No matter what your business provides or what industry you are in, it’s important to provide quality information on your site or blog that better educates, informs, or improves engagement with your visitors. For example, if you provide travel services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with useful information from government departments and foreign travel offices, such as news or updates on travel warnings, tips from embassies, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it involves a lot of work and resources. You have to do a ton of data sorting, 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 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 completely beyond your control.

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

It’s called RSS …

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

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Does RSS Stand For?

• RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
• RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that subscribers can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, video lists, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata such as published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites or blogs that publish feeds and then browse any updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates from multiple sources.

This detailed guide shows you where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used to share content online. Feeds provide a simple way for web users to receive the latest information posted on websites and blogs they are interested in.

First, let’s look at the concept of syndication.

Media publications use syndication to publish content from content sources around the world.

Syndication allows most news reporting agencies to deliver readers up-to-date news items and stories of general interest from all around the globe without having to employ more reporters and writers everywhere around the world …

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

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

(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share content with other publications)

Most websites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Most online newspapers and major sites 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”, “star tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many content agencies and major content sites will include an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …

(A website’s list of feeds. Source: nytimes.com)

gives you access to information from different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also include subcategories …

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

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

Using RSS Feeds

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

(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)

While adding feeds 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 sites syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more visitors …

(Look for ways to get users to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

Overview Of The WordPress RSS

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

Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:

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

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

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

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

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)

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

(Post excerpts affect how a feed will appear)

To learn more about Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• WordPress Post Excerpts - Step-By-Step Tutorial

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s see how this works.

First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and look for a ‘subscribe’ link using any of the methods described earlier …

(Look for a ‘subscribe’ icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL)

If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …

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

Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.

Adding Feeds To Your WP Site

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

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can easily 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 feed. You can use RSS 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 your sidebar …

(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog that publishes content that you want to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

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

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In Your WordPress Blog Sidebar Area

Load your site in your browser. The content can now be seen in your sidebar …

(RSS Feed Content Added To Sidebar)

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 An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Posts

Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? Yes, it can!

You can do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins for WordPress)

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

Here are some auto blogging tools that let you automatically add new using feeds:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico)

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

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is a feature-filled importer that lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)

RSS Post Importer 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 every item in the feed as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed)

POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, computer, or phone and supports text in every language.

The premium plugin edition contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed WP 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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, 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 Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a flexible Atom/RSS 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.

You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin)

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

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev WP Plugin

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)

By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages plugin to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.

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

(Comments Feed)

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

(Comments feed entries displayed on a Firefox browser)

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

(Comments feed entries displayed with a Google Chrome browser)

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

(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed 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 installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Displaying Specific Post RSS Feeds

Being able to display an RSS feed for single posts 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 single post item is shown below:

(Individual Post RSS Feed)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds

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

WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(RSS feed format for post categories)

Copy the category URL …

(Copy the category link address to your clipboard …)

Add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(Use this format for WP post categories feed)

Your feed will now only include content assigned to this 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 – Publish Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds

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

(Create Your Own List Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)

All you need to do is link an image to each feed URL and then create a table or a list of all your individual feeds on a separate page …

(RSS image. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)

We have written a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts here:

• Creating And Adding Tables Into Your Content Easily With WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

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

WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations without messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can display …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed 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 – Displays the latest comments published on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed that includes a post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/04/07/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – RSS feed displaying the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/12/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Includes latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/

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

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

One last thing …

It’s a good idea to promote your RSS feeds. Make sure you place a subscribe button image in a visible location …

(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your feeds!)

Also, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Easily add great content to your site and get other sites 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 feed 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• RSS Buttons – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Visit this site for more information about using WordPress feeds.

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 someone else’s content to your site using RSS.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems 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 WP CMS software please see other great articles and tutorials on this site.

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