No matter what product or service you provide, providing high-value information to your blog visitors is essential. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s a good idea to include information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to sort through, research, 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 kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to continually provide your site readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- After users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the content and keep feed subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse updates posted on these sites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate content.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and 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 several RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from many sites.
In this in-depth article, we will explain where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide a simple way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Media publications use content syndication to publish news and stories from content sources around the world.
Content syndication allows news reporting agencies and leading media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news and fresh stories from all around the planet without having to send additional reporters and writers everywhere around the world …
(Many news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their news stories using news feeds …
(News agencies syndicate their information using feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Leading digital agencies will 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”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many news reporting agencies and major sites include a feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of different RSS feeds …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives readers access to information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
A feed list can also contain subcategory feeds …
(Feed sections can also contain feed subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. To use an RSS feed, all that’s required is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s content and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Syndicating Content - Benefits)
While adding an RSS 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 gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Consider trying to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed as part of your navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS 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 Follow, Social Share, or Link To Us toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Share, Subscribe, or Link To Us toolbar)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by typing your site’s URL into a 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 a page containing your WordPress RSS …
(RSS feed entries as seen with Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Feed entries viewed with a Google Chrome browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many entries you want displayed in your Feeds 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 – Syndication feeds)
The feed will show as many recent items you have specified in the Reading Settings section …
(Your feed page will display as many recent posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or as a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds will display)
For a detailed tutorial on Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ link or icon. 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 the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add RSS Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from other websites to yours.
Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the feed URL from a site containing content that you would like to add to your site to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your browser. The content can now be seen in 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 Feed Content To Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are some autoblogging plugins for WordPress that let you create posts with RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension is a feature-rich importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from various RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium version contains many additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a versatile Atom/RSS 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 combine and display content from many different sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog – WordPress Plugin)
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 the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
Use RSS Includes Pages if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your post comments.
To see this, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed with a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(Comments feed items displayed using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed 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 site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Using RSS Feeds For Individual Post Items
Being able to display an RSS feed for single post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 single post items is shown below:
(Single Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, 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 URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website or blog displays content published under different categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each different category.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(WP RSS feed format for post categories)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Copy the category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WordPress post categories feed)
Your feed will now only display content published in that category …
(Category 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 – Provide A List Of Feeds For Subscribers
You can publish a directory of feeds on your site that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Create Your Own RSS Feeds List)
Link an icon like the one shown below to category (or specific post) feeds and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about adding tables to WordPress posts, go here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed formats you can display …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed that includes the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed containing individual items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on a 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/2010/08/28/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest entries 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: Includes the latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feed. Make sure you place a subscribe button or link somewhere visible …
(Remember to make your RSS feeds visible your feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that online users will only subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content from other sites and get others to share your content online 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 feed 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and reference repository. Visit this site for more information about using feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 their RSS feed.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit other great content we have published on this site.
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