No matter what product or service you sell or what industry your business belongs to, it’s vitally important to provide high-quality information on your site or blog. For example, if you provide medical services, it’s a good idea to include useful 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, takes a great deal of work and resources. 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 ensure that this information is 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 simplest way to provide your users with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that their site readers can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then keep up with any updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate content.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP 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 machines, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates from many different sources.
This article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) way to share content online. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at how syndication is used.
Media publications use content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies around the world.
Syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers the most recent news headlines and fresh content from all over the planet without actually having to employ additional reporters in every place around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. online media publications syndicate news stories using feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies and major sites have a feed section (look for 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.) …
(Major sites include a feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(A website’s directory of different feeds. Image: nytimes.com)
These RSS feed items allow you to source information about different sections of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image: LA Times RSS)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s business, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Using Feeds Has Many Benefits!)
While adding RSS 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 syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a number of ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar or footer, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain 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 websites and again, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Stay In Touch, or Social Share toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Subscribe, Link To Us, or Share toolbar)
4) You can also view your feed by simply 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 site has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS page …
(RSS entries as seen on Firefox browser)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Feed items as seen with a Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many posts you want displayed in your RSS Feed section in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed section will display the number of items you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …
(Your feed will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or as a summary …
(Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will appear)
We have created a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for their RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
Adding A Feed To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we’ll add content from another site’s RSS feeds to your WordPress site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could add to 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, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed URL from a site that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
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 using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen on your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …
(RSS Feed Content Added To 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 Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use 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 into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin allows you to combine content from multiple content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any phone, tablet, or computer and supports text in any language.
The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, 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, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export 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 For WordPress)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress content.
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 site (sites that combine and display posts from various different sources), or bring together all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress 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 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available.
You can access these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content seen on Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed items viewed using a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image 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 WP installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to create an RSS feed for individual posts 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 specific posts is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post)
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 add “/feed” to the end of a post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If you publish content under several categories, you can provide a separate feed for each category.
Just use the format below:
(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)
Copy the selected category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
And append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
The category feed now only displays content posted for this 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 – Provide A Directory Of Feeds
You can provide your own directory of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Publish A Feeds List)
You can 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 icon. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
We have created a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize your RSS in several ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed types without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can use …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that contains the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/06/25/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/11/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest 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 feed. Make sure you place a subscribe button image somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only subscribe to your content if you provide useful content. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get other users to subscribe to 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 feed 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- RSS Graphics – Visit a site like www.feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation. Go here for more information about using WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know how 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 using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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