No matter what your business provides or what industry you are in, you need to provide high-quality information on your site or blog that better educates, informs, and engages your readers. For example, if you provide insurance services, you may want to include useful information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to filter through, research, and organize a lot of data, check your facts, 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 beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is an easier way to continually provide your readers with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your site readers with great information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – Basic Definition

• RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “news feed”.
• After users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news, audio playlists, etc., which other users can then subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these websites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
• Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom 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 applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to receive news and updates from several different sources.

In this detailed article, we explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site via RSS.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way to share web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with a simple way to receive the latest information published on different sites.

First, let’s take a look at syndication.

Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the world.

Syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics from all over the globe without having to employ additional staff in every place around the world …

(Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the globe.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content. Online newspapers syndicate information using news feeds …

(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.

Leading news reporting agencies have an RSS 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”, “la times rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major content sites contain a feed section. Image: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a list of different RSS feed sections of the site …

(RSS feeds directory. Image Source: New York Times)

These feeds give readers access to information about different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further feed subdirectories …

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: LA Times RSS)

Note: An RSS feed is just 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.

Using RSS Feeds

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

(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)

While adding RSS 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 syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …

(Consider trying to get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)

WordPress RSS Feed – About

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.

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, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(WordPress Meta widget – Accessing your RSS feed)

2) You can also find links and/or 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 to RSS” buttons)

3) On many sites and again, depending on which theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Social Share, or Follow Us slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar …

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

4) You can also view your RSS 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 site has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

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

(Feed entries displayed with Firefox)

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

(Feed items viewed on Google Chrome web browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

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

(WordPress Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)

The feed page will show the number of items you have specified section …

(The feed page will display 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 WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or just a summary …

(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

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

(Post excerpts affect how your feeds appear)

If you need help WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Use WordPress Post Excerpts

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 reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, find a website whose content you want to syndicate and look for a ‘subscribe’ button …

(Search for an RSS feed link. 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 your feed into a feedreader …

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

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

How To Add A Feed To Your Site

Let’s show you how to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to your site.

How To Add An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could display on 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 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 from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …

(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

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

(Copy your feed URL)

Next, 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 Site

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

(RSS Feed Content Added To 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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Posts

What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to posts instead of your sidebar?

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

(RSS plugins)

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

Here are a number of plugins you can check out that let you add RSS feeds to your posts:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico WP Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator WP 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 on your WordPress website or blog.

The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in your feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)

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

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

The premium version of POWr contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin)

WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.

This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress)

FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress 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 FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from different sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, 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 – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your latest posts.

You can view this by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area …

(Comments RSS)

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

(RSS comments feed items as seen with Firefox)

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

(RSS comments feed content seen with a Google Chrome web browser)

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

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

Tip #2 – Using Feeds For Specific Post Items

Being able to access an RSS feed for single 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 using an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:

(Feed For Specific Post)

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 your post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds

Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

With WordPress, you can create separate category feeds.

All you need to do is use the format shown below:

(Feed format for post categories)

Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …

(Copy the category link address …)

Add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WP RSS feed format for category)

The category RSS feed will now only include content posted in that category …

(Category feed page)

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 Your Own Directory Of Feeds

You can set up a directory of feeds for subscribers that allows readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …

(Provide Your Own Feeds Directory)

All you need to do is link an RSS image like the one shown below to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …

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

For a detailed tutorial on adding tables to WordPress content, go here:

• How To Insert Tables In WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

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

WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed types that do not require touching code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of custom feed types you can use …

(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)

For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed 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 left on your website
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/05/02/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/09/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Contains latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Includes the latest post entries 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 let your site users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe links in a visible location …

(Remember to promote your feeds!)

Keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add someone else’s content and get visitors to syndicate your content online 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 RSS feed 🙂

Resources:

• RSS Images – Visit Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and broadening the public understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Go here for more information about WordPress and RSS.

Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site via RSS.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other great content we have published on this site.

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