No matter what what industry you are in, you need to provide high-value information to your site visitors. For example, if your business provides accounting or financial planning services, you may want to publish information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it requires an enormous amount of time and resources. You have to do a lot of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to continually provide your readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition And Information
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be viewed with a web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software called a feed reader, or aggregator. Feed readers can be used to find content on all kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and updates made to the content) to other online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from various sources.
This article explains where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful way to share web content. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to receive the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Global media and news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources around the world.
Content syndication allows news reporting agencies and many popular media publications to deliver readers stories from all around the planet without actually having to hire and set up more news staff everywhere in the world …
(Most news reporting agencies use syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies around the planet.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their information using news feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information)
Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Major content sites have an RSS feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “calgary herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital content agencies and major sites have a feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Image Source: NY Times)
Each of these feed items allows readers to access content from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, jobs, etc.)
A feed list can also contain subcategories …
(An RSS feed directory can also include feed subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s site additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(RSS Feeds - Benefits)
While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to use your content.
When other sites syndicate content using your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get users to syndicate your feed … it will help to increase your web traffic!)
WordPress RSS – Overview
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar or footer menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta section)
2) You can also find links and buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some sites and again, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Stay In Touch, Link To Us, or Share toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Share, Keep In Touch, or Link To Us toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS feed page …
(RSS feed items displayed with a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS feed items viewed on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you would like to show in your Feeds page, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WP Reading Settings – Syndication feed items)
The feed will display the number of posts as you have specified section …
(The feed page will show the number of posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content displays)
We have written a detailed tutorial on Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you need to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for an RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.
Adding RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites
Let’s show you how to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can easily display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a site that publishes content that you would like to display on your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(WordPress RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget – e.g. footer, custom menu, etc) …
(RSS Widget)
Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles
You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.
(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)
Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:
Adding RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to posts instead of a sidebar? It sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a few autoblogging plugins that let you create new with RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to import RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
RSS Post Importer can be used to syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)
With POWr RSS Feed, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible syndication options for WordPress.
As stated in the FeedWordPress site …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that display content from different sources), or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your post comments.
You can view this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items as seen with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your website has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Post Item RSS Feeds
Being able to display an RSS feed for an individual post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS directories, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for accessing an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URL, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website publishes content under various categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each of your categories.
Just use the format shown below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the selected category URL …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress category RSS feed)
Your category feed will now only display content posted under this category …
(Category-specific RSS feed)
The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.
For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:
(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)
Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …
(WordPress post category feed format)
To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …
(Posts > Categories menu)
Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …
(Post Category ID)
In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …
(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)
Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …
(Paste the feed into your browser)
This will display the feed for that specific category …
(RSS feed of a specific post category)
Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …
(Post category feed format)
Here is the feed format again …
(Post category feed)
In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …
(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)
Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …
(Post category feed content)
Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.
Tip #4 – Publish Your Own RSS Feeds Page
You can create your own RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …
(Provide A Feeds List)
You can link an image to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all your individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS icon. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress posts and pages, refer to this tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Notes
You can customize your RSS in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows various feed configurations without messing with code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feeds you can use …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed containing the latest comments left on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that contains individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on individual items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/01/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ buttons in a visible location …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide useful information. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other users to share your content using RSS feeds!)
If you need help coming up with content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- Download RSS Icons – Visit sites like iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and information site. Go here for additional information about using RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum