No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is a part of, providing high-value information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if you provide medical services, it’s a good idea to provide users with the latest information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a lot of data, 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 up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to provide your readers with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your site visitors with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Is It?
- RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their browser constantly monitors the site and keeps feed subscribers automatically updated.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news, audio lists, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate information.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feed readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from different sources.
In this comprehensive article, we will explain how 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 their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used to share content online. RSS Feeds provide a way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Online media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies around the world.
Syndication allows news reporting agencies and many leading online publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute headlines from around the planet without having to post additional news reporting agencies everywhere around the world …
(Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the planet.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. online media publications syndicate information using feeds …
(News publishers syndicate their content using feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and leading online media publications will contain an RSS 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”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major online media publications include an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Image Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these RSS feed items allows readers to access content from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, health news, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also include further feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. All that’s required to use the feed is to copy the URL and paste it into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Using RSS Feeds
Adding content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s business additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Try to get other sites to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)
Your WordPress RSS
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget as part of your navigation menu …
(Your feed page will show the number of posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles as full text, or just a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed appears)
If you need help using Post excerpts in WordPress, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search 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 what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into readable content.
How To Add RSS Feeds To WordPress
Let’s show you how to add content sourced from another website or blog to yours.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, 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 adding content from their feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook 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 your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed from a website or blog containing content that you want to add to your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content will now appear in your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been added) …
(RSS Feed Content Added To 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:
Adding Content From RSS Feeds To WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? You sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search inside the Plugins screen for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of autoblogging plugins that let you create posts with feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange them according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from a number of different RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
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 functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible Atom/RSS 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 FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages WP Plugin)
Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed and not just posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts.
To access this, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (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 display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items displayed on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(RSS comments feed entries displayed on a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the 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 – Displaying Individual Post RSS Feeds
Being able to display an RSS feed for a specific post 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 an individual post item is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website or blog contains content published under many categories, WordPress allows you to offer visitors a separate RSS feed for each post category.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(Use this format for WP category feed)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the category URL …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
The category RSS feed will now only display content published in this 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 – Set Up Your Own List Of RSS Feeds For Your Visitors
You can set up a directory of RSS feeds for subscribers that allows your readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large websites …
(Set Up Your Own List Of Feeds For Visitors)
All you need to do is link an RSS graphic to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all your 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 inserting tables into WordPress posts, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize your RSS in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations that do not require editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed types you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for a post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that displays the latest comments made on individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/11/18/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest posts 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 let visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe button somewhere visible …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to 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 will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add someone else’s content and get others to syndicate your content with WordPress and 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 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- RSS Graphics – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and information site. Go here for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites to your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this information 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 read more about using the WordPress web site management platform please see our related posts section.
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