No matter what what industry you belong to, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is important. For example, if you provide health-related services, you may want to publish useful information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.

The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to sift through, research, and organize a ton of information, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (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.

Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to regularly provide your site visitors with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - The easiest way to provide your users with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – Basic Definition And Overview

• RSS, which, according to some stands for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “web feed”.
• After a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog post items, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata such as published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse any updates posted on these sites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate information.
• Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed aggregators. 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 allow you to combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from various websites.

In this in-depth article, we explain where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way of sharing content online. Feeds provide a simple way for web users to receive the latest information published on different websites and blogs.

First, let’s look at syndication.

News reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from news sources around the world.

Syndication allows many online newspapers and popular online media publications to deliver readers stories from around the globe without having to employ and send more news reporters and writers to every location in the world …

(Global media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the world.)

Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …

(Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content)

Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web visitors.

Leading online newspapers have an RSS feed section (look for menu 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.) …

(Major content sites include an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of different RSS feed sections …

(RSS feeds list. Image: nytimes.com)

gives you access to information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, jobs, etc.)

A feed list can also contain further feed subdirectories …

(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com feeds)

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

Using Feeds – Benefits

Adding content from someone else’s website on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s content additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …

(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)

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 sites to use your content.

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

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

WordPress Feed

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest 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 the WordPress 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 …

(WordPress Meta widget)

2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

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

3) On some sites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Keep In Touch, or Links section …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Link To Us, Social Share, or Follow Us fixed, floating, or slide-out toolbar)

4) You can also view your RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …

(RSS entries as seen using Firefox)

Note that your feed content will display differently depending on which browser you use …

(RSS items as seen on a Chrome browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

Specify how many posts you would like to show in your Feeds section in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Reading Settings – Syndication feed items setting)

The feed page will show the number of posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …

(The feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

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

(WordPress 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 affect how a feed will display)

To learn more about using Post excerpts in WordPress, refer to this tutorial:

• How To Use Post Excerpts In WordPress

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, all you need to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, go to a website whose content you want to syndicate and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button or link …

(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

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

Adding RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites

In the example below, we are going to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.

Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

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

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

(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)

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

(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)

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

(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)

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

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In Your Website

Load your site in your browser. The content can now be seen in your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been added – e.g. footer) …

(RSS Feed Content Added To Sidebar Menu)

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 RSS Feed Content To WordPress Posts

Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin section for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

(’Add Plugins’ search results)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.

Here are a few autoblogging plugins for WordPress that let you automatically add posts with feeds:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico WP Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to import RSS feeds directly into posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you automatically combine and display content from multiple content using RSS feeds.

This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.

The premium version of POWr contains many 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 – WordPress Plugin)

The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.

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

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress)

FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin 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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine content from multiple sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)

Install a plugin like RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin

Using RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available to online users.

To inspect this feed, go to the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …

(Comments RSS)

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

(RSS comments feed content seen using Firefox)

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

(Comments feed items as seen using Google Chrome)

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

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

Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Individual Items

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

(RSS Feed For Individual Post)

To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/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 associated with your post, not actual content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

If your site displays content published under multiple categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate RSS feed for each of these categories.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Feed format for post categories)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Copy your category URL …)

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

(Feed format for category)

Your feed will now only display content assigned to this 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 – Set Up A Page Of RSS Feeds For Your Visitors

You can publish your own feeds directory that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large online publishers …

(Set Up Your Own Page Of Feeds)

All you need to do is link an image to your category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …

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

To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress posts, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Easily Insert Tables Into WordPress

WordPress RSS – Notes

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

WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed types without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed types you can use …

(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the diagram above:

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

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed for a specific post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Includes the latest comments made on an individual post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Contains the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/04/06/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Displays latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/04/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Displays the latest posts 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 more thing …

It’s a good idea to let your site users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place your subscribe link in a visible location …

(Remember to make your RSS feeds visible your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if your content is useful, informative, or highly entertaining. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add someone else’s content and get online users to subscribe to 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 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• Download RSS Buttons – Visit an online resource site like FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – General information about RSS.
• WordPress.org/RSS Feeds – WordPress documentation. Go here to learn more about using 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 add content from other websites to your site using RSS feeds.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section.

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