No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business belongs to, it’s important to provide quality information to your site or blog users. For example, if your business provides taxation services, you may want to provide users with the latest information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, takes a great deal of effort and expertise. You have to do a lot of information sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (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 not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your readers up-to-date with your information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your site readers with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – Basic Information

• RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
• Once a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, audio lists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse any updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate information automatically.
• Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed readers. 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 compatibility with different machines and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates from multiple sources.

This guide explains where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide a simple way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on sites and blogs they are interested in.

First, let’s take a look at content syndication.

Most online newspapers use syndication to publish stories from news agencies around the world.

Content syndication allows digital news agencies to deliver readers global stories and the latest newsworthy content from all over the globe without having to send additional writers to every place around the world …

(Most online newspapers use content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the planet.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. Global media publications syndicate their news stories using feeds …

(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)

Most websites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Most news reporting agencies contain 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”, “chicago tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many online newspapers and major sites contain an RSS feed section. Image: SMH )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …

(RSS feeds list. Image Source: nytimes.com)

These feeds give readers access to information about different areas of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, science news, etc.)

A feed directory can also include subcategory feeds …

(A feed directory can also contain subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: A feed is just 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.

The Benefits Of Content Syndication

Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site, it also adds value to your site without you having to create this content …

(Syndicating Content Has Many Benefits!)

While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to use your content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …

(Try to get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress RSS

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in your navigation menu …

(Your feed page will show the number of posts as you have specified in the WP 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 posts in the feed as full text, or just a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how feeds will appear)

To learn more about Post excerpts, go here:

• Using Post Excerpts

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, find a website whose feed you want to syndicate and look for their RSS feed button using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for an RSS feed section. Image source: 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 your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader)

Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into readable content.

Adding Feeds To WordPress Sites

In the example below, we’ll add content from another website or blog to yours.

How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can easily add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …

(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

copy the RSS feed URL from a website that publishes content that you would like to add to your site …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

To learn more about using widgets, go here:

• How To Add Widgets To The WordPress Sidebar

Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in your sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget – e.g. footer, custom menu, etc) …

(RSS Feed Added To Sidebar)

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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding Feed Content To WordPress Posts

What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar?

You can do this using plugins. Search inside your ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ section)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.

The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog 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 allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into campaigns and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with additional functionality with premium add-ons.

For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

RSS Post Importer lets you curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.

The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.

This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.

The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin

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 other sources.

This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes WP Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication 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.

You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed and not just posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin

Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available.

You can see these by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors display in your Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items seen on Firefox web browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …

(RSS comments feed entries as seen using Google Chrome)

Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …

(Paste the comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed 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 WP installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Specific Items

Being able to use an RSS feed for individual posts 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 displaying an RSS feed for a single post item is shown below:

(RSS Feed For Specific Post)

To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post address, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Displaying Category 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 all of your site’s content.

If your website displays content published under a number of categories, you can provide a separate feed for each post category.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(WordPress category RSS feed format)

Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the category link address to your clipboard …)

Add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories feed format)

The category feed now only includes content assigned to that particular category …

(Category 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 An RSS Feeds Page

You can provide a feeds list that allows readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in, just like large authoritative sites …

(Publish An RSS Feeds List)

Link an icon to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a separate page …

(RSS icon. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)

If you need help with adding tables to WordPress posts and pages, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Inserting Tables Into Your Content Easily With WordPress

RSS – Additional Notes

RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure different feed formats that do not require code editing skills. For example, the table below lists some of the kinds of feeds you can use …

(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – contains your latest entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments posted on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed containing specific items
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed containing the latest comments made on single post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/12/12/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/03/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – RSS feed displaying the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Includes the latest entries for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Contains latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One last thing …

Remember to let users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link in a visible location …

(Encourage your visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to syndicate your content if you provide great information. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Easily add content to your site and get other users to share your content using 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 🙂

Resources:

• Download RSS Feed Buttons – Visit FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Visit this site to learn more about using feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress CMS software please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials on this site.

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