No matter what product or service your business sells, providing high-value information to your site users is essential. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s a good idea to publish useful information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of information sorting, 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 lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your readers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Is It?
- RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that users can read it without having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news, audio lists, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- You can view an RSS feed using programs called RSS readers, or aggregators. Aggregators can be used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content to many online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) 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 several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from various websites.
This article shows you where 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 using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows news reporting agencies and many influential online publications to deliver readers stories from all over the globe without having to hire additional reporters and content writers all around the world …
(Online newspapers and influential online media publications rely heavily on 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 content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)
Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many online newspapers and major content sites include a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” 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 online newspapers will contain an RSS feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives you access to content from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further subcategory feeds …
(Feed sections can also include subcategories. Image: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s website and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Using RSS Feeds - Benefits)
While adding an RSS 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 syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Consider trying to get users to syndicate content using your feed … it will help to increase your web traffic!)
Your WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta widget)
2) You can also find links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Keep In Touch, or Share toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Follow Us, or Share slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by 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 WordPress site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS page …
(Feed entries displayed on a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS entries displayed with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many items you want displayed in your RSS Feed page, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items field)
Your feed page will show the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section …
(Your feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your 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 as full text, or just a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how a feed displays)
We have created a detailed tutorial on using Post excerpts in WordPress here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to syndicate and search for an RSS feed section …
(Look for an RSS feed section. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add content sourced from another website to your WordPress site.
How To Add Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could add to your site the latest 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 such as news, Facebook comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a website containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy the RSS feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your browser. The content will now show on 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 Add Content From RSS Feeds To Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your Plugins screen for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use 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 into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with a number of 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 allows you to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible syndication 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 site (sites that combine and display posts from various different sources), or display 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 by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
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 your feed URL, give the feed a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages plugin modifies your default WordPress RSS feed to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts.
To see this feed, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Comments feed items displayed on Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the 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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Single Items
Being able to create an RSS feed for specific 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 displaying an RSS feed for specific posts is shown below:
(Feed For Individual Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post URL, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Feed format for category)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP post categories feed format)
Your RSS feed will now only display content posted under that particular category …
(Category-specific 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 Page Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers
You can set up your own page of feeds for your visitors that allows readers to subscribe to specific content, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Publish Your Own Directory Of Feeds)
Link a button graphic to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize feeds in several ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows several feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed types you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table 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 – Feed that includes the latest comments posted on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on specific posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed containing latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/07/25/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed that displays the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to let your users know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place your subscribe button in a visible location …
(Encourage your visitors to syndicate your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to subscribe to your content using WordPress and 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 RSS feed 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Graphics – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
- 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 – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation site. Visit this site for more information about WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress please see other great content on this site.
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