No matter what what industry you are a part of, you need to provide quality information to your site visitors. For example, if your business provides taxation services, it’s not a bad idea to include useful information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, involves a great deal of time and expertise. You have to sort through, gather, 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 continually make sure that this information is 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.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to regularly provide your site visitors with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition
- RSS, which, according to some experts is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news headlines, audio playlists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be viewed with software-based programs called feedreaders, or feed aggregators. Aggregators are used to access content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content to other online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feedreaders. 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 compatibility with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine many RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from multiple sources.
In this detailed article, we explain where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites to your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way to share content online. RSS Feeds provide online users with an easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Most digital publishing agencies and highly-visited online publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows most online newspapers to deliver readers interesting stories and the most recent headlines from around the planet without having to hire and send additional news staff everywhere around the world …
(Many news publishing agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. News reporting agencies syndicate newsworthy content using news feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate information using news feeds)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Leading news reporting agencies have a feed section (look for links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “salt lake tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers provide links to a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS directory. Image Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
These feeds give you access to content from different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, science news, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: LA Times RSS)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use the feed is to copy the URL and paste it into a program that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business 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 sites to use YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate content using your feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Consider trying to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on the sidebar …
(Your feed will display the number of 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 Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or just a summary …
(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 feeds appear)
If you need help using WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you need 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 can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website or blog and search for an RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ icon or link. 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 feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites and blogs to your WordPress site.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from 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 from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Go to a website containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, go to your Widgets area and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content from the RSS feed should now display 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 A Feed To Your Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts? It sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – 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.
Here are a number of WordPress plugins that you can use to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from various content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, borders, colors, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium version contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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 LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress.
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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that bring together posts from many different sources), or bring together all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your post comments.
To view your comments feed, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content displayed with a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed items seen on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader 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 website has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Single Item RSS Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for individual post items 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 accessing an RSS feed for a single post item is shown below:
(RSS 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 left on that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If you publish content under several categories, WordPress allows you to easily provide a separate feed for each post category.
Just use the format below:
(WordPress category feed format)
Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the category URL to your clipboard …)
And append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(RSS feed format for post categories)
Your feed now only displays content published under this particular category …
(Category 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 Your Own Directory Of Feeds
You can set up a feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to specific content …
(Publish Your Own Page Of Feeds For Your Subscribers)
All you need to do is link a button image like the one shown below to each category 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)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about adding tables to WordPress posts, go here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
You can customize your feeds in various different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations without code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed containing the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that displays the latest comments made on an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/08/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed displaying latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place a subscribe links in a visible location …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to subscribe to your content 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit sites like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – WordPress documentation and reference. Visit this site for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how 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.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about using WordPress for a business website please see our related posts section.
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