No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business is a part of, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if you provide accounting or financial planning services, you may want to provide users with information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it involves an enormous amount of effort and expertise. You have to do a ton of data sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is 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.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your readers up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition
- RSS, which, according to some is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and blogs that publish feeds and then browse any updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different machines, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
This comprehensive guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to receive the latest information published on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s take a look at the uses of content syndication.
Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers fresh news headlines and stories of general interest from all around the globe without actually having to post additional news reporting departments everywhere around the world …
(News reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content with other sites. Global media publications syndicate news stories using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other publications)
Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most digital publishing agencies have an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital content agencies and major content sites have a feed section. Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different areas of the site …
(RSS directory. Source: New York Times)
gives readers access to content from different areas of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also include further feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds – Benefits
Adding someone else’s content to 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 …
(The Benefits Of Content Syndication)
While adding 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 use your content.
When other sites syndicate content using your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
About Your WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a standard or custom menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta widget – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your 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 feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Follow, or Links fixed, slide-out, or floating toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Follow Us, or Link To Us toolbar section)
4) You can also view your 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 installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …
(RSS feed content viewed on Firefox browser)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …
(RSS items seen with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many entries you want to show in your Feeds page, go to your Reading Settings section and select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feed items)
Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified section …
(The feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or just a summary …
(Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in feeds will appear)
To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
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 translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for an RSS feed button …
(Search for an RSS feed button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your WP Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add An RSS Feed 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 by simply adding content from 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed from a site containing content that you want to display on your site …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your website in your web browser. The content should now appear on the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Added To WP Sidebar Menu)
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 A Feed To Your Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of a sidebar? You sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search inside the Plugins screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of WordPress plugins that allow you to add RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to 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 that offers premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom borders, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, tablets, and computers and supports text in any language.
The premium plugin edition contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin 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 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 is a versatile Atom/RSS syndication plugin 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that display content from multiple sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no 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 and Custom Post Types Plugin)
Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your posts.
To access this feed, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content seen on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Specific Posts
Being able to select an RSS feed for specific 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 using an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, 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 for your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your site displays content published under different categories, you can easily offer visitors a separate RSS feed for each post category.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(WordPress category feed format)
Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy your category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP post categories RSS feed format)
Your feed will now only display content posted under this 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 Directory Of RSS Feeds For Visitors
You can set up a directory of RSS feeds for your subscribers that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Provide Your Own RSS Feeds List)
All you need to do is link an icon like the one shown below to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial on adding tables to WordPress posts here:
RSS – Notes
You can customize your RSS in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed types you can use …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments published on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/09/28/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed containing the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …
(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you publish useful content. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other users to syndicate your content with 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 or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about RSS.
- WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress documentation and reference. Visit this site for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site using RSS.
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 read more about using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other posts on this site.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)