No matter what service or product you provide, providing quality information to your site readers is vitally important. For example, if you provide accounting or financial planning services, it’s not a bad idea to include the latest information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.

To create and publish this kind of information, however, takes a lot of time and resources. You have to do a ton of information gathering, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually 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.

Thankfully, there is a simpler way to provide your users with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the easiest way to provide your users with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

Some Basic Information About RSS

• RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called 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.
• Feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio lists, etc., which any user can then subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view any updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate information automatically.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF 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 tools also let you combine several RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from various sites.

This article explains where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on different sites.

First, let’s look at syndication.

Online newspapers rely heavily on content syndication to publish stories from news agencies around the world.

Content syndication allows many digital news publishing agencies and many influential online media publications to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics and news from all around the planet without actually having to post more staff and writers to every location around the world …

(News reporting agencies use syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. News reporting agencies syndicate their content using news feeds …

(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share newsworthy content with other publications)

Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Leading news reporting agencies provide links to an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “international herald tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most digital content agencies have a feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feed sections …

(RSS feeds section. Source: NY Times RSS)

gives you access to information about different areas of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also include feed subcategories …

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: Los Angeles Times RSS)

Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use the feed, all that’s required is to copy the URL and paste it into an application that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Using Feeds

Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …

(Content Syndication 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 there are benefits in getting other sites to syndicate YOUR content.

When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Get other website owners to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)

About Your WordPress RSS Feed

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

Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display as part of your navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(You can access your WordPress RSS feed in the Meta section)

2) You can also find links or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.

For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On some sites and again, depending on your theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Subscribe, or Link To Us fixed, floating, or slide-out toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Social Share, or Links toolbar section)

4) You can also view your 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 site’s feed page …

(RSS feed content viewed on a Firefox web browser)

Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …

(Feed items as seen on Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

You can specify how many entries you would like to display in your RSS Feed section in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(WP Reading Settings – Syndication items setting)

The feed page will show the number of items you have specified section …

(The feed page will display as many recent posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

The other setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …

(WP Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a RSS feed)

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

(Post excerpts can affect how a feed appears)

We have created a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:

• Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all you need to do to view the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

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

(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link. Image source: http://www.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 URL of the feed into an online feed reader …

(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader)

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

How To Add A Feed To WordPress Sites

Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another website to your site.

Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

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

Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

First, Find a website containing content that you would like to add to your site and copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL)

Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WP RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• How To Use Widgets

Refresh your browser. The content should display on 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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Posts

Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of a sidebar? You sure can!

You can do this using plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for help configuring plugins.

Here are a number of plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with premium add-ons.

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)

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

The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each feed item as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)

POWr RSS automatically combines and displays content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.

The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes)

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 loads of powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your 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 WP Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication options for WordPress-generated 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 plugin to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress

Autoblog

(Autoblog WP Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply 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 Plugin For WordPress

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin

Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts.

You can see these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar …

(Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in the Comments RSS page …

(RSS comments feed entries seen with a Firefox browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which browser you are using …

(RSS comments feed content displayed with Google Chrome)

Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …

(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image 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 subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Specific Items

Being able to select an RSS feed for a single post 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 making an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:

(Individual Post RSS Feed)

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 your post, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not actual content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from a particular post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Format for WordPress category feed)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Select and copy your category URL …)

And append the word “feed” to the end of it …

(Feed format for post categories)

The feed now only includes content published in that particular 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 – Provide Your Own RSS Feeds Page

You can publish your own page of RSS feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in, just like the larger authoritative sites do …

(Create A List Of Feeds For Subscribers)

All you need to do is link an icon like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …

(RSS button graphic. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

We have written a detailed tutorial on adding tables to WordPress posts and pages here:

• Adding Tables In Posts And Pages With WordPress

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

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

WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed formats without editing code. For example, here are some of the kinds of custom feed types you can use on your site and how to format the feeds …

(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image above:

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

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Feed that contains the latest comments published on your website
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed containing a single post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/04/01/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – RSS feed that includes the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/09/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/

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

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

One last thing …

Remember to let your site users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place a subscribe link or button somewhere visible …

(Promote your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to syndicate 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 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• Feed Buttons – Visit Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org/Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.

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

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

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