No matter what service or product your business sells, providing high-value information on your site or blog is important. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, writing and editing 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 lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to continually provide your site readers with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition And Overview
- RSS, which, according to some experts stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that subscribers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- You can view RSS feeds using software-based tools called feed readers, or aggregators. Feed readers are used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to many online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. 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 machines, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
In this detailed article, we explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) way to share content online. RSS Feeds provide web users with an easy way to keep up with the latest information published on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s take a look at the concept of syndication.
Global media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows most online newspapers to deliver readers fresh news and content of interest from around the planet without having to post more reporters and content writers everywhere around the world …
(Most online newspapers use syndication to publish stories from news sources around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. online media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Online newspapers syndicate stories using news feeds)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies and major online media publications include an RSS 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”, “nz herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most online newspapers and major content sites will have a feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content sections of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives readers access to information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, sports news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Adding someone else’s content to your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s site additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content 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 without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives you the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – Overview
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …
(The feed will display the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts in your feed as full text, or a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feeds appear)
We have written a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:
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 an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for an RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites or blogs to your WordPress site.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Go to a site containing content that you would like to add to your site and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content should appear on your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …
(RSS Feed Added To WordPress 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 Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a few autoblogging plugins for WordPress that allow you to automatically create posts with RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WP Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress site.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication for WordPress.
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.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress 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 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)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
To inspect the comments in your feed, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors display in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed using a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content displayed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the 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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Item RSS Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for a single post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 individual posts is shown below:
(Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post address, WordPress will return the comments made on that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from a specific post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your site contains content published under different categories, you can provide a separate feed for each of these categories.
Just use the format below:
(RSS feed format for post categories)
Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
Your feed now only contains content published in this 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 – Publish Your Own Page Of Feeds For Subscribers
You can publish a feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific categories …
(Set Up A Directory Of Feeds)
You can link an image like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with creating tables in WordPress posts and pages, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed types that do not require editing code. Here are some examples of feed types you can use and how to create these feeds …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments published on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/03/03/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest post 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 feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link or button in a visible location …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content to your site and get others to share your content using RSS feeds!)
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 RSS Resources:
- Feed Images – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS buttons”, 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 RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – WordPress documentation and information. Visit this site to learn more about using RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress please see other posts on this site.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)