No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is a part of, it’s important to provide quality information to your site or blog readers. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, it’s a good idea to include the latest information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information gathering, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, content writing and editing (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 huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your users up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Information
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news, audio lists, etc., which other users can then subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these websites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their web content automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
This article explains where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide web users with a simple way to receive the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Online media publications use content syndication to publish news from news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows leading online newspapers to deliver readers stories from all over the globe without actually having to send additional news writers everywhere around the world …
(Many online newspapers rely on syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share content legitimately with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other publications)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Many online newspapers and major online media publications include a feed section (look for links in their navigation section that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “calgary herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most leading online media publications will include an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: NY Times RSS)
Each of these RSS feeds allows readers to access information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include feed subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use the feed, all you need to do is copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Try to get other sites to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …
(The feed will show 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
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or just as a summary …
(Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts affect how feeds appear)
To learn more about Post excerpts, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of a feed, you need 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.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website or blog and search for their RSS feed button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link or icon. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your visitors.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add RSS content from another site to your WordPress site.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a website or blog that publishes content that you want to display on your site …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed 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 An RSS Feed To WordPress Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post instead of the sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside the Plugins admin section for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins below are useful for adding feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds into campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a popular, feature-filled importer that lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin 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 lets you combine and display content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all tablets, computers, and phones and supports text in every language.
The premium plugin edition contains a number of 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)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many 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 posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a versatile Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress.
As stated in the FeedWordPress website …
FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
You can access the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content viewed with a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed items seen using 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 feed content. Image: Feedreader)
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 WP site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Feeds For Single Posts
Being able to use an RSS feed for a specific post 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 using an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(Feed For Specific Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(Use this format for WordPress category RSS feed)
Copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
Your feed now only contains content posted under this category …
(Category-specific 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 – Create Your Own Directory Of Feeds On Your Site
You can set up your own RSS feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific content, just like the larger authoritative sites do …
(Provide A List Of Feeds For Your Subscribers)
Link an image like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button image. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
We have written a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress pages and posts here:
RSS Feeds – Notes
You can customize your feeds in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed types that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of custom feed types you can display …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that displays your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed for the latest comments made on a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed containing the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/04/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Feed containing the latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your RSS feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link somewhere visible …
(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add content to your site and get other users to share your content using 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 feed 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Buttons – Visit feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and helping the general public to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
- WordPress.org/Feeds – WordPress documentation and information repository. Go here to learn more about using WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, 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 web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress software please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site.
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