No matter what product or service you provide, providing quality information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, it’s a good idea to provide users with the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it requires a lot of effort and expertise. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton of information, check your facts, 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 entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Information
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that their site readers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news, audios, etc., which any user can then subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these websites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate web content automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed readers. 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 and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
This guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide an easy way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Online media publications rely on content syndication to publish stories from news sources all around the world.
Syndication allows most leading online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent news items and interesting content from around the planet without actually having to employ more news reporters and content writers everywhere in the world …
(Digital news agencies use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. Global media publications syndicate news stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share information with other news publications)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that originally published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies include a 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”, “la times rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many news reporting agencies and leading online media publications will have a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS directory. Source: NY Times RSS)
Each of these RSS feeds allows readers to access information from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, health news, etc.)
A feed list can also contain feed subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS 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 translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Adding content from someone else’s website on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s site additional exposure online and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Look for ways to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta section – Accessing your RSS feed)
2) You can also find built-in links and buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow Us, Links, or Social Share toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Share, Follow Us, or Link To Us toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress RSS 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 WordPress installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS feed page …
(RSS entries viewed using a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Feed entries seen on Google Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many items you would like displayed in your RSS page, go to your Reading Settings section and select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)
The feed page will display the number of items you have specified section …
(Your feed will display 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 the WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article as full text, or as a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how feeds appear)
We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other website or blog’s RSS feeds to your site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you could add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as 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 your sidebar)
First, Go to a site containing content that you want to add to your sidebar and copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(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 …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed should now display on your sidebar (or wherever you have placed the RSS widget – e.g. custom menu, footer, etc) …
(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 RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside the ’Add Plugins’ section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a number of autoblogging plugins for WordPress that allow you to automatically add new using RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WP Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is a popular, feature-filled importer that lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can automatically combine and display content from various sources using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, computers, and tablets and supports text in all languages.
The premium plugin edition contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress is a versatile 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, give your feed a name (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 and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages modifies the default WordPress RSS feed to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
You can view this by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content displayed using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed items as seen on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
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 – Creating Single Item Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for single post items 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 creating an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URI 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 the post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website displays content published under many categories, you can provide a separate feed for each of these categories.
Just use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WordPress category feed)
Select and copy the category URL …
(Copy your category URL …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
Your feed now only includes content published under that 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 – Set Up A Feeds List
You can publish your own directory of RSS feeds for visitors that allows your readers to subscribe to specific categories …
(Create An RSS Feeds List)
Link a button image to category (or single post) feeds and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress, see this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different RSS feed configurations without editing code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments posted on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that contains a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/04/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/03/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays the latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let your site users know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality content that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add content to your site and get other sites to share your content using WordPress and 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 RSS feed 🙂
Additional Resources:
- Feed Graphics – Visit FeedIcons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation and information. Visit this site for additional information about WordPress 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 add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WordPress software please see our related posts section.
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