No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business is in, it’s vitally important to provide high-quality information to your site users. For example, if your business provides travel services, it’s a good idea to provide users with the latest information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news and updates on travel warnings, advice from consulates, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it requires a huge amount of time and expertise. You have to sift through, gather, 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 continually make sure that this information is 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 entirely beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a much easier way to regularly provide your readers with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Does RSS Stand For?

• RSS, which, according to some experts stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
• RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that their users can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites and blogs that publish feeds and then view any updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate information.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) 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 let you combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates from various sources.

This guide explains where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

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

First, let’s look at syndication.

Global media and digital news publishing agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.

Content syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers the most recent news headlines and content of interest from all around the planet without actually having to employ and post more staff everywhere in the world …

(Media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information. Online newspapers syndicate their information using feeds …

(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share content with other publications)

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 provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.

Many online newspapers provide links to 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”, “calgary herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many online newspapers and major content sites contain a feed section. Source: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different areas of the site …

(RSS feeds list. Image Source: NY Times)

Each of these feed items lets readers access content from different areas of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds …

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you need to do is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Using RSS Feeds – Benefits

Syndicating content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s business and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create that content …

(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)

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 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 new web traffic …

(Try to get other sites to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress Feed – Overview

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on the sidebar or footer, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(Access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)

2) You can also find links or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

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

3) On many sites and again, depending on which theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow, Share, or Link To Us fixed, slide-out, or floating toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Subscribe, Link To Us, or Share fixed, slide-out, or floating toolbar)

4) You can also view your WordPress site’s RSS feed by 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 WP installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

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

(Feed items as seen with a Firefox browser)

Note that your feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …

(Feed entries displayed using Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

Specify how many items you want to show in your RSS page in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)

Your feed will show the number of items you have specified in your Reading Settings 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

Another setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …

(WordPress Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a RSS feed)

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …

(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)

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

• Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button …

(Search 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)

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

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.

How To Add Feeds To WordPress

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

Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could 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 like news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …

(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)

First, Go to a site containing content that you want to display on your site and copy its RSS feed to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WordPress RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• Adding Widgets To Your Sidebar Area

Load your website in your web browser. The content can now be seen on your sidebar …

(RSS Feed Content Added To 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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding RSS Feed Content To Your 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 WordPress plugins. Just search inside your Plugins section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(RSS plugins for WordPress)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.

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)

WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds according to categories and campaigns.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)

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

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress

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.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, borders, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, phone, or computer and supports text in every language.

The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)

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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin 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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine posts from multiple sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(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 your feed URL, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages Plugin

Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts.

You can view your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

(Comments Feed)

Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items viewed using Firefox)

Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which browser you use …

(Comments feed items as seen with Google Chrome)

Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …

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

Tip #2 – Single Item Feeds

Being able to access an RSS feed for single posts 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 using an RSS feed for single posts is shown below:

(Single Post Feed)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds

Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If you publish content under multiple categories, you can easily provide a separate RSS feed for each post category.

All you have to do is use the format shown below:

(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)

Copy the category URL …

(Copy your category link address …)

Now, add “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

Your category RSS feed now only displays content published under that particular category …

(Category-specific 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 Your Own Page Of RSS Feeds

You can create your own directory of feeds that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger websites do …

(Provide A List Of RSS Feeds)

All you need to do is link an image like the one shown below to your category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …

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

To learn more about adding tables to WordPress posts, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Create And Add Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

WordPress RSS – Notes

You can customize feeds in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed formats that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of feeds you can create …

(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image above:

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

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your site
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Feed that includes the latest comments made on specific posts
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – RSS feed that contains the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/02/24/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/11/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Feed that displays latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/

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

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

One last thing …

Remember to let your site users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Place a subscribe buttons somewhere visible …

(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Add someone else’s content and get visitors to share your content 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 🙂

Additional Resources:

• Feed Images – Visit an online resource site like FeedIcons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
• WordPress.org/WordPress Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and information site. Visit this site for more information about feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where 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 their RSS feed.

Hopefully, this article 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 learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section.

***