No matter what product or service you provide or what industry your business belongs to, it’s vitally important to provide high-quality information to your site visitors. For example, if your business provides medical services, it’s a good idea to publish the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, involves a lot of work and resources. You have to filter through, research, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, write and edit 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 well beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is an easier way to continually provide your site readers with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - The easiest way to provide your users with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Does RSS Mean?

• RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
• Once users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio playlists, etc., which other users can then subscribe to.
• RSS feeds can be viewed using web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software called RSS readers, or aggregators. Aggregators are used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to various 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 devices and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates from many different sources.

This article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add someone else’s content 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 web users with a way to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

News publishers and many global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies all around the world.

Content syndication allows most leading online newspapers to deliver readers stories from all around the planet without actually having to employ and send additional staff to every location around the world …

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

Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. online media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …

(News publishers syndicate their information using news feeds)

Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.

Many news reporting agencies and major sites will 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”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most digital publishers and major content sites contain a feed section. Source: SMH RSS )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …

(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

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

A feed list can also contain further feed subcategories …

(Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds. Image: Los Angeles Times RSS)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program 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 site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s business additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …

(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)

While adding 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 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 …

(Look for ways to get users to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress Feed

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

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 be displayed in a standard or custom menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(WordPress Meta section – Accessing your RSS feed)

2) You can also find built-in links and buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …

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

3) On many sites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Stay In Touch, Share, or Links toolbar …

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

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 WordPress site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …

(Feed items seen on Firefox)

Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …

(Feed entries as seen with Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many posts you want to show in your RSS Feed page in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)

The feed will show as many recent items you have specified section …

(The feed page will show the number of items 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 as full text, or as a summary …

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

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …

(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content will display)

To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

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 an application that can translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, find a website or blog and search for an RSS feed link …

(Search for an RSS 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 what the RSS feed contains 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: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into human-readable content.

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Site

In the example below, we are going to add content from other websites and blogs to yours.

How To Add Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …

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

copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog 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, go to your Widgets section and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

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

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In The Website

Refresh your browser. The content should now display in your sidebar …

(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 Content From RSS Feeds To WordPress Posts

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

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

(’Add Plugins’ screen)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.

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

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

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

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

The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, tablets, and computers and supports text in any language.

The premium version contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)

WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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 Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication for WordPress 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.

You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that display content from multiple sources), or bring together all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)

The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages WP Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

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

You can access the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

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

(Comments feed items seen with a Firefox web browser)

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

(RSS comments feed items viewed on Google Chrome)

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

(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image: 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 website or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Using Feeds For Individual Items

Being able to use an RSS feed for an individual post item 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 creating an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:

(Feed For Individual Post)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds

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

With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.

Just use the format shown below:

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

Copy the selected category URL …

(Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …)

Add “feed” to the end of it …

(Use this format for WP category RSS feed)

Your feed now only includes content posted in that category …

(Category 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 A Directory Of RSS Feeds

You can publish a list of RSS feeds for subscribers that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large online publishers …

(Set Up A Feeds List)

Link an image to each feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a separate page …

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

If you need help with creating tables in WordPress posts, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Add Tables To WordPress Pages And Posts

RSS Feeds – Notes

Feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows several feed configurations that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of feed types you can display …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:

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

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed for specific post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed containing the latest comments made on a specific post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/11/20/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/08/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Feed containing the latest entries 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 let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Make sure you place a subscribe link or button in a visible location …

(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if your content is useful, informative, or highly engaging. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Add someone else’s content and get others to share your content with 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 feed 🙂

RSS Resources:

• Download RSS Feed Buttons – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about using RSS.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress software documentation and information. Go here for additional information about using 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 sites on your site via their RSS feed.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress CMS platform please click on links to visit our related posts section.

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