No matter what what industry you belong to, you need to provide high-value information to your site or blog readers. For example, if you provide medical services, you may want to publish useful information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.

To create and publish this kind of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, 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 huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.

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

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your readers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What Is It?

• RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
• Once users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the site and keeps subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news, audio playlists, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these websites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate information automatically.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (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 sourced from many websites.

In this in-depth article, we will show you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites to your site using their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with a way to keep up with the latest information posted on sites and blogs they are interested in.

First, let’s take a look at syndication.

Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.

Content syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news items and stories of general interest from around the globe without having to employ and set up more staff in every location in the world …

(Most news reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. online media publications syndicate their information using news feeds …

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

Most websites actually want you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows valuable information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Many news reporting agencies include an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say “RSS” 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.) …

(Major content sites provide links to a feed section. Source: SMH RSS )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a list of different RSS feed sections of the site …

(RSS Feeds. Image: New York Times)

Each of these feed items allows readers to access information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

An RSS directory can also include further subcategory feeds …

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

Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

RSS Feeds – Benefits

Adding someone else’s content to your website 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 that content …

(Content Syndication 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 a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate YOUR content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Get other websites and blogs to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress Feed – Overview

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.

Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:

1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a navigation menu …

(The feed page will show as many recent items you have specified in the Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article as full text, or just as a summary …

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

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds will appear)

We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:

• Using Excerpts In WordPress Posts

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all you have to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s see how this works.

First, find a website or blog and search for their RSS feed section …

(Look for a ‘subscribe’ icon or link. 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 the feed into a feedreader …

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

Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.

Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Site

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

Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, 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 feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, Facebook comments, 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 menu …

(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

copy the feed URL from a website that publishes content that you want to add to your sidebar to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(WP RSS Widget)

To learn more about using widgets, go here:

• How To Add Widgets To The WordPress Blog Sidebar

Load your site in your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now display in your 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 Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts

Can content from RSS feeds be added to posts? Yes, it can!

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin directory for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ section)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.

Here are some auto blogging plugins that allow you to automatically add posts using RSS feeds:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

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

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them according to categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post extension is an advanced, feature-filled importer that lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom fonts, backgrounds, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.

The premium version of this plugin contains many 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:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes WordPress Plugin)

WP Pipes 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 loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export 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 syndication for WordPress site-generated content.

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.

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 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, give it a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages WordPress Plugin)

Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages

Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

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

To view this feed, go to the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …

(WordPress Comments Feed)

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

(RSS comments feed content displayed using Firefox)

Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …

(RSS comments feed items as seen on Google Chrome)

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

(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. 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 site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Using 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 items to RSS directories, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.

The formula for using an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:

(Feed For Specific Post Item)

To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds

Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If your website or blog displays content published under many categories, WordPress allows you to easily provide a separate feed for each post category.

Just use the format below:

(WordPress category RSS feed format)

Copy the category link address to your clipboard …

(Copy the category link address …)

And add “feed” to the end of it …

(Feed format for category)

Your RSS feed will now only display content published in that particular category …

(Category RSS 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 – Create A List Of Feeds

You can create your own directory of feeds on your site that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …

(Set Up A Feeds Directory)

You can link an RSS graphic like the one shown below to a category feed URL and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a new page …

(RSS graphic. Image Source: 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 content here:

• How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

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

WordPress allows different RSS feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed types you can display …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)

For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed 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 – Includes the latest comments left on your site
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Contains the latest comments made on a single post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/07/16/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/08/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Contains latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: RSS feed that includes the latest items for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

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

One last thing …

Remember to promote your feed. Make sure you place a subscribe button in a visible location …

(Remember to promote your feeds!)

Keep in mind that other website owners 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.

(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to share your content with 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 🙂

Resources:

• RSS Buttons – Visit a site like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation and information site. Go here to learn more about WordPress RSS.

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, 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 RSS.

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using the WP software please see other great content on this site.

***