No matter what what industry you are in, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information on your site or blog. For example, if you provide insurance services, it’s not a bad idea to include the latest information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type 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 continually make sure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to regularly provide your site readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your readers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What You Need To Know
- RSS, which, according to some experts stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news headlines, video lists, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- You can view the content of an RSS feed using a software program called an RSS reader, or aggregator. Aggregators can be used to access new content published on websites and syndicate this content (and updates made to this content) online.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF 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 many RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from various other websites.
In this in-depth article, we explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide an easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on different sites.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Many news reporting agencies rely on syndication to publish content from news sources around the world.
Syndication allows most leading online newspapers to deliver readers the most recent news items and content from all over the globe without having to hire additional news staff and news writers everywhere in the world …
(News reporting agencies and highly-visited media publications use syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. Online newspapers syndicate stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by online newspapers to share newsworthy content with other publications)
Most sites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows great information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate additional web visitors.
Many online newspapers and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation section 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.) …
(Most content agencies and major online media publications have an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
These RSS feed items give you access to information from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS feed list can also include further feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use a 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.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s website and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Try to get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
WordPress RSS Feed – Overview
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 the WordPress theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your navigation menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find built-in links and buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Social Share, or Subscribe floating, fixed, or slide-out toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Keep In Touch, Share, or Link To Us slide-out, fixed, or floating toolbar)
4) You can also view your 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 site is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS page …
(RSS items displayed with a Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Feed entries as seen on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you would like to show in your RSS Feed section, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)
The feed section will display the number of posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …
(The feed will show 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 the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds will appear)
If you need help Post excerpts, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for an RSS feed button. 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 what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your visitors.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other websites or blogs to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed from a site that publishes content that you want to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content can now be seen on your sidebar (or wherever you have placed the RSS widget – e.g. custom menu) …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress Sidebar Menu)
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:
Adding Feeds To Your Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts? Yes, you can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just 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 setup instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below are useful if you would like to add feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
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 the feeds you import and organize feeds according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress 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, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can combine and display content from multiple content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, computers, and tablets and supports text in any language.
The premium plugin edition contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication options for WordPress 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from many different sources), or bring together all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog 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 the feed a name (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 Plugin)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your post comments.
You can see these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content as seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed items displayed with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image 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 site is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to use an RSS feed for single post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for creating an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post 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 all of your site’s content.
If you publish content under a number of categories, WordPress allows you to easily offer visitors a separate RSS feed for each post category.
Just use the format below:
(WP category RSS feed format)
Copy the selected category URL …
(Copy the category URL …)
And append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for category)
The RSS feed now only contains content assigned to 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 An RSS Feeds List
You can set up your own RSS feeds page that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …
(Publish Your Own List Of Feeds On Your Site)
All you need to do is link an image like the one shown below to a feed and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button graphic. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress content, see this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Notes
You can customize your RSS in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types without messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can display …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown 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 left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/07/15/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed containing latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/07/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed displaying the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feed. Place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …
(Promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get others to subscribe to your content with 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 – Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Buttons – Visit a site like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logos”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site to learn more about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about the benefits of using the WP platform please click on links to visit other great content on this site.
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum