I've wondered this for some time now. Really, I can't think of any solid reason to pick a certain number over another...
There is not any strict number. I have ten which are cut off with the read more. I hate scrolling through a whole blog post to find the information that I am looking for.
I have only two. Since my blog posts are rather long, having two blog posts showing up is already taking up too much space.
What ever number will make your layout look good. There is no all purpose answer. I have a magazine style layout that has 24 posts on the home page and other sites that only have 1 or 2. Personally from a design point of view, I don't think you should have posts that extend beyond the sidebars. I think that the site should be symmetrical. If you don't have any sidebars, I'd either do one full length post, or 3-5 post excerpts. It really all depends on the theme layout...not any SEO or Marketing rule.
(Hey, my first real post!) I agree with mansfield, you should do whatever suits the style and theme of your site and the best layout for your visitors. Think of how you would prefer to see a site like yours designed. Do you prefer seeing long pages of post after post, or do you prefer maybe a few and links to others? Personally, I use WordPress and I usually use something like a magazine layout or my own combination. Often I'll have the home page as a Page with static content above-the-fold to grab new visitors attention, introduce the site, and possibly remind them to register or subscribe, and then the latest post below it, clearly marked in it's own section. Sometimes I have the full post, but I think showing only the excerpt or up to the read-more tag is better. Then I also put the Recent Posts list in the sidebar with the last 5 posts. But there are several magazine layout combinations that look really good and I think that appeals to new visitors more than just a long list of posts.
Just 3 posts will be great - As this wont disappoint visitors as they have 3 articles to read on home page and the page would load fast also. You will be getting more page views also if you put only a less number of posts/page but put atleast 3.
Is page loading time really a big concern still in today's internet? If you see my page I don't have any huge images, but there is quite a bit of text. I never considered less posts to lower the loading time because I figured text just isnt that big of a deal... maybe I'm wrong on that though.
As many as you want. It makes little sense however to make your visitors scroll much. Your most important content should be right in front of their eyes. I tend to use a "Sheet of Paper" metaphor and design my sites to fit on what would otherwise be an 8.5x11" sheet of paper. This is how people are "programmed" to get information.
While the text itself is a simple transfer, each post means more server-side scripting to retrieve and process each post before it is ready for transfer. It isn't much, and it may make less difference than I make it out to be, but even on a 512kbps connection, I notice a couple seconds while the rest of the page loads. This delays loading the sidebar and a few other items. I also notice a slight CSS glitch while this loading takes place, where the white background doesn't flow behind the text, making it partially unreadable for a couple seconds (that's just nit-picking though, and I didn't test it thoroughly so it might just be my internet or browser going slow).
I pay a lot of attention to page loading time as it seems google has started to take it into consideration. As far as I know Text doesnt really affect the load time. Lots of images, flash logos or videos etc will slow down a page load time.
Thanks for the info. Im not sure though, are you talking about my blog having css errors and that stuff? Only reason I ask is because I pretty much use the google blogspot stuff with very little of it being my own alterations.
Wow really? I never see blogs that only show 4 posts on the homepage, seems like so little... I usually display the normal 10 which Wordpress comes pre-packaged to display, and it works fine for me.
If it's fine for you, then maybe you should start using not more than 3 post, It will be better for you.
Depends upon the type of blog, if the text is written in posts with a small pictures its ok with 10+ posts if you use wallpapers or HQ pictures videos then 5 posts are more than enough. I have some blogs with 20 posts on home page and some with 3 posts. Just keep in mind that you are doing this as you want the page to be displayed as quickly as it can with full information. I dont think that serps has anything to do with all that.
i only display 3 since the site loads slower when i added more to it. it probably depend to the format of your site. impotant thing is you don't leave spaces in the side bar seen when you add more.
Depending on how long the articles are, anywhere from 5 - 10. If your articles are 1,000+ words, contain a lot of pictures, videos,,,, then you might want to go with a smaller number. If your articles are 200 - 500 words, do not contain pictures or videos,,,, then maybe go with a higher number.