No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is a part of, you need to provide high-quality information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your visitors. For example, if your business provides medical services, you may want to include information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it involves a lot of time and resources. You have to do a ton of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, 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 not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to provide your users with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your users with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Is It?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that subscribers can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from multiple sources.
This guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide a simple and easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Many digital publishers use content syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers interesting stories and up-to-the-minute headlines from around the globe without actually having to set up more news reporters and content writers in every location around the world …
(Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. Online newspapers syndicate news stories using feeds …
(Online newspapers syndicate their news stories using news feeds)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.
Most online newspapers and major content sites contain a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu 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.) …
(Most digital publishers and major sites have a feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS feeds section. Image Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feed items lets you access different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain subcategories …
(Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is only a URL. To use the feed, all that’s required is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Adding someone else’s content to your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s website, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding a 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 feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Look for ways to get other sites to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress Feed – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed from the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Link To Us, or Follow Us toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Share, or Links toolbar section)
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 has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(Feed items as seen on Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Feed entries seen with a Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many items you would like to show in your Feeds section in the Reading Settings section. Enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication items setting)
The feed section will display the number of items you have specified in the Reading Settings section …
(Your feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in your 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 RSS feed is whether to display articles as full text, or just as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how your feeds display)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button or link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from another site’s RSS feeds to yours.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to 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 RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
copy the RSS feed from a site containing content that you want to display on your site …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now show in your sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WP 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:
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of a sidebar?
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin screen for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are some WordPress plugins that allow you to add RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from multiple content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, borders, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, tablet, or phone and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of 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:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress provides flexible Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress site 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 display posts from many different sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
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:
Using WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts.
You can see the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content viewed on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries viewed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
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 – Using RSS Feeds For Specific Post Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for individual 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 using an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:
(Individual Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post 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 the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can easily create separate category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format below:
(Use this format for WP category feed)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
Add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP RSS feed format for post categories)
Your category RSS feed now only displays content assigned to this category …
(Category-specific 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 – Provide Your Own List Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers
You can publish your own feeds list that allows readers to subscribe only to specific content …
(Create Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
Link an image to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding tables to WordPress pages and posts, go here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
You can customize your RSS in various different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different RSS feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can use …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest post entries
- 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: RSS feed that includes an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that includes the latest comments made on single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/03/31/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed that includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed containing 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 promote your RSS feed. Place your subscribe links somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites 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 users.
(Add content from other sites and get other users to syndicate your content with 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 feed 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing the RSS specification, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and helping the public gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation. Go here for more information about using WordPress RSS feeds.
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 their RSS feed.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems 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 WordPress please see other posts we have published on this site.
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