No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, providing quality information to your blog readers is vitally important. For example, if you provide insurance services, you may want to include information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, 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 sorting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually 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 beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a much easier way to regularly provide your readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Is It?
- RSS, which, according to some is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- Once users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for content updates. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the site and keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be viewed using a software program called an RSS reader, or feed aggregator. Feed readers can be used to find content on all kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and any updates made to the content) to many 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 machines, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from multiple sources.
In this detailed guide, we show you 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 using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful method used to share web content. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Global media and digital news publishers rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources around the world.
Syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent news and newsworthy stories from all over the planet without having to send more news staff to every location in the world …
(Most content agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. News reporting agencies syndicate their information using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share newsworthy content with other news publications)
Most websites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and major content sites have an RSS feed section (look for menu links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most leading online media publications include an RSS feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of different RSS feeds …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com)
These feeds let readers source content from different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, health news, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also contain further subcategory feeds …
(An RSS feed list can also include feed subcategories. Image: Los Angeles Times RSS)
Note: A feed is only a URL. To use a feed, all you need to do is copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Adding someone else’s content to your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s business additional exposure online and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
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 sites to use YOUR content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Look for ways to get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in your navigation menu …
(Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or just a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed displays)
If you need help using excerpts in WordPress Posts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you need to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard 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 their RSS feed section …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ icon. 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 the feed content by pasting the URL of your feed into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from another site to your site.
Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can easily 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 easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the feed URL from a site containing content that you want to add to your site …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and 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 web browser. The content from the RSS feed will now show on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …
(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 Content From RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? Yes, it can!
You can do this using plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer allows you to import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of every item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of 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 Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication 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 display all your online activity 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, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just 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 Plugin For WordPress)
Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts.
To view your comments feed, go to the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items as seen on Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed content as seen using a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: 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 website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Individual Item RSS Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for a single post 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 making an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS 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 actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create individual category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WordPress category RSS feed)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy the selected category link address …)
Add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
Your feed now only includes content posted under 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 – Create A Page Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers
You can publish your own feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to specific content …
(Publish A Feeds Page)
You can also link an RSS button graphic to your category (or single post) feeds and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts here:
RSS Feeds – Notes
RSS 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 various feed configurations without code editing skills. For example, the table below shows some of the kinds of feed types you can use on your site and how to format these feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image 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 includes specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed for the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed displaying latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/01/22/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/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 latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feeds. Place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content to your site and get others to syndicate your content using 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 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Images – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
- WordPress.org/WordPress Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Visit this site for more information about feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other websites on your site via RSS.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other posts we have published on this site.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)