No matter what what industry you are a part of, providing high-value information to your site users is vitally important. For example, if you provide travel-related services, you may want to publish useful information from government and foreign travel departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, tips from consulates, etc.

The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it takes a huge amount of time and resources. You have to do a ton of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually 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.

Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with the latest information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the easiest way to provide your readers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Is RSS?

• RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to 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 users time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news headlines, audios, etc., which any user can then subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their web content automatically.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and 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 that feeds are compatible with different machines and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also let you combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple sites.

In this in-depth article, we explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing web content. Feeds provide online users with a way to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

News reporting agencies and many influential online media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.

Syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news headlines and stories from around the planet without having to post additional news reporting departments to every location in the world …

(News reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources all around the globe.)

Syndication is used to share content legitimately with other sites. News reporting agencies syndicate their news stories using news feeds …

(Content syndication is used by online newspapers to share content with other news publications)

Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

Many news reporting agencies provide links to a feed section (look for links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major sites include a feed section. Image: SMH RSS )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …

(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com)

gives readers access to different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further subcategories …

(Feed sections can also include subcategories. Image: latimes.com feeds)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

The Benefits Of Syndicating Content

Adding content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s content additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …

(Using RSS Feeds - Benefits)

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 sites to syndicate YOUR content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …

(It’s a good idea to get users to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

Overview Of The WordPress Feed

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 WordPress theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a navigation menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(Meta widget – Accessing your RSS feed)

2) You can also find links and buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On many websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow Us, Links, or Share floating, fixed, or slide-out toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Link To Us, or Subscribe fixed, floating, or slide-out toolbar)

4) You can also view your WordPress RSS feed by simply 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 site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS feed …

(Feed items seen on a Firefox browser)

Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …

(RSS feed entries as seen using a Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

To specify how many items you would like displayed in your Feeds page, 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)

The feed section will display the number of posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …

(The feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …

(WordPress Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your feed)

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how a feed appears)

We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:

• How To Use Post Excerpts In WordPress

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s see how this works.

First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for an RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for an RSS feed button. 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 the feed into an online feedreader …

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

Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.

How To Add A Feed To WordPress Sites

In the example below, we’ll add content sourced from another website to yours.

Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you could add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their 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 …

(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)

First, go to a website or blog containing content that you want to add to your site and copy its RSS feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WP RSS Widget)

To learn more about using widgets, go here:

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

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now display in your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …

(RSS Feed Added To 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:

• How To Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add A Feed To Your Posts

Can content from an RSS feed be added to posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, it can!

You can do this using plugins. Search inside your ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(WordPress RSS plugins)

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

The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds according to categories and campaigns.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)

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

The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of every item in your feed as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)

With POWr RSS Feed, you can combine and display content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.

This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.

The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes – WordPress 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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin)

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 FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress WP Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog Plugin)

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, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages)

RSS Includes Pages lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin

Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments.

You can view these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items viewed on Firefox)

Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …

(Comments feed entries viewed with Google Chrome)

Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …

(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the 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 site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Displaying Individual Post RSS Feeds

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 directories, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.

The formula for creating an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:

(Specific Post RSS Feed)

To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual post content itself.

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

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

WordPress allows you to create category feeds.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(WordPress category RSS feed format)

Copy the selected category URL to your clipboard …

(Select and copy your category link address …)

And add “feed” to the end of it …

(WP category feed format)

The RSS feed will now only contain content published in that particular category …

(Category-specific 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 Your Own Directory Of Feeds For Subscribers

You can set up a list of feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large websites …

(Set Up Your Own Page Of Feeds)

Link a button image like the one shown below to your category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a new page …

(RSS graphic. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress content here:

• Creating And Inserting Tables With WordPress

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

You can customize RSS 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 several feed formats without touching code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed types you can create …

(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 table above:

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

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – RSS feed displaying the latest comments left on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed containing a post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – RSS feed that includes latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/08/22/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Displays latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/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 items for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Displays 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 feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button somewhere visible …

(Promote your feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Add great content to your site and get online users to subscribe to 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 RSS feed 🙂

Additional Resources:

• Feed Icons – Visit an online resource site like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS images.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress software documentation repository. Go here for additional information about feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know 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 via RSS.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To read more about using the WordPress website publishing software please see our related posts section.

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