No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, you need to provide quality information to your site or blog users. For example, if you provide health-related services, you may want to provide users with useful information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a huge amount 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 readers up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your users with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What You Need To Know
- RSS, which, according to some experts is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that their site readers can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news, videos, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- You can view the content of an RSS feed using web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based programs called RSS readers, or feed aggregators. Feed readers can be used to access content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content to various online properties.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from a number of sites.
In this comprehensive guide, we show 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 content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Digital content agencies and many leading online publications rely on content syndication to publish stories from content sources around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers and leading online publications to deliver readers stories from all around the globe without having to hire and set up more content writers all around the world …
(Many news reporting agencies and many leading media publications use syndication to publish content from news sources all around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share content legitimately. online media publications syndicate their information using news feeds …
(Digital news publishing agencies syndicate information using feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows great information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Most news reporting agencies and leading online media publications include an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier mail rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Leading online newspapers will contain a feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content sections of the site …
(RSS directory. Source: nytimes.com)
These RSS feed items give readers access to different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, sports news, science news, etc.)
An RSS directory can also include feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. To use an RSS feed, all that’s required is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Adding someone else’s content to your website has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)
While adding RSS feeds 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 websites to syndicate your content.
When other websites syndicate content using your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get other websites and blogs to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Overview Of The WordPress Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display as part of your navigation menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed in the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find links and buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on your theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow Us, Link To Us, or Share section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Share, Link To Us, or Follow Us slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar)
4) You can also view your 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 is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …
(RSS content displayed on a Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(RSS feed items viewed using Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you want to show in your RSS page, by going to your Reading Settings section and typing the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed section will show as many recent posts as you have specified section …
(Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles as full text, or just as a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds will display)
For a detailed tutorial about using Post excerpts in WordPress, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of a feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to syndicate and look for their RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon. 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 the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Site
Let’s show you how to add content from another site to your site.
Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you could display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a site containing content that you would like to display on your sidebar and copy its RSS feed URL …
(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in your sidebar …
(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 Content From RSS Feeds To WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of the sidebar?
You can do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ search results)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are a few auto blogging plugins that let you automatically add posts with RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WP Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is an advanced importer that lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of every item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
POWr RSS combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version of this plugin 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 create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a versatile Atom/RSS syndication plugin 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 sites, or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin)
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 the URL of your feed, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin For WordPress)
Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like 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:
Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available to online users, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
You can inspect the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen on a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader 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 – Creating RSS Feeds For Specific Post Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for individual post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 single posts is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website or blog contains content published under multiple categories, you can easily create a separate RSS feed for each category.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(Format for WordPress category feed)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Now, add “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for post categories)
Your feed now only includes content posted under that category …
(Category RSS 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 – Create Your Own RSS Feeds List
You can create a feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Publish Your Own Page Of RSS Feeds)
All you need to do is link an RSS button graphic to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize your feeds in several ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can use and how to create the feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that displays the latest comments posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that includes single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/09/28/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains 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 more thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your feed. Make sure you place a subscribe button somewhere visible …
(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other users to share your content using WordPress and RSS!)
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 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please see our related posts section.
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