No matter what product or service your business provides, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information to your site or blog readers. For example, if you provide medical services, it’s a good idea to provide users with useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking sources for accuracy, 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 is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to provide your users with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What You Need To Know
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, video lists, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- You can view RSS feeds with a web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based program called a feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feed readers can be used to access new content published on websites and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed 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 compatibility with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine many RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
This article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. Feeds provide a simple way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at how content syndication is used.
Most online newspapers use syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows many online newspapers and many leading media publications to deliver readers global stories and the latest news items from all around the planet without having to post more news reporting departments to every location around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information. News reporting agencies syndicate their news stories using news feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most leading online media publications include an RSS 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”, “times of india rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major online media publications will include an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a list of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS Feeds. Source: nytimes.com)
gives readers access to content from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, editorials, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also include subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: LA Times RSS)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is 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
Adding someone else’s content to your website has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Using Feeds)
While adding RSS feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to use your content.
When other sites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Try to get other sites to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in a navigation menu …
(The feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles as full text, or just as a summary …
(Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed will display)
We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for a ‘subscribe’ link or button …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can easily add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to 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 content from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed from a website or blog containing content that you want to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in your sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget – e.g. custom menu, footer, etc) …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar Menu)
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 Content From RSS Feeds To WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? Yes, you can!
You can do this using plugins. Search inside the Plugins screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to 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 autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can combine and display content from various sources using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create 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, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication options 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 FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog)
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, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed 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 comments posted on your site.
You can inspect your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items viewed on a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Item RSS Feeds
Being able to access an RSS feed for single posts 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 making an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:
(Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the web address 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 a post, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the category link address …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(WP category RSS feed format)
The category RSS feed now only includes content published in 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 – Provide Your Own RSS Feeds Page
You can set up your own RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds Page)
You can also link an RSS button graphic like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button graphic. Image: 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 posts, see this tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed formats that do not require editing code. Here are some examples of custom feed types you can use and how to structure these feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram 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 – Feed containing the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed containing a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed containing the latest comments made on an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/11/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/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: Displays latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link in a visible location …
(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other users to syndicate your content using 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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS images.
- 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 helping the general public gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about RSS.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Go here for additional information about WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WordPress web content publishing software please see our related posts section.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum