No matter what your business provides or what industry you are a part of, it’s important to provide quality information to your site or blog users. For example, if your business provides travel services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with information from government departments and foreign travel offices, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from consular offices, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it requires a great deal of effort and expertise. You have to do a lot of information gathering, researching and organizing, checking sources for accuracy, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually kept 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 entirely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a much easier way to continually provide your site visitors with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What Does It Mean?

• RSS, which, according to some is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “news feed”.
• After a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., which users can choose to subscribe to.
• RSS feeds can be viewed using software programs called RSS feed readers, or aggregators. Aggregators are used to find content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and any updates made to the content) to other sites.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (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 allow you to combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from various websites.

This comprehensive guide explains where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites to your site using their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide online users with an easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different sites.

First, let’s take a look at syndication.

Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish news from news sources all around the world.

Syndication allows leading online newspapers to deliver readers global stories and the latest news from all over the globe without actually having to set up more news reporting and content writing staff in every location in the world …

(Global media publications use syndication to publish content from other news agencies all around the globe.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content with other sites. online media publications syndicate information using feeds …

(News reporting agencies syndicate their information using feeds)

Most websites actually want you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information 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 provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.

Many online newspapers and major content sites provide links to a feed section (look for links in their navigation section that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “miami herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many news reporting agencies and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald )

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

(RSS feeds directory. Source: New York Times)

These feed items give readers access to content from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, sports news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories …

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)

Note: A feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Using Feeds – Benefits

Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …

(Using Feeds Has Many Benefits!)

While adding a 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 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 increased exposure online and drive more visitors …

(Consider trying to get users to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

Your WordPress Feed

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their sites.

Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:

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

(WordPress Meta widget – Entries RSS)

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

For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe” 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, slide-out, or floating toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Social Share, or Link To Us toolbar section)

4) You can also view your WordPress RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WordPress installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

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

(RSS items seen on Firefox browser)

Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …

(RSS content viewed with a Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many items you would like to show in your Feeds section, by going to your Reading Settings section and entering the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WordPress Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)

Your feed section will show the number of items you have specified in your Reading Settings section …

(The feed page will display the number of 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 WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles in your feed as full text, or as a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your RSS feed)

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …

(Post excerpts affect how a feed appears)

We have created a detailed tutorial about using WordPress Post excerpts here:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you need 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 show you how this works.

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

(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link. Image source: 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 your feed into a feedreader …

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

Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site

Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another website to yours.

Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you could easily add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from 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 content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …

(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the RSS feed URL from a site that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar 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 …

(RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To The Website

Refresh your browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget) …

(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 Feed Content To WordPress Posts

Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of the sidebar? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins for WordPress)

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

Here are a few plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin)

WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into campaigns and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is a popular, feature-rich importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)

The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress site.

RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the entire content of each feed item as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)

POWr RSS Feed automatically combines and displays content from various RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom borders, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.

The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin)

The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to 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/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin for WordPress-generated content.

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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display posts from multiple sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog 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 the blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages Plugin For WordPress)

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

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.

You can access these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items displayed on Firefox)

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

(RSS comments feed items seen using a Google Chrome web browser)

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

(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)

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 – Creating Individual Post RSS Feeds

Being able to select an RSS feed for single post items 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 a specific post is shown below:

(Feed For Single Post Item)

To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/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 for your post, not the content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds

Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can easily create individual category feeds.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(Use this format for WP category RSS feed)

Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …

(Select and copy your category URL …)

And append the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories feed format)

The category RSS feed will now only display content specific to this 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 – Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds Directory

You can publish your own feeds list that allows readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them …

(Set Up Your Own List Of Feeds)

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

(RSS button. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

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

• How To Insert Tables Into Pages And Posts With WordPress

RSS – Additional Notes

You can customize your feeds in several different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure different feed formats without code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed formats you can use and how to structure these feeds …

(Different Feed Types 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 posts
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that contains the latest comments left on your site
• 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: Feed that contains the latest comments made on individual items
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/10/14/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/12/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: RSS feed containing 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 let your users know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Place your subscribe button somewhere visible …

(Promote your RSS feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you publish useful information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Easily add great content from other sites and get visitors to share your content online with RSS!)

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 🙂

RSS Resources:

• Feed Icons – Visit an online resource site like FeedIcons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
• WordPress.org – WordPress documentation and reference repository. Visit this site to learn more about WordPress and RSS.

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 display content from other websites on your site via RSS feeds.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WP platform please see our related posts section.

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