No matter what product or service your business sells, you need to provide high-quality information to your site visitors. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with useful information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it requires a huge amount of time and resources. You have to sort through, research, and organize a lot of information, check your facts, 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 a simpler way to keep your readers up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your site readers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Does It Mean?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news, videos, etc., which users can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be read using a software called a feedreader, or feed aggregator. Feed readers can be used to access new content published on websites and distribute this content (and any updates made to the content) online.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed readers. 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 compatibility with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to receive news and updates from different sources.
In this comprehensive guide, we show you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Most news reporting agencies use syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows most digital content publishers and influential media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news from around the planet without having to employ and send more reporters to every location around the world …
(Digital content publishing agencies use syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate their information using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share content with other news publications)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information of great value 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 significant web traffic.
Many news publishers and major online media publications provide links to an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “miami herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most leading online media publications provide links to a feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives readers access to different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also include subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you have to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s website and helps you by freeing you up from having to create the 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 worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to use YOUR content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Look for ways to get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress Feed – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your sidebar or footer …
(The feed page will display as many recent items you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content displays)
If you need help WordPress Post excerpts, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and look for their RSS feed section …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ icon or 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 URL of your feed into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.
How To Add RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites
Let’s show you how to add content from other websites to your site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you can easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a website or blog that publishes content that you want to display on your site to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the 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 adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen in your sidebar …
(RSS Feed 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:
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ section for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of autoblogging plugins that let you create new using RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with a number of premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, computers, and tablets and supports text in all languages.
The premium 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:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication options for WordPress site-generated content.
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 bring together posts from multiple sources), or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)
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, 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 and Custom Post Types Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types modifies RSS feeds to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your post comments.
You can view this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar …
(Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors display in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen on a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS comments feed content displayed using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: Feedreader.com)
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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Specific Post Items
Being able to use an RSS feed for individual 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 accessing an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:
(Feed For Individual Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post URL, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …)
And append “feed” to the end of it …
(WP category feed format)
The RSS feed now only includes content posted under this 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 – Publish An RSS Feeds Directory
You can create a feeds directory that allows readers to subscribe only to specific categories, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Publish A Page Of Feeds)
Link an icon like the one shown below to your category (or specific post) feeds and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …
(RSS graphic. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress content, see this tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Notes
You can customize feeds in various different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed types that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of feeds you can use …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed displaying the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that displays single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/10/21/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/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: Displays latest entries 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 feeds. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link somewhere visible …
(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if your content is useful, informative, or highly engaging. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get visitors to syndicate 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 feed 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Images – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org/Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Visit this site to learn more about WordPress RSS.
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 someone else’s content on your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, you now have 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 the benefits of using the WP content management software please see other posts we have published on this site.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com