No matter what what industry you are a part of, it’s vitally important to provide high-quality information to your site or blog users. For example, if your business provides health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it requires an enormous amount of time and expertise. You have to do a ton of information gathering, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is kept 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 entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your site visitors with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Mean?
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- Once a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the feed and keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, videos, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
- RSS feed content can be viewed using software called RSS feed readers, or feed aggregators. Feedreaders can be used to find content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content to various online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed 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 devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates from several different sources.
In this in-depth article, we explain where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Online media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish content from news sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading digital content agencies to deliver readers global stories and up-to-the-minute newsworthy content from all around the globe without actually having to hire additional news reporting and content writing teams all around the world …
(News reporting agencies use content syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. Online newspapers syndicate stories using feeds …
(Digital content publishing agencies syndicate news stories using feeds)
Most sites actually would like you to share their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies and major sites provide links to 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”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most news reporting agencies and major sites will contain a feed section. Image: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds list. Source: New York Times RSS)
These feeds give readers access to content from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also include further feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: Los Angeles Times)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you have to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s content and helps you by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
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 use YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase traffic!)
WordPress Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in your navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed from the Meta section)
2) You can also find built-in links and buttons on certain WordPress 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 feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some sites and again, depending on your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Follow Us, or Social Share toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Links, or Follow toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress feed by typing your site’s URL into a 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 page …
(RSS feed items seen on Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(RSS feed entries displayed on a Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you would like to show in your Feeds 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 …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified section …
(Your feed will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed will display)
If you need help Post excerpts, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you have to do to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for their RSS feed button …
(Look for an RSS feed link. 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 feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can easily add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as 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 your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content should appear 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:
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar? It sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
Here are some plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your posts and pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you select.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a popular, feature-rich importer that allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin 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 Plugin For WordPress)
With POWr RSS Feed, you can automatically combine and display content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress 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 provides flexible syndication for WordPress 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 FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that bring together content from various different sources), or display all 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 very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply 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
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies your RSS feeds to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available to online users.
You can see your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed items viewed on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
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 is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for single posts 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 individual posts is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post URL, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your site displays content published under many categories, WordPress allows you to easily provide a separate feed for each of your categories.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(Format for WP category feed)
Copy the selected category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
And add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)
The RSS feed now only contains content specific to that 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 A Feeds Directory
You can provide a list of RSS feeds for visitors that allows your readers to subscribe to specific categories …
(Create A Directory Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers)
Link a button graphic to each category feed and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button image. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
We have written a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
Feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows several feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed formats you can display …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed that contains the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that includes specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – RSS feed that includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/05/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed displaying the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/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 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 RSS feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add someone else’s content and get online users to share your content using RSS!)
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:
- Download RSS Buttons – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and information repository. Go here for more information about WordPress RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via 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 using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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