No matter what what industry you are in, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is essential. 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 creating this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure 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 beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much easier way to keep your site readers up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your site visitors with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news, video lists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- You can view the content of RSS feeds using web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software called feedreaders, or feed aggregators. Feed readers are used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and updates made to the content) to many online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed readers. 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 that feeds are compatible with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates from various sources.
This detailed guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at the concept of syndication.
Global media and online newspapers use content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the world.
Content syndication allows leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers stories from around the planet without actually having to post more content writers to every location in the world …
(Most online newspapers rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. News publishers syndicate information using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share content with other news publications)
Most websites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Most online newspapers and major content sites include 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”, “la times rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many news reporting agencies and major content sites contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com)
These feed items give you access to content from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, entertainment news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories …
(Feed sections can also contain subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s content and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
While adding a feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other sites to use your content.
When other sites syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(It’s a good idea to get other online users to syndicate content using your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to 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 on the sidebar menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed from the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors 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 RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow, Social Share, or Links section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Follow, or Social Share toolbar section)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s feed by 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 WP site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS feed page …
(RSS feed content viewed on Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Feed items seen on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you want to show in your Feeds section, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Syndication items)
Your feed page will display the number of items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section …
(Your feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles as full text, or just a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed displays)
To learn more about using Post excerpts in WordPress, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of a feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL 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 look for their RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button or link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add An RSS Feed To WordPress
In the example below, we are going to add content from other websites to your WordPress site.
Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could easily display on your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
First, Find a website that publishes content that you would like to display on your sidebar and copy the RSS feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted – e.g. footer, custom menu, etc) …
(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 Add RSS Feeds To Your Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? It sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin directory for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins that allow you to add RSS feeds to your posts and pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers extended functionality with premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to import RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of every item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed automatically combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, phone, or tablet and supports text in all languages.
The premium plugin version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible syndication options 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 plugin to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity 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 in minutes, 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 the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin if you would like to include pages in your RSS feed and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts.
You can see the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area …
(Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed content displayed on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: 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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Individual Item Feeds
Being able to display an RSS feed for single post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, 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 item is shown below:
(Feed For Individual Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from a particular category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website displays content published under many categories, WordPress allows you to easily create a separate RSS feed for each of your categories.
All you have to do is use the format shown below:
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Copy the category URL to your clipboard …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories feed format)
Your category feed will now only contain content published in this particular category …
(Category RSS feed page)
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 – Provide A Page Of Feeds
You can create your own feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Provide A Feeds Directory)
You can also link an image to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress content, go here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
You can customize RSS in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations without touching code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of feed formats you can use and how to format your feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that includes an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that displays the latest comments made on specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/08/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your feed. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link somewhere visible …
(Promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other users to share your content using 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS Resources:
- Feed Graphics – Visit online resource sites like FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation and information repository. Visit this site for additional information about using WordPress feeds.
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 content from other websites to your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress please see other great content we have published on this site.
***
"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)