No matter what your business sells or what industry you are in, it’s vitally important to provide quality information on your site or blog that educates, informs, and engages your readers. For example, if your business provides travel-related services, you may want to include information from government departments and foreign travel offices, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from embassies, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a huge amount 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 site readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your users with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – An Overview
- RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that users can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, audios, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- You can read RSS feeds using software called RSS feed readers, or aggregators. Feedreaders are used to access content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content (and any updates made to the content) to many online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be 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, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from a number of other websites.
In this detailed article, we show you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other sites to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful method used to share web content. Feeds provide a way for online users to receive the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from content sources around the world.
Syndication allows many news reporting agencies and highly-visited media publications to deliver readers the most recent news items from around the globe without having to employ and set up more reporting agencies everywhere in the world …
(Media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. Global media publications syndicate content using feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate their news stories using 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 provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Most news agencies and major sites contain a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major online media publications have an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
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: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
These feeds give you access to content from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
An RSS list can also include further subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Using Feeds)
While adding feeds 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 syndicate YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
About Your WordPress RSS Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on the 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 your sidebar 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 RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, 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 WP theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Follow Us, or Links section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow, Share, or Link To Us 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 website or blog is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS feed page …
(RSS feed entries displayed using Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Feed items seen on a Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many items you would like to display in your RSS page in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feed items setting)
Your feed will show as many recent items you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …
(The feed page will display the number of items you have specified in your WordPress 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 in your feed as full text, or a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds display)
To learn more about Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, 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 can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button …
(Search for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.
Adding Feeds To Your WP Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.
Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from 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 RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, find a website or blog containing content that you want to display on your sidebar and copy the feed URL …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in your sidebar …
(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:
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar? You sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search inside the Plugins admin screen for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ screen)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are some autoblogging plugins for WordPress that allow you to create posts with RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them 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 that offers additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from multiple content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium version of POWr contains many 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:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication options for WordPress-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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
You can view this by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(Comments feed items seen with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL 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 subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Item RSS Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for a specific 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 an individual post is shown below:
(Single Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and add “/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 associated with that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
The feed now only includes content assigned to this category …
(Category-specific 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 – Create Your Own Directory Of Feeds On Your Site
You can set up an RSS feeds list that allows readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in, just like large authoritative sites …
(Set Up A Feeds List)
Link a button image to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS button graphic. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress posts and pages, go here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
You can customize your feeds in a number of ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types without messing with code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feeds you can display …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image 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 – Includes the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/04/16/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed that includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link somewhere visible …
(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if your content is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, you must provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content from other sites and get other users to subscribe to your content with RSS feeds!)
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 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation and reference repository. Visit this site for more information about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other websites on your site using RSS.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress software please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum