No matter what what industry you are in, it’s important to provide high-value information on your site or blog that better educates, informs, and engages your visitors. For example, if you provide travel-related services, it’s a good idea to provide users with useful information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from consular offices, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to filter through, research, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, write and edit content (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 lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to continually provide your users with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site visitors with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that users can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news headlines, audios, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view any updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate web content automatically.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates from many different sources.
In this comprehensive guide, we will explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way to share content online. Feeds provide online users with an easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at how content syndication is used.
Global media and online newspapers rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows many news reporting agencies and many leading online media publications to deliver readers global stories and the most recent news items from all around the globe without having to employ and set up additional content writers everywhere in the world …
(Media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. online media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …
(News publishers syndicate information using feeds)
Most sites actually would like 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 created and published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Many digital news agencies and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation section that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most online newspapers and leading online media publications provide links to an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feeds allows readers to access information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, health news, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further subcategories …
(Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds. Image Source: Los Angeles Times RSS)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All you need to do to use a feed is to copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site 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 the content …
(Using RSS Feeds)
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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other sites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …
(The feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content displays)
To learn more about Post excerpts, go here:
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 a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for a ‘subscribe’ icon or link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ link. Image source: 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 a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their feed. You can use feeds to 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed URL from a site containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content should now display on 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 Add RSS Feed Content To WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are some plugins that you can use to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:
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 organize feeds into campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer can be used to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
POWr RSS allows you to combine content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, phone, or tablet and supports text in every language.
The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
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 loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress site 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 plugin to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from various different sources), or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev 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 your feed URL, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)
By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available to online users.
To view these comments, go to 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 your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items as seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries seen using Google Chrome)
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 feed reader to view the content. 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Feeds For Specific Items
Being able to use an RSS feed for a specific 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 making an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:
(Feed For Specific Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, 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 URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WP category feed)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
And append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WP post categories RSS feed)
The feed now only contains content posted in that particular 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 – Set Up Your Own Page Of Feeds For Subscribers
You can create an RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific categories …
(Publish A List Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
Link a button graphic like the one shown below to category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about adding tables to WordPress pages and posts, see this tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Notes
You can customize feeds in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations that do not require messing with code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of feeds you can display on your site and how to create your feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest posts
- 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 a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that includes the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/04/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays the latest post 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 feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link or button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if your content is useful, educational, or highly entertaining. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get visitors to syndicate your content online with 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 Resources:
- RSS Feed Icons – Visit a site like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Visit this site for additional information about using WordPress and 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 via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using the WordPress web content publishing platform please see other posts we have published on this site.
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