No matter what service or product your business sells, it’s vitally important to provide high-quality information on your site or blog. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s not a bad idea to publish information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.

To create and publish this kind of information, however, involves a huge amount of effort and resources. You have to do a ton of information gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (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 beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a simpler way to regularly provide your site visitors with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the simplest way to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

Basic Information About RSS

• RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
• RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news headlines, audio lists, etc., which any user can choose to 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, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different 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 machines and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to receive news and updates from multiple sources.

This in-depth article explains where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide a way for online users to keep up with the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

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

Content syndication allows news reporting agencies and popular media publications to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics and up-to-the-minute news from all around the globe without actually having to set up more staff in every location in the world …

(Online newspapers rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the planet.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. Digital news publishers syndicate information using news feeds …

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

Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows great information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

Many online newspapers and major online media publications contain a 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”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most online newspapers and major sites have a feed section. Source: SMH RSS )

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

(RSS directory. Source: NY Times RSS)

These feeds give you access to different areas of the site (e.g. business news, entertainment news, editorials, etc.)

An RSS feed directory can also include further feed subcategories …

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: LA Times)

Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. All that’s required to use a feed is copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

RSS Feeds – Benefits

Syndicating someone else’s content on your website 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 …

(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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to syndicate your content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive new visitors …

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

Overview Of The WordPress Feed

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:

1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on your sidebar …

(Your feed will show 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 your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles in the feed as full text, or just as a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

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

(Post excerpts can affect how content in feeds will display)

If you need help WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:

• Post Excerpts A Practical Guide For Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, go to a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button or link using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button. 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 the feed into an online feed reader …

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

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

How To Add An RSS Feed To WordPress Sites

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

Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing 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 RSS content to the WordPress sidebar …

(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)

First, go to a site that publishes content that you want to display on your site and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL)

Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(WordPress RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In The WordPress Blog Sidebar Area

Refresh your browser. The content should appear in the sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget – e.g. footer) …

(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 Feeds To Your Posts

What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of the sidebar?

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

(RSS plugins for WordPress)

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

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

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico WP Plugin)

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

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them according to categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico WP Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you import RSS feeds directly into WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)

RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.

The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in the feed as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer WP Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from various content using RSS feeds.

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

The premium version of this plugin contains a number of 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 – WordPress 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 loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress)

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

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog WP Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types modifies RSS feeds to include pages and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts.

You can inspect the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …

(Comments RSS)

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

(Comments feed entries viewed on Firefox web browser)

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

(Comments feed items seen on Google Chrome web browser)

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

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

Tip #2 – Displaying RSS Feeds For Single Items

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

(Specific 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 append “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds

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

With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(WordPress post categories feed format)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Copy the category URL …)

Append the word “feed” to the end of it …

(Use this format for WordPress category feed)

Your category RSS feed now only contains content posted under this particular category …

(Category RSS 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 – Create A Directory Of RSS Feeds

You can set up an RSS feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific categories …

(Publish Your Own Directory Of Feeds For Your Subscribers)

You can link an image to each feed URL and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …

(RSS image. Source: public-domain-photos.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about adding tables to WordPress posts here:

• Adding Tables In WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed formats 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 listed above:

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

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Feed that includes the latest comments posted on your website or blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed that includes single posts
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Feed for the latest comments made on specific items
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/01/11/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Displays latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/04/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Includes latest post 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 your subscribe buttons somewhere visible …

(Encourage visitors to syndicate your feeds!)

Keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if you publish great content. In other words, you must provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add someone else’s content and get online users to share your content using 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 🙂

RSS – Resources:

• Download RSS Feed Icons – Visit FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
• WordPress.org – WordPress software documentation and reference site. Go here for additional 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 display content from other websites on your site via RSS feeds.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other posts on this site.

***