WordPress is installed, your theme is active, and now someone tells you to check Settings > Reading. You open it and find a handful of options that look simple but have significant consequences. Getting these wrong causes real problems - including accidentally hiding your entire site from search engines.
Here is what every Reading Settings option actually does.
Your Homepage Displays: Latest Posts vs. a Static Page
This is the first and most important setting. You have two choices:
Your latest posts - WordPress uses your main blog index as the homepage. Every new post you publish appears on the front page in reverse chronological order. This is the default and it is appropriate for blogs or news-focused sites where fresh content is the primary product.
A static page - WordPress uses a specific page you choose as the homepage, and optionally uses a second page as the blog listing. This is appropriate for business websites that have a homepage designed as a landing page (a hero section, services overview, testimonials, call to action) rather than a list of recent posts.
Most Canadian business websites should use the static page option. It lets you design a proper homepage without it being overwritten every time you publish a post.
Setting a Dedicated Blog Page
When you choose the static page option, you can also assign a separate "Posts page." This is the page WordPress will use to display your blog listing automatically. You do not add any content to this page in the editor - WordPress takes it over entirely and displays your posts there.
The setup: create a blank page called "Blog" (or "News" or whatever label makes sense for your business). Then assign it as the Posts page in Reading Settings. WordPress handles the rest.
Posts Per Page
This controls how many posts appear on your blog listing before pagination kicks in. The default is 10. Lower it to 6 or 8 if your layout uses card-style posts with featured images, since 10 large cards creates a very long page. Raise it only if your posts are short and your layout is compact.
This same setting also controls how many posts appear in category and tag archive pages, which is useful to keep in mind.
Search Engine Visibility: The Number One Accidental SEO Mistake
There is a checkbox near the bottom of Reading Settings that reads: "Discourage search engines from indexing this site."
WordPress enables this checkbox by default during installation - because when you are building a site, you do not want Google indexing a half-finished mess. But new site owners frequently launch their site and forget to uncheck it.
If this box is checked on a live site, your site will never rank in Google. Ever. It adds a noindex directive to every page.
This is the first thing to check if a site suddenly disappears from search results. Go to Settings > Reading and verify this checkbox is unchecked. It sounds too simple, but it happens constantly.
Syndication Feed Settings
At the bottom of Reading Settings are two feed-related options:
Syndication feeds show the most recent - how many posts appear in your RSS feed. The default of 10 is fine for most sites.
For each article in a feed, include - Full text or Summary. If you want readers to consume content entirely within your site (better for ad revenue or engagement metrics), choose Summary. If you have subscribers using RSS readers and want to serve them the full article, choose Full text.
For most business websites, the feed settings have minimal impact on day-to-day performance. Focus on getting the homepage display and search engine visibility settings right first.
A Quick Reading Settings Checklist
Before you move on, verify these four things:
- Homepage is set to a static page (for business sites) or latest posts (for pure blogs)
- If using a static page, a Posts page is assigned for your blog listing
- The "Discourage search engines" checkbox is unchecked on your live site
- Posts per page is set to a number that suits your layout
Reading Settings is one of those panels that looks trivial but has an outsized effect on how both visitors and search engines experience your site. Five minutes spent here can save hours of debugging later.
