No matter what product or service your business sells, providing high-value information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if your business provides accounting services, you may want to include useful information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to sift through, research, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually kept 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 an easier way to keep your readers up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your blog subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS, which, according to some experts is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- Once users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates from different sources.
This in-depth article shows you 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 feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. Feeds provide web users with an easy way to keep up with the latest information published on different websites.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Online newspapers rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources all around the world.
Syndication allows many news reporting agencies and many highly-visited online media publications to deliver readers global stories and the most recent news items from all over the globe without having to employ and set up more news writers everywhere around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate stories using feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information)
Most websites actually want you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows valuable information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Leading news reporting agencies include an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “huffington post rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital news agencies and major content sites include an RSS feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS feeds section. Image: New York Times)
Each of these RSS feed items allows readers to access information from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also include feed subcategories …
(An RSS feed list can also include feed subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use feeds, all you have to do is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
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 sites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get other website owners to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your exposure online!)
Your WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta widget – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find links or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on which theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Follow Us, or Links section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Stay In Touch, Social Share, or Links floating, fixed, or slide-out toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress RSS 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 WordPress installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS feed page …
(RSS feed content displayed using Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Feed entries seen with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you want to display in your RSS page, by going to your Reading Settings section and typing the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed section will display the number of items you have specified section …
(The feed page will display as many recent posts as you have specified in the WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts in your feed as full text, or just a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how content in feeds will appear)
We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for an RSS feed button …
(Search for an RSS feed section. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into readable content.
Adding An RSS Feed To WordPress
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites or blogs to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can easily display on your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed from a website that publishes content that you want to add to your sidebar …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
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 adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen in the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget – e.g. footer, custom menu, etc) …
(RSS Feed Added To WordPress 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)
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 Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of the sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside the Plugins section for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
The plugins below are useful if you would like to add feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to 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 autoblogging WordPress plugin with additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you import RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you automatically combine and display content from various RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all computers, phones, and tablets and supports text in every language.
The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features.
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 loads of powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication 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 bring together posts from various different sources), or display all of your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (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)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts.
You can inspect these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content displayed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(Comments feed items displayed on a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the 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 site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Using RSS Feeds For Individual Posts
Being able to create an RSS feed for specific 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 single post is shown below:
(Single Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post URL, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WP category RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress category feed)
Your RSS feed now only displays content posted in that particular category …
(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. 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 Feeds List
You can provide your own RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe to specific content, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Create Your Own Page Of Feeds)
All you need to do is link a button like the one shown below to a category feed and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button graphic. Image: 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, refer to this tutorial:
RSS – Notes
You can customize your feeds in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure several feed types without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can use and how to structure your feeds …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments published on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/09/22/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the 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 feed. Make sure you place a subscribe button or link somewhere visible …
(Encourage your site users to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to subscribe to your content using WordPress and 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 – Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit an online resource site like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logos”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation and information repository. Visit this site for more information about using WordPress RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, 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, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now