No matter what your business sells or what industry you belong to, it’s important to provide high-quality information to your site or blog users. For example, if you provide health-related 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 advice, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, requires a huge amount of work and expertise. You have to sift through, research, and organize a ton of information, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure 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 a simpler way to regularly provide your site visitors with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Does It Mean?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- When a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news headlines, audios, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- You can read RSS feeds with a web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software called a feedreader, or aggregator. Feedreaders are used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and updates made to this content) to various online properties.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. 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 compatibility with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from many other websites.
In this in-depth article, you are going to learn where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide an easy way for online users to receive the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Online media publications rely on syndication to publish content from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows online newspapers and many popular media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news and fresh stories from all over the planet without having to employ and set up more news reporters and writers in every place around the world …
(Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the world.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. News reporting agencies syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by content agencies to share content with other publications)
Most sites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies include a feed section (look for links in their navigation section that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “belfast telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital news agencies include a feed section. Image: Sydney Morning Herald )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com)
Each of these feeds allows you to access content from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
A feed directory can also contain further subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s content additional exposure online, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(The Benefits Of Using Feeds)
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 you also want other sites to syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
WordPress RSS Feed – Overview
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta widget – Accessing your RSS feed)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some sites and again, depending on your theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Subscribe, Share, or Link To Us floating, slide-out, or fixed toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Keep In Touch, or Social Share toolbar section)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s RSS feed by simply 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 website is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your WordPress RSS feed …
(Feed entries viewed on Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS feed content displayed on a Chrome browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many posts you would like to show in your Feeds page in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication items)
Your feed section will display the number of items you have specified 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 the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles in the feed as full text, or just as a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed will display)
We have created a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you have to do to view the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link or button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from another website to yours.
Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could easily add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can easily 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 sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a website or blog containing content that you would like to add to your site …
(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed will now appear in 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:
How To Add Feed Content To Your Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? Yes, you can!
You can do this using plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are some autoblogging plugins that allow you to automatically create new using RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers a number of premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, import, curate, 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 – WordPress Plugin)
POWr RSS allows you to automatically combine content from various RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version of this plugin contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress site content.
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 sites, or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress)
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, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages plugin modifies RSS feeds to include pages and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your post comments.
To view these, go to the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (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 display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items viewed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content seen on Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader 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 website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Feeds For Individual Post Items
Being able to select an RSS feed for a specific post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 individual posts is shown below:
(Individual Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from a particular post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WP post categories RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category URL …
(Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(WP category feed format)
Your RSS feed now only contains content assigned to that particular category …
(Category-specific 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 Your Own Page Of RSS Feeds
You can create a feeds page that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in, just like the larger websites do …
(Publish Your Own Feeds Page)
You can also link an image like the one shown below to a feed URL and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress pages and posts here:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feeds you can use …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/09/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed containing latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed displaying the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays the latest post entries 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 feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe buttons in a visible location …
(Encourage visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide useful information. In other words, you must provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get others to share your content with 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 feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and helping to further the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation. Go here for additional information about using WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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