No matter what what industry you are in, providing high-value information to your site visitors is vitally important. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your blog subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Simple Overview
- RSS, which, according to some is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for content updates. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news, video lists, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be viewed using software-based programs called feedreaders, or aggregators. Feedreaders are used to access new content published on websites and distribute this content to various online properties.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
This detailed guide shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate method used to share web content. Feeds provide online users with a simple way to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Most news reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows leading digital news agencies to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics as well as the most recent headlines from all around the planet without actually having to hire and send more writers everywhere in the world …
(Global media publications rely on syndication to publish content from news sources around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. online media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using feeds …
(Digital publishing agencies syndicate their content using news feeds)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most leading online media publications have a feed section (look for links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major online media publications include an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a list of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds section. Image Source: New York Times)
These RSS feeds give readers access to different areas of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, editorials, etc.)
A feed directory can also include feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Using Feeds
Adding content from someone else’s website on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s website, it also adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Syndicating Content - 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 worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Look for ways to get other sites to syndicate content using your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in your navigation menu …
(The feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or just as a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed will display)
If you need help WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to syndicate and search for their RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
Adding RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add RSS content from another website to your site.
Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a website containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy its feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, go to your Widgets area and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress Sidebar Menu)
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:
How To Add Feed Content To Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post instead of the sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside your ’Add Plugins’ section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you select.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from various content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium version contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many 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 new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication options for WordPress-generated content.
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 plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
To access your comments feed, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed entries displayed using a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image: 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 WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Using Feeds For Individual Items
Being able to select an RSS feed for a specific post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for creating an RSS feed for individual posts is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
Copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the category URL to your clipboard …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories feed)
The category feed now only includes content posted in this particular category …
(Category feed page)
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 A Directory Of Feeds
You can publish an RSS feeds page that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Create Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds)
Link an icon to each feed URL and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about creating tables in WordPress posts and pages, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types that do not require touching code. For example, the table below shows some of the kinds of custom feed formats you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that displays a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed displaying the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/10/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed containing latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your feed. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button image in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you publish useful content. In other words, you must provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content to your site and get visitors to syndicate your content online with RSS feeds!)
If you need great content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:
Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- Feed Graphics – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing RSS specifications, guiding developers who create RSS applications and broadening the general public understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about RSS.
- WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress documentation. Go here for additional information about using WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other great content we have published on this site.
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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