No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business is in, it’s vitally important to provide quality information on your site or blog. For example, if you provide taxation services, it’s a good idea to provide users with information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, research, 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 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 an easier way to keep your readers up-to-date with your information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your subscribers with great information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Is RSS?

• RSS, which, according to some experts is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “news feed”.
• After users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news, videos, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an 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 any updates posted on these websites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their content automatically.
• There are different feed formats and these can be 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 compatibility with different devices and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates from various sources.

In this comprehensive article, we show you 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 and blogs on your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

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

First, let’s look at content syndication.

Global media publications use content syndication to publish stories from news agencies around the world.

Content syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers interesting stories and up-to-the-minute news from all around the globe without having to send more writers everywhere in the world …

(Many online newspapers and highly-visited online media publications rely on syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. online media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …

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

Most sites actually would like you to share their information. Content syndication not only allows valuable information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.

Many online newspapers and major online media publications provide links to a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “times of india rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major content sites include an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a list of different RSS feeds …

(A directory of RSS feeds. Image Source: New York Times)

These feeds give readers access to information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain feed subcategories …

(RSS Feed section. Image: Los Angeles Times)

Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Content Syndication – Benefits

Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s business and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …

(The Benefits Of Content Syndication)

While adding RSS 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 sites to syndicate your content.

When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …

(Get visitors to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)

Your WordPress RSS Feed

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

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

1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your sidebar or footer …

(Your feed will display as many recent items you have specified in the WordPress 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 feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or a summary …

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

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …

(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content displays)

We have written a detailed tutorial about WordPress Post excerpts here:

• How To Use Post Excerpts In WordPress

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all you have to do 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 show you how this works.

First, find a website or blog and search for their RSS feed link …

(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL)

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

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

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

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site

In the example below, we’ll add content sourced from another website to your site.

Adding RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could easily add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their feed. You can easily 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 RSS content to your sidebar …

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

copy the RSS feed URL from a website containing content that you want to display on your site …

(Copy the feed URL)

Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In The Site

Refresh your browser. The content will now display on your sidebar (or wherever you have placed the RSS widget) …

(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

How To Add Content From RSS Feeds To Posts

Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post? Yes, you can!

You can do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside the Plugins admin screen for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ search results)

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

Here are a number of plugins that you can use to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your posts and pages:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)

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

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

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

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

The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.

The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes WP Plugin)

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

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress is a versatile 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 site (sites that combine and display posts from different sources), or bring together all your online activity in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, 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:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)

Install RSS Includes Pages 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:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin

Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your latest posts.

You can see this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area …

(Comments Feed)

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

(Comments feed entries displayed on Firefox web browser)

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

(Comments feed entries displayed with a Google Chrome browser)

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

(Paste your comments 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 WordPress site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Accessing Specific Post Feeds

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 using an RSS feed for an individual post is shown below:

(Individual Post RSS Feed)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds

Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from a particular category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If your website or blog contains content published under multiple categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each different category.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Select and copy your category URL …)

Add “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

The category feed will now only include content posted under that particular category …

(Category-specific RSS 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 – Provide Your Own Feeds List

You can provide your own page of RSS feeds on your site that allows your readers to subscribe to specific content …

(Publish Your Own RSS Feeds List)

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

(RSS button. Image: 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 content, see this tutorial:

• Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress

RSS – Notes

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

WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can use …

(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)

For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown 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 – Displays the latest comments left on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Feed that contains latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/10/06/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/03/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Feed displaying the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Feed displaying the 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 visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place a subscribe button or link somewhere visible …

(Encourage your visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Easily add great content to your site and get other users 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 RSS feed 🙂

Resources:

• Feed Icons – Visit feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the benefits of using RSS.
• WordPress.org/RSS Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and information. Go here for additional 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 content from other sites on your site via RSS feeds.

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 learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please see our related posts section.

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