No matter what product or service your business sells, providing quality information to your blog readers is important. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, you may want to include the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a lot of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit 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 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 provide your users with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your site readers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS, which, according to some is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from many sites.
In this comprehensive article, we will show you where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) way to share web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Most news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows most news reporting agencies to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news headlines and fresh content from all over the globe without actually having to set up additional news staff everywhere around the world …
(Global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the planet.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows great information 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 online newspapers and major sites will contain an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Image: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS directory. Image: New York Times RSS)
These RSS feeds let you access content from different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, health news, etc.)
Feed sections can also include feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All that’s required to use the feed is to copy the URL and paste it into a program that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – 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 that 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 that you don’t have to create, it’s worth keeping in mind that you also want other sites to use your content.
When other websites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a standard or custom menu, 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 buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Link To Us, or Follow Us toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Keep In Touch, or Social Share section)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s 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 …
(RSS items displayed with Firefox)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Feed items as seen with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you want displayed in your Feeds section in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication items field)
Your feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified section …
(The feed page 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 RSS feed is whether to display your posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how feeds appear)
We have written a detailed tutorial about using WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you need to do to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL 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 a ‘subscribe’ button …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ link. 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 RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
Adding RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from other site’s RSS feeds to your WordPress site.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates 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 importing their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed from a site containing content that you want to display on your site …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content should now appear on the 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 RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
Here are a number of autoblogging tools that let you create posts with RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)
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 every item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
POWr RSS combines and displays content from various content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium version contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create 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 Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress site-generated 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 site (sites that display posts from different sources), or display all of 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 Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or 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 – WordPress Plugin)
Use RSS Includes Pages 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 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available to online users, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
You can access these by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries seen on a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content as seen using a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image: 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 is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Feeds For Individual Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for an individual 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 accessing an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:
(Single Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post URL, WordPress will return the comments made on that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from a particular category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can create category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(Format for WordPress post categories feed)
Copy the category link address …
(Copy the category link address to your clipboard …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
The RSS feed will now only include content published in that particular category …
(Category 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 – Publish Your Own Feeds List
You can create a feeds page that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like large websites …
(Provide Your Own Page Of RSS Feeds)
You can link an RSS button graphic like the one shown below to a feed URL and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress posts and pages, see this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations that do not require touching code. For example, here are some of the kinds of feed formats you can use …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed containing single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that includes the latest comments made on a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/05/14/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed displaying the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed containing latest post 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 feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you publish great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other sites to share your content online 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 🙂
Resources:
- Feed Buttons – Visit a site like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress.org/Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and reference. Visit this site to learn more about using WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To read 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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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now