No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is a part of, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is important. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, it’s a good idea to include useful information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, takes a great deal of work and expertise. You have to sift through, research, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much easier way to keep your site readers up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your site visitors with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is short for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually check the source website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news, video lists, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feed content can be read with a program called an RSS reader, or aggregator. Feedreaders can be used to find content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content (and any updates made to this content) to other online properties.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates from multiple sources.
In this in-depth article, we will explain where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a way for web users to receive the latest information published on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at how content syndication is used.
News reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish news from other news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows digital content publishers to deliver readers the latest news headlines and stories of interest from all over the planet without having to hire additional news staff in every location in the world …
(Media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content. Global media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content)
Most websites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the site that originally published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Leading news publishers provide links to a 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”, “salt lake tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many digital agencies provide links to a feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS Feeds. Source: NY Times)
These feed items allow readers to source information from different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, health news, etc.)
An RSS list can also include feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is only a URL. All that’s required to use an RSS feed is to copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
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 this content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
While adding a 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 there are benefits in getting other sites to syndicate your content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Consider trying to get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
WordPress Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a navigation menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Share, or Follow toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Social Share, or Subscribe slide-out, fixed, or floating toolbar)
4) You can also view your 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 site has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your WordPress RSS feed …
(RSS content viewed with Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Feed items as seen on Google Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you want to display in your RSS Feed 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 field)
The feed section will display as many recent items you have specified section …
(Your feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles as full text, or as a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds will display)
We have created a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of a feed, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for their RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another site to your site.
How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their RSS feed. You can easily 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 the WordPress sidebar area …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website that publishes content that you want to add to your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your website in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed should now display in 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:
How To Add Feed Content To WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts? You sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below are useful if you would like to add feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (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 auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into categories.
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 with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from a number of different RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom borders, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, tablet, or phone and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WordPress Plugin)
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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export posts as 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 provides flexible syndication options for WordPress.
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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from many different sources), or bring together all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
To inspect these comments, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (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 and users display in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content viewed with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader 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 WordPress installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to display an RSS feed for a specific post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for displaying an RSS feed for individual posts is shown below:
(Single Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post address, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from specific 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 below:
(WordPress post categories feed format)
Copy the category link address …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Your RSS feed will now only include content published under that particular category …
(Category-specific feed page)
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 – Set Up Your Own Feeds List
You can create your own feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them …
(Create Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
Link a button graphic like the one shown below to each category feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
For a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize RSS in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types without editing code. For example, here are some of the kinds of custom feeds you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that contains your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments published on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed containing individual items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that displays the latest comments made on single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/11/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed displaying the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes latest posts 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 let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Place your subscribe link or button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content from other sites and get other sites to subscribe to your content with WordPress and 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 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- RSS Images – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
- WordPress.org/Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Go here for additional information about RSS feeds in WordPress.
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 feeds.
Hopefully, you now have 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 for a business website or blog please see other posts on this site.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)