No matter what service or product your business sells, providing high-quality information to your site readers is important. For example, if your business provides medical services, it’s a good idea to publish the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton 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 lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What You Need To Know About RSS
- RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their content automatically.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP 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 many RSS feeds to display news and updates from various sources.
This article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used for sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a simple and easy way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s look at how content syndication is used.
News agencies and many highly-visited online media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent newsworthy items from all around the planet without having to employ more news staff and content writers everywhere around the world …
(Media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. Digital news publishing agencies syndicate information using feeds …
(Digital content publishing agencies syndicate stories using feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Many news reporting agencies and major content sites will contain an RSS feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “nz herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most online newspapers and major online media publications have an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds section. Image Source: nytimes.com)
gives readers access to different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, editorials, etc.)
A feed directory can also contain further subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: Los Angeles Times)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Using RSS Feeds
Adding someone else’s content to your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s content, it also helps your site by freeing you up from 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 a great idea to try and get other websites to use your content.
When other sites syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Look for ways to get other website owners to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed as part of your navigation menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed from the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find links or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Link To Us, or Subscribe toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Follow Us, or Links toolbar section)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website or blog 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 browser)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(Feed entries seen with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many items you would like to display in your RSS section, 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 feeds)
Your feed will show the number of items you have specified in your Reading Settings section …
(The feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or as a summary …
(WP Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will appear)
For a detailed tutorial about WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, 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 reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button …
(Look for an RSS feed section. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their feed. You can use RSS feeds to 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 navigation area …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content should now display in your sidebar …
(RSS Feed Added To WordPress 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:
Adding Content From RSS Feeds To Your Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of your sidebar?
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below are useful for adding feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer can be used to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
POWr RSS Feed combines and displays content from various sources using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium version 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 WordPress Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a versatile Atom/RSS syndication plugin 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.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator site (sites that bring together content from many different sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, 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. Just 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 and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)
Install a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types 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:
Using 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 the latest comments posted on your site.
To access 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 …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries viewed on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. Source: 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 WordPress site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Individual Post Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for a single post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 individual post items is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the URI of your post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(Use this format for WordPress category feed)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
Your category RSS feed will now only contain content published in that 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 – Publish A List Of Feeds
You can set up your own list of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Provide Your Own Directory Of Feeds)
You can link an RSS icon like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress, go here:
RSS Feeds – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure several feed types without touching code. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table 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 – Feed containing the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that includes a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – RSS feed that contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/06/21/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed containing the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feed. Place your subscribe buttons in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get visitors to share your content online using 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 feed 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Graphics – Visit a site like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and information. Go here for more information about using WordPress feeds.
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 display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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