What are some best practices for efficiently counting and displaying the number of posts based on specific criteria in WordPress using PHP?

When you need to efficiently count and display the number of posts based on specific criteria in WordPress using PHP, it is recommended to use the WP_Query class to retrieve the posts that meet your criteria and then use the found_posts property to get the total count. You can then display this count on your website using a simple PHP loop.

// Set up the query to retrieve posts based on specific criteria
$args = array(
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'category_name' => 'your_category_slug',
    'posts_per_page' => -1 // Get all posts that match the criteria
);

$query = new WP_Query($args);

// Display the total count of posts that meet the criteria
if ($query->have_posts()) {
    $total_posts = $query->found_posts;
    echo 'Total posts: ' . $total_posts;
} else {
    echo 'No posts found';
}

// Reset the query
wp_reset_postdata();