No matter what what industry you belong to, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information on your site or blog. For example, if your business provides medical services, it’s not a bad idea to include information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to provide your site readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
Basic Information About RSS
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- When users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the content and keeps feed subscribers up-to-date.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news, audios, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view any updates posted on these sites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from a number of other sites.
In this detailed article, we will show you 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 RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful method used for sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide a simple and easy way for online users to keep up with the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
News reporting agencies use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent newsworthy items and stories of general interest from around the globe without having to hire additional news reporting departments in every location in the world …
(Global media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. online media publications syndicate their news stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by digital news agencies to share content with other publications)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and leading online media publications include 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”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most news reporting agencies and major sites contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these RSS feeds lets readers access content about different areas of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further feed subcategories …
(A feed list can also contain subcategory feeds. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s content and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
While adding RSS feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate content using your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on your sidebar or footer, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed in the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Subscribe, or Share toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Share, or Stay In Touch toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s 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 or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …
(Feed entries viewed using Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …
(RSS content seen using Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you want displayed in your RSS Feed page, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication items field)
The feed section will show as many recent items you have specified section …
(Your feed page 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 the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article as full text, or a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will appear)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using WordPress Post excerpts here:
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 to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for an RSS feed section …
(Look for an RSS feed link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the 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 Source: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from another site’s RSS feeds to your site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their RSS 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 your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a website containing content that you want to display on your sidebar …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content will now show on your 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:
Adding Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar? It sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ section for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ screen)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of auto blogging plugins that let you automatically add posts with RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is a feature-filled importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from various RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and 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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)
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 the URL of your feed, give it a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)
Use RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
You can view the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries viewed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed on a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image 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 site has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Specific Item Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for single post items 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 a specific post item is shown below:
(Individual Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address 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 URI, WordPress will return the comments made on that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from a particular category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website or blog contains content published under many categories, WordPress allows you to easily create a separate feed for each different category.
Just use the format shown below:
(Format for WP post categories RSS feed)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Copy the category URL to your clipboard …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
Your category RSS feed will now only include content assigned to this 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 – Set Up A Directory Of RSS Feeds For Subscribers
You can create a list of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Publish Your Own Page Of Feeds)
Link an icon to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about adding tables to WordPress posts, see this tutorial:
RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize RSS in a number of ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations that do not require messing with code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments published on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that displays a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/13/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/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: Includes latest post entries 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 a ’subscribe to RSS’ button image somewhere visible …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if you publish great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add content from other sites and get visitors to subscribe to your content using WordPress and 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- Download RSS Images – Visit online resource sites like iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation repository. Visit this site for additional information about using 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 using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress web content publishing platform please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)