No matter what product or service you sell or what industry your business is in, it’s important to provide quality information on your site or blog. For example, if your business provides medical services, it’s a good idea to provide users with information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to sift through, research, and organize a ton of information, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually kept 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.
Fortunately, there is a much simpler way to continually provide your site readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your site readers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What You Need To Know About RSS
- RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, video lists, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
- You can read an RSS feed with a software-based program called a feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feedreaders are used to access new content published on websites and syndicate this content to other sites.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF 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 receive news and updates sourced from various sites.
In this in-depth guide, we explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way to share content online. Feeds provide a simple way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at how content syndication is used.
Media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows news publishing agencies to deliver readers up-to-the-minute newsworthy items from around the globe without having to hire and set up more content writers in every place around the world …
(Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. online media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share newsworthy content with other news publications)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Most news reporting agencies and major sites contain an RSS feed section (look for navigation links 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.) …
(Major sites contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS Feeds. Image: nytimes.com)
Each of these feed items lets readers access different sections of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, health news, etc.)
Feed sections can also include further subcategory feeds …
(A feed list can also include subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do 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.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s website additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content - Benefits)
While adding RSS feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to use YOUR content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress Feed – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in a navigation menu …
(Your feed page will show as many recent items you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or just a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed appears)
For a detailed tutorial about using excerpts in WordPress Posts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for their RSS feed button …
(Search for an RSS feed section. Image source: 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 your feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.
Adding Feeds To WordPress Sites
Let’s show you how to add content from another website or blog’s RSS feeds to yours.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed URL from a site that publishes content that you want to display on your site …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on 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
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of the sidebar? You sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you select.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them according to categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the entire content of every item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, 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 – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress content.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
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
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (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)
By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. You can use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts.
You can inspect your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items viewed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS comments feed entries seen with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: Feedreader)
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 site is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Specific Item Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for individual post items 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 accessing an RSS feed for specific post items 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 Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from a specific post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website or blog displays content published under different categories, WordPress allows you to easily offer subscribers a separate RSS feed for each category.
Just use the format below:
(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
The feed now only contains content posted under that particular category …
(Category-specific 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 – Provide Your Own Page Of Feeds For Subscribers
You can provide your own feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to specific categories …
(Set Up An RSS Feeds Page)
You can link a button graphic like the one shown below to each feed URL and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button graphic. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress content here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
You can customize RSS in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed formats you can use and how to format your feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed for the latest comments made on individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/12/26/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed that contains latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed that includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/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: Displays the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Place a subscribe button or link in a visible location …
(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if your information is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add content to your site and get other users to syndicate your content using 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 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Go here for additional information about feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other sites on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other great content on this site.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group