No matter what service or product you provide, you need to provide high-quality information to your site or blog visitors. For example, if your business provides health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.

To create and publish this kind of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sorting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is 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 a simpler way to regularly provide your users with expert, up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - The simplest way to provide your site visitors with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Does RSS Stand For?

• RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
• RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an 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 blogs that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these websites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their content.
• Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different aggregators. 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, readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from multiple sites.

This guide explains how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide a simple way for online users to keep up with the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

Global media and news reporting agencies use syndication to publish content from content sources all around the world.

Content syndication allows content publishers to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news headlines and fresh stories from around the planet without having to post additional writers everywhere around the world …

(Most online newspapers use syndication to publish content from news sources around the globe.)

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

(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information)

Most sites actually would like you to share 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.

Most news reporting agencies and leading online media publications contain 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”, “nz herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major sites provide links to a feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of different RSS feeds of the site …

(A site’s list of RSS feeds. Image Source: NY Times RSS)

These feed items let you source content from different areas of the site (e.g. business news, entertainment news, jobs, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further subcategories …

(Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories. Image Source: Los Angeles Times RSS)

Note: A feed is just a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Using Feeds – Benefits

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

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

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 use your content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …

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

WordPress Feed – Overview

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

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

1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on the sidebar menu …

(The feed 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 Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …

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

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

(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)

To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, see this tutorial:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content 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, find a website or blog and look for their RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …

(Look for an RSS feed button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …

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

Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.

Adding A Feed To WordPress Sites

Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another website or blog to your site.

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar

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

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

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

First, Find a website or blog containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy the RSS feed URL …

(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)

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

• How To Add Widgets To The WordPress Blog Sidebar Menu

Load your site in your browser. The content will now show in the sidebar …

(RSS Feed Added To WordPress 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

How To Add Content From RSS Feeds To Posts

Can content from RSS feeds be added to WordPress posts? It sure can!

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

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

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

Here are some WordPress plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your posts and pages:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin with additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).

For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.

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

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)

POWr RSS automatically combines and displays content from a number of different RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, phone, or computer and supports text in any language.

The premium plugin edition contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)

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

This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export 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 – WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin 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.

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

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog)

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 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 WP Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types modifies your RSS feeds to include pages in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.

You can see your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

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

(RSS comments feed items seen using Firefox)

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

(Comments feed items as 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 an online feed reader …

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

Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Individual Post Items

Being able to use an RSS feed for a specific post 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:

(RSS Feed For Single Post)

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

(Single Post Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds

Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

If you publish content under multiple categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each post category.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(Use this format for WordPress category RSS feed)

Select and copy the category URL …

(Select and copy your category URL …)

Now, append “feed” to the end of it …

(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)

Your category RSS feed now only displays content posted for 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 – Publish Your Own RSS Feeds Page

You can publish your own directory of feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger websites do …

(Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds Directory)

All you need to do is link a button graphic to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a new page …

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

For a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress posts, go here:

• Creating And Inserting Tables Into Your Content Easily In WordPress

WordPress RSS – Additional Notes

Feeds can be customized 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 custom feeds you can create …

(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image 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 – Includes the latest comments published on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed containing an individual post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed for the latest comments made on an individual post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/11/23/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Feed that contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/10/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Includes latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Contains the 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 let visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button somewhere visible …

(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you publish great content. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Easily add someone else’s content and get others 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 Graphics – Visit sites like FeedIcons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing RSS specifications, guiding developers who create RSS applications and broadening the public understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress documentation and reference. Visit this site to learn more about using WordPress and RSS.

Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other sites on your site using their RSS feed.

Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To read more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.

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