No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, it’s vitally important to provide quality information on your site or blog. For example, if you provide health-related services, you may want to provide users with useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, writing and editing 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 is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a simpler way to regularly provide your users with expert, up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your subscribers with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What You Need To Know

• RSS, which, according to some definitions is short for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as 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 check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the feed and keep subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, videos, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
• RSS feed content can be viewed with software called feedreaders, or feed aggregators. Aggregators can be used to access content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and any updates made to the content) online.
• There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple sites.

In this detailed article, we will explain where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites to your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a simple way for online users to receive the latest information published on different websites and blogs.

First, let’s take a look at content syndication.

Online media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news from news sources all around the world.

Content syndication allows leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers stories from all around the globe without having to send more reporters and writers to every location around the world …

(Online newspapers rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources all around the globe.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. Global media publications syndicate information using feeds …

(Online newspapers syndicate stories using news feeds)

Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows great information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.

Many online newspapers and leading online media publications have a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many digital content agencies and major content sites contain a feed section. Image: SMH )

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

(RSS feeds section. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

Each of these RSS feed items lets readers access different sections of the website (e.g. business news, arts news, editorials, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds …

(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Content Syndication – Benefits

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

(The Benefits Of Using RSS 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 websites to syndicate your content.

When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive new visitors …

(Try to get visitors to syndicate your content … it will help to increase your exposure online!)

WordPress RSS – Overview

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

Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a standard or custom 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 built-in links and buttons on certain WordPress 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 feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)

3) On some websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Subscribe, Share, or Links section …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Stay In Touch, Link To Us, or Social Share floating, fixed, or slide-out toolbar)

4) You can also view your feed by simply 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 website is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

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

(RSS feed entries displayed on Firefox)

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

(Feed items viewed using Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

Specify how many items you want to display in your Feeds page in the Reading Settings section. Enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)

Your feed section will display the number of items you have specified section …

(The feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in your 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 articles as full text, or just as a summary …

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

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …

(Post excerpts affect how a feed will display)

We have created a detailed tutorial about WordPress Post excerpts here:

• A Basic Guide To Using WordPress Post Excerpts

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view the content of a feed is 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 take a look at how this works.

First, find a website or blog and search for their RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for an RSS feed button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)

If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …

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

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

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Site

In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites or blogs to your WordPress site.

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you could add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as 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 …

(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)

First, Go to a website that publishes content that you would like to add to your site and copy the RSS feed …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WordPress RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In Your Sidebar

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on the sidebar …

(RSS Widget)

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 WordPress Posts

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

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

(’Add Plugins’ screen)

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

Here are a number of plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds into campaigns and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post extension is a feature-filled importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin)

RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress site.

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

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed)

With POWr RSS Feed, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.

The premium plugin version contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes WP Plugin)

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

This plugin provides 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 Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin for WordPress.

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 display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog

(Autoblog)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no 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:

• Autoblog Plugin For WordPress

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. You can use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages WP Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.

You can access this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar menu …

(Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …

(RSS comments feed content viewed on a Firefox browser)

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

(Comments feed items viewed with a Google Chrome browser)

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

(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader 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 subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Displaying Feeds For Individual Posts

Being able to use an RSS feed for individual post items 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 specific post items is shown below:

(RSS Feed For Individual Post Item)

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

(Single Post Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds

Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content about certain categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.

Just use the format below:

(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)

Copy the category URL …

(Copy your category link address …)

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

(Format for WP post categories RSS feed)

The feed will now only contain content assigned to this particular 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 – Create Your Own Directory Of Feeds

You can provide your own page of feeds on your site that allows readers to subscribe to specific categories, just like the larger online publishers do …

(Set Up Your Own Feeds List)

You can also link a button like the one shown below to category feeds and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a new page …

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

We have written a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress pages and posts here:

• How To Add Tables In WordPress Content

WordPress RSS – Notes

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

WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of feed types you can use …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – displays your latest posts
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – RSS feed displaying the latest comments published on your site
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Feed that includes latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/04/20/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Displays the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/09/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Includes the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One last thing …

Remember to promote your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe link or button in a visible location …

(Promote your RSS feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality content that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Easily add great content from other sites and get online users to syndicate your content with 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 feed 🙂

RSS – Resources:

• RSS Icons – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss images”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
• WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Go here to learn more about using RSS feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to 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 get better results online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress platform please click on links to visit our related posts section.

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