Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

Learn about the benefits of using RSS and how to access, format and use WordPress RSS feeds to import and syndicate your content …

Overview Of WordPress RSSNo matter what product or service you sell or what industry your business is a part of, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is important. For example, if your business provides travel-related services, you may want to publish the latest information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news and updates on travel warnings, tips from consulates, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to sort through, gather, and organize a ton of information, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is kept 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 a much simpler way to regularly provide your site visitors with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS

RSS - The easiest way to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information

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

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What Is It?

  • RSS, which, according to some is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
  • RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that subscribers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
  • Feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news headlines, video lists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
  • You can view the content of RSS feeds using a software program called an RSS reader, or aggregator. Feedreaders are used to access new content published on websites and syndicate this content (and updates made to this content) to many online properties.
  • There are different kinds of feeds, read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feed readers, and programs.
  • Many sites and software applications also let you combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from different websites.

In this guide, we will show you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with an easy way to receive the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.

First, let’s take a look at syndication.

Media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news agencies all around the world.

Syndication allows many online newspapers and many popular online media publications to deliver readers the latest news from around the planet without having to set up more news staff all around the world …

Online newspapers and many highly-visited media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the planet.

(Media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies all around the world.)

Syndication is used to share content legitimately. Online newspapers syndicate news stories using feeds

Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other news publications

(News reporting agencies syndicate content using feeds)

Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Many online newspapers include 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”, “nz herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

Leading online newspapers provide links to a feed section

(Major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Source: SMH )

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

RSS feeds list

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

Each of these RSS feeds lets readers access different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further subcategory feeds …

RSS Feed section.

(Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds. Image: Los Angeles Times)

Info

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

Content Syndication – Benefits

Adding content from someone else’s site on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s website and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create the content …

Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!

(Syndicating Content - Benefits)

While adding an RSS feed 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 sites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …

Get other website owners to syndicate content using your feed ... it will help increase your exposure online!

(Get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help to increase traffic!)

WordPress RSS – About

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

Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar or footer, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS

WordPress Meta section - Accessing your RSS feed

(Access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)

2) You can also find links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.

For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the 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

(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On many websites and again, depending on your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Stay In Touch, or Share toolbar …

Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Follow, or Share toolbar section

(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Keep In Touch, or Links toolbar section)

4) You can also view your RSS feed by simply 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 WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

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

Feed items displayed using Firefox

(RSS feed entries displayed on Firefox browser)

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

Feed items viewed using a Google Chrome web browser

(RSS items viewed on Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many items you would like displayed in your RSS Feed section in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

Reading Settings - Syndication items setting

(WordPress Reading Settings – Syndication items field)

Your feed page will show as many recent items you have specified section …

The feed will display the number of items you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section

(The feed will display as many recent posts as you have specified in your 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 your posts as full text, or just a summary …

WordPress Reading Settings - Show 'Full Text' or 'Summary' for posts in a feed

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

Tip

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

Post excerpts can affect how your feed content will display

(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content displays)

We have written a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button using any of the methods described earlier …

Search for a 'subscribe' link or icon.

(Search for an RSS feed link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

Copy the feed URL to your clipboard

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …

Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content.

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

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

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site

Let’s show you how to add content from other websites or blogs to your site.

Adding RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar

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

Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …

Let's add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar

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

First, Go to a website containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …

Copy the feed URL to the clipboard

(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

WordPress RSS Widget

(RSS Widget)

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

Load your site in your browser. The content should appear on the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget) …

RSS Feed Content Added To WP Sidebar

(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

(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:

Adding RSS Feed Content To Your Posts

Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside the Plugins admin section for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

'Add Plugins' section - RSS plugins

(RSS plugins for WordPress)

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

Here are a few plugins you can check out that you can use to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:

WPeMatico

WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

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

For more details, go here:

WP RSS Aggregator

WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

(WP RSS Aggregator)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers premium add-ons for extended functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post extension is a feature-filled importer that allows you to import RSS feeds directly into WP posts.

For more details, go here:

RSS Post Importer

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

RSS Post Importer can be used to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each item in the feed as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

Powr RSS Feed

Powr RSS Feed Plugin

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)

POWr RSS allows you to automatically combine content from various RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom borders, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.

The premium version of this plugin contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

WP Pipes

WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress

(WP Pipes WordPress 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 loads of powerful functionality 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:

FeedWordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication options 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 site (sites that combine and display content from many different sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

Autoblog

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

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

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)

The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies your default WordPress RSS feed to include pages and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

Info

Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available to online users, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your post comments.

To inspect your comments feed, go to the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS

WordPress Comments RSS

(Comments Feed)

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

RSS comments feed content as seen on Firefox

(RSS comments feed entries as seen with Firefox)

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

RSS comments feed content as seen on Google Chrome browser

(RSS comments feed items viewed with Google Chrome)

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 content.

(Paste your comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: 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 website has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Individual Item RSS Feeds

Being able to create an RSS feed for individual posts 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 accessing an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:

Specific Post RSS Feed

(Individual Post RSS Feed)

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

Single Post Feed

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not actual post content itself.

Tip #3 – Using 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 all of your site’s content.

With WordPress, you can create category feeds.

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

Use this format for WP post categories feed

(Use this format for WP post categories feed)

Copy the category link address …

Select and copy your category link address ...

(Select and copy your category URL …)

Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …

Format for WordPress post categories RSS feed

(WordPress RSS feed format for post categories)

The RSS feed now only contains content specific to that particular category …

Category-specific feed page

(Category 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

(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

(WordPress post category feed format)

To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …

Posts > Categories menu

(Posts > Categories menu)

Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …

Post Category 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

(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

(Paste the feed into your browser)

This will display the feed for that specific category …

RSS feed of a specific post 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

(Post category feed format)

Here is the feed format again …

Post category feed

(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

(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

(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 For Your Subscribers

You can provide your own list of feeds that allows your readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …

Provide A List Of RSS Feeds On Your Site

(Provide A List Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers)

Link a button image like the one shown below to your category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …

RSS button graphic

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

We have created a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress posts here:

RSS – Notes

You can customize your RSS in a number of ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.

WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of feed types you can use …

WordPress RSS - Feed Types

(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)

Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table above:

  • Feed Type: All Posts
  • Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest entries
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
  • Feed Type: All Comments
  • Description: Comments feed – Feed that contains the latest comments left on your website or blog
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts
  • Description: RSS feed that contains a specific post
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
  • Description: Displays the latest comments made on specific posts
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Day – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/07/22/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Month – RSS feed that contains the latest posts in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/12/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Year – Includes latest posts in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/
  • Feed Type: Search Results
  • Description: Includes the latest entries for a search query
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
  • Feed Type: Custom Post Type
  • Description: RSS feed that includes latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One more thing …

It’s a good idea to promote your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe link in a visible location …

Promote your RSS feeds!

(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)

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

Easily add great content to your site and get online users to share your content using RSS!

(Add content to your site and get other sites to subscribe to your content using RSS!)

Useful Tip

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 🙂

Resources:

  • Feed Buttons – Visit www.feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS icons.
  • RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
  • Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
  • WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation repository. Go here to learn more about using WordPress and RSS.

The Benefits Of Using RSS 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 display content from other sites on your site using RSS feeds.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please see other posts on this site.

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"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie