No matter what what industry you belong to, providing high-quality information to your blog users is vitally important. For example, if you provide health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it takes an enormous amount of work and resources. You have to do a lot of information gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, 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 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 simpler way to continually provide your site readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news, videos, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view any updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from a number of sites.
In this in-depth guide, we explain where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide a way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Content publishing agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most news reporting agencies and many leading media publications to deliver readers interesting stories and the latest headlines from all around the planet without having to employ more news writers everywhere in the world …
(Media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. online media publications syndicate information using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by content publishers to share newsworthy content with other news publications)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows great information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Leading online newspapers contain an RSS feed section (look for navigation 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.) …
(Many news agencies and major content sites have an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …
(RSS directory. Image: NY Times RSS)
These RSS feeds allow you to source different sections of the site (e.g. business news, arts news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s business additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Content Syndication 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 a great idea to try and get other sites to syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, you have the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Consider trying to get other websites and blogs to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
About Your WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …
(Your feed will display the number of posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles in your feed as full text, or as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content appears)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using excerpts in WordPress Posts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for their RSS feed button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
Adding Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from another website’s RSS feeds to your site.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can easily add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding content from their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
copy the RSS feed from a site that publishes content that you want to display on your sidebar …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content will now show in the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar)
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 Add Content From RSS Feeds To Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? It sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are some autoblogging tools that let you create posts with RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with a number of premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
RSS Post Importer allows you to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
POWr RSS allows you to combine content from multiple RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version of this plugin contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication 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 plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
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. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages plugin lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts.
You can view your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries seen using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries displayed on Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. 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 RSS Feeds For Single Items
Being able to display an RSS feed for specific posts can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for accessing an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the URI of your post, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WP post categories RSS feed format)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Copy the category URL …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for post categories)
Your category RSS 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 – Provide Your Own Directory Of Feeds
You can publish a feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories, just like the larger websites do …
(Create Your Own Directory Of Feeds On Your Site)
Link a button icon like the one shown below to each feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button graphic. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about creating tables in WordPress posts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows several feed configurations that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can use …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays 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 or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that includes a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that contains the latest comments made on a post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/07/21/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/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 posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button in a visible location …
(Promote your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if the information that you publish on your site is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add great content to your site and get others to subscribe to your content online with WordPress and 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS Resources:
- RSS Images – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and information. Go here to learn more about using RSS 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 web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress please see other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.
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