No matter what what industry you belong to, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your readers. For example, if you provide insurance services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.

The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to sort through, research, and organize a ton of information, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually 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 entirely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with the latest information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What You Need To Know

• RSS, which, according to some stands for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
• Once users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for content updates. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the feed and keep subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, video playlists, etc., which users can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate web content automatically.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from multiple sources.

This guide shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way of sharing content online. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

Media publications use syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.

Syndication allows most content publishing agencies and influential online publications to deliver readers the most recent stories and news items from around the globe without having to post more reporters everywhere around the world …

(Global media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the planet.)

Syndication is used to share content legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate stories using news feeds …

(Online newspapers syndicate their content using news feeds)

Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.

Many online newspapers have a feed section (look for links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “international herald tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Leading digital news publishing agencies include an RSS feed section. Image: SMH )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different areas of the site …

(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com)

gives you access to information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, editorials, etc.)

Feed sections can also include subcategories …

(Feed sections can also contain subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: A feed is just 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 Syndicating Content

Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your website 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 Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)

While adding 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 websites to use your content.

When other websites syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …

(Get other websites to syndicate content using your feed … it will help to increase your exposure online!)

About Your WordPress RSS Feed

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites.

Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(WordPress Meta section – Accessing your RSS feed)

2) You can also find built-in links and buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On some websites and again, depending on your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow, Social Share, or Links toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Social Share, or Link To Us toolbar section)

4) You can also view your WordPress feed by simply 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 WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS page …

(Feed entries viewed using a Firefox browser)

Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which browser you use …

(Feed entries displayed using a Google Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

To specify how many items you would like displayed in your RSS section, go to your Reading Settings section and select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WP Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)

Your feed section will display as many recent items you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …

(Your feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in your Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

The other setting in your 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 …

(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

(Post excerpts affect how content in feeds display)

To learn more about Post excerpts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Post Excerpts Explained

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s see how this works.

First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button …

(Look for an RSS feed button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL)

If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)

Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.

How To Add Feeds To WordPress

In the example below, we are going to add content from other websites and blogs to yours.

Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can easily display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the feed URL from a site that publishes content that you want to add to your sidebar to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Site

Load your site in your web browser. The content should now display on the sidebar …

(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress Sidebar)

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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding Content From RSS Feeds To Posts

Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post? Yes, it can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside your Plugins screen for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ section)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.

The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them into campaigns.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with a number of premium add-ons for extended functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)

The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in the feed as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, tablets, and computers and supports text in all languages.

The premium plugin edition contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes)

The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress 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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress)

FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress.

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 plugin to create aggregator site (sites that combine posts from many different sources), or bring together all of your online activity into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress

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 the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages WP Plugin)

The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies your default WordPress RSS feed to include pages and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.

To view your comments feed, go to the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed entries displayed on a Firefox web browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …

(Comments feed entries viewed on a Google Chrome web browser)

Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …

(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: 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 website or blog is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Individual Post Items

Being able to select an RSS feed for single post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.

The formula for displaying an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:

(Single Post Feed)

To create the above feed, copy the post address, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments made on that post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Using 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 your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.

Just use the format below:

(Use this format for WP post categories feed)

Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …

(Copy your category link address …)

Append “feed” to the end of it …

(WordPress category RSS feed format)

The category RSS feed will now only include content specific to this particular category …

(Category 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 – Create An RSS Feeds List

You can publish your own list of feeds for your subscribers that allows your readers to subscribe to specific categories, just like large online publishers …

(Create A Page Of Feeds)

All you need to do is link a button like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …

(RSS button image. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

To learn more about creating tables in WordPress pages and posts, go here:

• How To Easily Create And Insert Tables Into WordPress Pages And Posts Without Programming Skills

RSS – Additional Notes

RSS feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed types without editing code. Here are some examples of custom feed types you can use on your site and how to format the feeds …

(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)

For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – contains your latest entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments posted on your website
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed containing single items
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed that displays the latest comments made on an individual post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Contains latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/06/26/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/02/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Includes the latest posts for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: RSS feed displaying the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One last thing …

Remember to promote your RSS feed. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link in a visible location …

(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if the information that you publish on your site is useful, educational, or highly entertaining. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Easily add great content to your site and get other sites to subscribe to your content with 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:

• RSS Icons – Visit sites like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – General information about RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation repository. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.

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 on your site using their RSS feed.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using the WP software please click on links to visit our related posts section.

***