No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is in, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information to your site users. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, it’s a good idea to provide users with useful information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.

The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it involves a lot of effort and resources. You have to do a lot of information sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, writing and editing 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 beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your subscribers with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – Basic Information

• RSS, which, according to some is short for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
• When users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the content and keep subscribers automatically updated.
• Feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog posts, news, video lists, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
• You can view the content of RSS feeds using programs called RSS readers, or aggregators. Aggregators are used to access content on all kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and updates made to the content) to various online properties.
• There are different feed formats and these can be 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 tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from different sources.

In this in-depth article, we will show you where your RSS feed is located, 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 their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way to share web content. RSS Feeds provide online users with a way to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites and blogs.

First, let’s look at syndication.

Digital news publishing agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from content sources around the world.

Content syndication allows many news reporting agencies and influential media publications to deliver readers the latest news headlines and stories from all over the globe without actually having to hire more reporters everywhere around the world …

(Most online newspapers and leading media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content. Global media publications syndicate their content using feeds …

(Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

Most digital publishers include an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most leading online media publications contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )

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

(RSS feeds list. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

gives readers access to different sections of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, science news, etc.)

An RSS feed directory can also contain further feed subcategories …

(Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: A feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Syndicating Content – Benefits

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

(Syndicating Content Has Many Benefits!)

While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other sites to use YOUR content.

When other sites syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)

About Your WordPress RSS

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

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

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed 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 and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.

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

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

3) On some websites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Social Share, or Follow slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar …

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

4) You can also view your 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 website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your WordPress RSS feed …

(RSS items displayed with a Firefox browser)

Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …

(Feed entries as seen using a Google Chrome web browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many entries you want displayed in your RSS Feed page in the Reading Settings section. Enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WP Reading Settings – Syndication items field)

The feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified section …

(Your feed page will display as many recent 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 the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a RSS feed)

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …

(Post excerpts affect how content in feeds will display)

For a detailed tutorial on Post excerpts, go here:

• WordPress Post Excerpts An Overview

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 an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and look for an RSS feed icon using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)

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 feed reader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader.com)

Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site

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

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …

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

copy the RSS feed from a website or blog containing content that you would like to add to your site to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL)

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

(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In The Sidebar Menu

Load your website in your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now display on the 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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts

Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? You sure can!

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ screen)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.

Here are a few autoblogging plugins that let you automatically create new using RSS feeds and imported content:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin)

WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with additional functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).

For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer WP 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 site.

The plugin 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 For WordPress

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)

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

This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.

The premium plugin version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed 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 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 posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication options 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 plugin to create aggregator site (sites that combine content from different sources), or display all of your online activity in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog

(Autoblog WP 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 to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages WP Plugin)

By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you want to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin

Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available to online users, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.

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

(Comments RSS)

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

(Comments feed items displayed with a Firefox web browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …

(Comments feed items viewed on Google Chrome)

Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …

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

Tip #2 – Accessing Single Item Feeds

Being able to display an RSS feed for a single post 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 specific posts is shown below:

(RSS Feed For Individual Post Item)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

If your website or blog publishes content under several categories, you can easily provide a separate RSS feed for each category.

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

(Feed format for post categories)

Copy the selected category URL …

(Select and copy your category link address …)

Append “feed” to the end of it …

(Feed format for category)

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

(Category 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 RSS Feeds Page

You can set up a directory of RSS feeds for your subscribers that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …

(Publish A Feeds List)

You can also link an icon like the one shown below to category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …

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

If you need help with creating tables in WordPress pages and posts, go here:

• How To Insert Tables Into Your Content In WordPress

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

You can customize RSS in a number of ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure several feed formats that do not require messing with code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed formats you can display …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:

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

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed for individual posts
• 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 single post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/06/05/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Contains 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 RSS feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ buttons somewhere visible …

(Promote your feeds!)

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

(Add great content to your site and get other users to subscribe to 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 – Additional Resources:

• Download RSS Feed Icons – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphics.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation and information site. Visit this site to learn more about RSS feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues 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 please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site.

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