No matter what service or product your business provides, providing high-value information to your site readers is essential. For example, if your business provides medical services, you may want to include the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure 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 much easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your site readers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition And Overview
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for updated content. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog posts, news, audio lists, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be read with software called RSS readers, or aggregators. Feedreaders are used to find content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content online.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different machines, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from many different sources.
This in-depth article explains where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites to your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide online users with a simple way to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s look at syndication.
News reporting agencies rely on syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows most digital content publishers to deliver readers global stories and the latest newsworthy items from all around the planet without actually having to post additional news writers to every location around the world …
(News reporting agencies and popular online media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. Digital news publishing agencies syndicate their news stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share newsworthy content with other publications)
Most sites actually want you to share their content. 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 and major sites contain a feed section (look for menu links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “calgary herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Leading online newspapers include an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
These feed items give you access to information from different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also include further feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: Los Angeles Times)
Note: A feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you need 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.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s business additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
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 your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
Your WordPress Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on your sidebar or footer menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta widget)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors 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 feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Subscribe, or Link To Us fixed, floating, or slide-out toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Social Share, or Link To Us floating, slide-out, or fixed toolbar)
4) You can also view your feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(RSS feed entries viewed on a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS entries viewed on Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you want to show in your RSS Feed section, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)
Your feed will display as many recent items you have specified section …
(The feed will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or just a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed displays)
If you need help using excerpts in WordPress Posts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you need to do to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for their RSS feed link 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 the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other websites to your site.
How To Add Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, 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 RSS feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a website that publishes content that you would like to display on your site and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WordPress RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed – e.g. custom menu) …
(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:
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your ’Add Plugins’ section for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins listed below are useful for adding feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer can be used to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer 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:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from various sources using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium version of POWr contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication options for WordPress site-generated content.
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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that bring together posts from various different sources), or display all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, 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 and Custom Post Types WP Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies the default WordPress RSS feed to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
You can access this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed entries viewed with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: 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 – Using Specific Post RSS 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 posts 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 an individual post item is shown below:
(Single Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If you publish content under different categories, you can provide a separate RSS feed for each category.
Just use the format shown below:
(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)
Your feed will now only include content assigned to that particular category …
(Category 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 – Create Your Own RSS Feeds Page
You can set up an RSS feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …
(Publish A Page Of Feeds)
All you need to do is link an icon to category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress content, see this tutorial:
RSS – Notes
You can customize RSS in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed types without code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed types 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 – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for individual items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/12/27/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed that includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to let your users know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Make sure you place a subscribe button image somewhere visible …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if you publish useful information that educates, engages, and entertains. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add content from other sites and get other users to share your content with RSS feeds!)
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:
- RSS Icons – Visit online resource sites like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress.org/RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation. Go here for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
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 add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials 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