excited to see how that works.

By: Financial Nut

Financial Nut — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:11:03 +0000

Hmm… interesting discussion. I decided to change mine from 10 full-length posts to 3.

It just make more sense. Who wants to do all that scrolling anyway?

By: qbd

qbd — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:36:35 +0000

I have about 12 posts on the main page. Not sure if it is a good idea because each post has an image. I know I hate loading loads of images from other webpages… actually might just change the number of posts now.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:25:15 +0000

I keep about 5-6 posts on my blog frontpage. I also have the 10 most popular posts titles on my sidebar (which is visible on the frontpage). I get some decent click through on those popular post links.

By: Louellen Coker

Louellen Coker — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:03:37 +0000

I keep 5 posts on the front page. I want to give readers a taste of diversity without getting too long.

By: Andrew Lightheart

Andrew Lightheart — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:46:17 +0000

I’m playing with the idea of using ‘More’ with very long posts (I do really long analyses of presentations for example which may go on for pages) and leaving shorter posts alone.

I did go for the strategy of ‘curiosity’ posts (sticking the ‘More’ tag in the middle of a sentence) but it didn’t quite match with being an authentic communicator…!

The thing I HATE is when someone’s post is shortened in an RSS reader. I just don’t read it.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:39:36 +0000

It seems that there is no standard answer, so allow me to add that I recently updated my template with a magazine style, opting for one post on the front page with the excerpt or “teaser” feature.

I also offer the 10 most recent posts in an easy location on a sidebar.

What do folks think? See http://www.ariwriter.com

By: 13 Ways to Build Links that Increase Traffic

13 Ways to Build Links that Increase Traffic — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:45:49 +0000

I have a featurific widget on my front page, a WP plug-in and it features my selected “best posts” in a cool flash widget.

Below that I have an excerpt from my latest post and in the sidebar is the recent posts and all posts by category. Everything is clearly labeled with Titles in bold.

I think it’s important that readers come to the blog and be able to quickly see what’s there, and find the post titles without having to look all over the place.

I think you can lose a lot of readers if the nav is unclear.

Thank you!
JR

By: Syed Balkhi

Syed Balkhi — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 22:10:52 +0000

Darren, I have 5 posts on the blog page. I think 5 is a decent amount because sometimes there are too much in one post. I am using excerpt on posts, but I don’t always put readmore link. So you might see an entire post if the post is not that long and doesn’t make the page crowded. But if I see that the page will have tons of images and will look crowded then I put the first 3 paragraphs and then let the readers read it in the full post.

By: Anthony - Staten Island

Anthony - Staten Island — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:59:52 +0000

I think that is the biggest problem with my blog right now, is in fact, I have too many posts on one page now I’m going too change it, but I’m afraid if i change it it will change my viewership. I will be changing soon. Nervous though.

By: eranda

eranda — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:19:07 +0000

I normally write bit long posts. I keep all my pages with 3 posts. I think that’s not too many. If you only have 1-2 posts and if the visitor do not get connected with the site he will not continue reading to the back pages.
At the end of my every post,
I put links for atleast 2 previous posts.
And with the adsense experiments I did 3 posts did the work for me.So i am not gonna change it anytime sooner.
Eranda
antharjalaya.com

By: Yin Teing

Yin Teing — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:19:27 +0000

I have 7 posts on the front page. My posts are generally lengthy, covering various aspect of health issues and fitness- so I would want visitors to generally know what I write but at the same time, do not require them to scroll all the way just to see other posts that do not interest them. Previously, I feature the full posts as I also thought there is nothing much that can be done with Blogger. Through some guided tutorials from the net, and trial and error, I’ve finally figured out how to truncate the posts at the front page on a Blogger template. After that, I find that the number of unique visitors (it has nothing to do with pages per click) literally doubled and they stayed longer on my site. So, I guess excerpts works for me.

By: Sue

Sue — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:27:38 +0000

I have one featured post on the front page, plus 4 recent articles. All are excerpts. I also have 5 or 6 miniposts in the right sidebar, and 5 updates and corrections in the left. All are excerpted.

I try to keep the article posts equal to the sidebars, so there are no great areas of white space. I sometimes have to change the amount of miniposts showing to do that, but otherwise it pretty much stays the same.

I think a lot depends on your theme, also. A standard blog type theme can have a different layout and still look good, but a magazine style theme virtually screams for excerpts.

I’ve seen one blog in my tiny little niche that had 20 full posts on the front page. Not very professional looking, IMO.

By: Egbert

Egbert — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:23:28 +0000

I`m glad I could inspire you

PS: sorry for the bad spelling / missing words in my previous post… I was thinking about something else while writing

By: Kolia Shlapak

Kolia Shlapak — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:38:01 +0000

Egbert, thanks for a good idea