No matter what your business sells or what industry you are in, it’s vitally important to provide quality information on your site or blog. For example, if you provide travel services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from government and foreign travel departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from consulates, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure 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 completely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to regularly provide your site readers with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your users with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Useful Information
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- After a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically check the website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the content and keeps feed subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, audio playlists, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their content automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feedreaders. 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, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from various sources.
This guide shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at the uses of content syndication.
Global media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources around the world.
Syndication allows many news reporting agencies and many popular media publications to deliver readers the latest news headlines and all kinds of interesting stories from around the planet without actually having to set up additional news staff and news writers in every location in the world …
(Most digital content publishing agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. News reporting agencies syndicate information using feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and major content sites have an RSS feed section (look for links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most online newspapers include a feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different areas of the site …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these RSS feeds lets you access information about different areas of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
A feed list can also contain further feed subcategories …
(A feed directory can also contain feed subdirectories. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. All that’s required to use the feed is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Adding someone else’s content to your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s content additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
While adding RSS feeds 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 use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get other sites to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)
Your WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget as part of your navigation menu …
(Your feed will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds display)
To learn more about using WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at 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’ icon. 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 feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process 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 yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can 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 RSS feed. You can easily 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 from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)
First, Find a website or blog that publishes content that you would like to add to your site and copy the feed URL …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
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 web browser. The content should now display in the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WP 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 Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar? It sure can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your Plugins admin section for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a number of WordPress plugins that you can use to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them into 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 additional functionality with premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a feature-filled importer that allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer can be used to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the entire content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from various content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
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 features 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 more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides versatile Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress site-generated content.
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 site (sites that combine content from different sources), or display all of your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WP Plugin)
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, 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
(RSS Includes Pages)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages 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 makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available.
To see this, go to the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries seen on a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed items displayed on a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the 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 WordPress site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Single Posts
Being able to display an RSS feed for an individual post item 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 single post items is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If you publish content under several categories, WordPress allows you to easily offer users a separate RSS feed for each of your categories.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(WordPress RSS feed format for category)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WP category RSS feed)
Your feed will now only include content posted for that category …
(Category-specific 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 – Set Up Your Own Page Of Feeds
You can publish a directory of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe only to specific categories …
(Create A Directory Of Feeds For Your Subscribers)
All you need to do is link a button graphic to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts, go here:
RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize RSS in a number of ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure several feed types without messing with code. For example, the table below shows some of the kinds of custom feeds you can create …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that displays the latest comments made on specific posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/12/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed that includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed containing the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed that displays latest 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 feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link somewhere visible …
(Encourage visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other users to syndicate your content with RSS feeds!)
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 feed 🙂
Resources:
- Feed Icons – Visit sites like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
- 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 furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation repository. Visit this site to learn more about using RSS 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 content from other sites to your site using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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