No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business is in, you need to provide high-value information on your site or blog. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, you may want to publish useful information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to sort through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (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 not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to provide your readers with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What You Need To Know About RSS
- RSS, which, according to some is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that users can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog posts, news, videos, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
- RSS feed content can be read using a software program called an RSS feed reader, or feed aggregator. Aggregators can be used to access new content published on websites and distribute this content (and updates made to the content) to other sites.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. 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 devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
In this comprehensive article, we explain where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful way of sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide a simple and easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
News reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish stories from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows leading online newspapers to deliver readers the latest news and interesting content from all over the planet without having to hire and post more staff to every place around the world …
(Online newspapers and leading media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. Global media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Leading online newspapers will include an RSS feed section (look for menu links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “salt lake tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers contain an RSS feed section. Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds section. Source: nytimes.com)
These RSS feeds give readers access to content about different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also include further subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s content, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding a feed 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 websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get other online users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
Your WordPress RSS
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on the sidebar or footer menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section)
2) You can also find links or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Link To Us, or Keep In Touch toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Link To Us, or Keep In Touch toolbar section)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by 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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS feed …
(RSS feed items displayed on Firefox)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Feed entries seen on a Google Chrome browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many items you would like to show in your RSS Feed page, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication items setting)
The feed will display the number of posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …
(The feed page will show as many recent 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 the WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)
To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for a ‘subscribe’ link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ button. 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 feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed 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.
Adding Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from another website’s RSS feeds to your site.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can display on your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed from a website that publishes content that you would like to display on your sidebar …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WordPress RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content will now display on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed – e.g. custom menu) …
(RSS Feed Content 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:
Adding A Feed To WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post? Yes, it can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are some WordPress plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you select.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into 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 with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from various sources using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium version contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress site-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.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)
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 your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available.
You can view these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries viewed with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed items as seen with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed 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 has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Specific Post RSS Feeds
Being able to display an RSS feed for a single post item 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 single posts is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URL 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 the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format shown below:
(Format for WordPress category feed)
Copy the selected category URL …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WP post categories RSS feed)
The RSS feed will now only include content posted for that 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 – Publish A Feeds Page
You can create your own directory of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe to specific categories, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Set Up Your Own List Of Feeds For Subscribers)
Link an image to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about adding tables to WordPress pages and posts, go here:
RSS Feeds – Notes
You can customize RSS in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed types you can create …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table 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 – Displays the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/03/26/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed containing latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/06/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes latest posts 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 RSS feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ buttons in a visible location …
(Remember to make your RSS feeds visible your feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide useful information. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content from other sites and get visitors 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 RSS Resources:
- Download RSS Buttons – Visit a site like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Visit this site for additional information about using WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now