No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, providing quality information to your blog readers is essential. For example, if your business provides accounting services, it’s a good idea to provide users with 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, is really time-consuming. You have to filter through, research, and organize a ton of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is kept 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 well beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a much easier way to continually provide your users with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your site readers with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What Is It?

• RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “news feed”.
• RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that their site readers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
• Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
• You can view the content of an RSS feed with web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software-based tools called feedreaders, or aggregators. Feed readers can be used to access new content published on websites and syndicate this content to other online properties.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates from many different sources.

This in-depth article shows you where your RSS feed is located, 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 RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used to share content online. Feeds provide online users with a way to receive the latest information posted on different websites.

First, let’s look at syndication.

Global media and news reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish content from news agencies around the world.

Content syndication allows digital content agencies to deliver readers the latest news headlines and newsworthy stories from all over the planet without having to employ and set up additional reporters and writers in every location around the world …

(Many news publishing agencies rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the globe.)

Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate their news stories using feeds …

(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share content with other publications)

Most websites actually want you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the site that originally published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.

Most online newspapers and major content sites contain an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Many digital news agencies and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Image: SMH )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …

(A directory of different RSS feeds. Image: nytimes.com)

gives readers access to content from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

A feed list can also include further feed subcategories …

(Feed sections can also include subcategories. Image: latimes.com feeds)

Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Content Syndication – Benefits

Adding someone else’s content to your site has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s business and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create the content …

(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)

While adding a feed 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 there are benefits in getting other sites to use YOUR content.

When other websites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Look for ways to get other websites and blogs to syndicate content using your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)

WordPress RSS – About

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to easily 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 display in your navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(WordPress Meta widget – Accessing your RSS feed)

2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.

For example, in the screenshot below, 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 many websites and again, depending on your WordPress site’s theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Follow Us, or Social Share toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Follow Us, or Share toolbar section)

4) You can also view your WordPress RSS feed by simply 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 has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …

(Feed entries seen using a Firefox browser)

Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you are using …

(RSS items as seen on a Google Chrome web browser)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

To specify how many items you would like displayed in your RSS section, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)

The feed section will show as many recent items you have specified in the Reading Settings section …

(The feed will show the number of posts as you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

The other setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or a summary …

(WP Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how a feed will appear)

For a detailed tutorial on using excerpts in WordPress Posts, go here:

• Using WordPress Post Excerpts

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website whose feed you want to syndicate and look for a ‘subscribe’ button …

(Look for an RSS feed icon. 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 a feed reader …

(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.

How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites

Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.

Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …

(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

First, Find a website containing content that you want to add to your site and copy its feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)

Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• Adding WordPress Widgets To The Site

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed 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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

Adding Feed Content To Posts

Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of the sidebar? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ search results – RSS plugins)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.

Here are a few autoblogging plugins that allow you to create posts with feeds:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize feeds into campaigns.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)

RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)

POWr RSS automatically combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom colors, backgrounds, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, tablet, or phone and supports text in any language.

The premium version of POWr contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes WP Plugin)

WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you create curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.

This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress site-generated content.

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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or display all of your online activity in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog 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, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. You can use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.

You can inspect this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget …

(WordPress Comments Feed)

All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items viewed on a Firefox browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …

(Comments feed items displayed on Google Chrome)

Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …

(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: 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 or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Single Post Items

Being able to create an RSS feed for a single post item 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 accessing an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:

(Individual Post Feed)

To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

If your site contains content published under different categories, WordPress allows you to offer visitors a separate feed for each post category.

Just use the format below:

(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)

Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …

(Select and copy your category link address …)

And add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WordPress category RSS feed format)

Your category feed will now only display content published under this particular category …

(Category-specific 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 – Create Your Own List Of Feeds

You can set up an RSS feeds page that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them, just like large online publishers …

(Provide Your Own Feeds Directory)

Link a button like the one shown below to category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …

(RSS button. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

We have created a detailed tutorial on adding tables to WordPress content here:

• Inserting Tables With WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

You can customize your feeds in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows you to configure various feed formats that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can display …

(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown 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 – RSS feed that contains the latest comments posted on your site
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed for specific post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Feed that includes the latest comments made on a post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Feed containing the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/12/26/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – RSS feed displaying latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/01/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Displays latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Includes the latest entries for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Includes latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One more thing …

Remember to let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ buttons somewhere visible …

(Encourage visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality content that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add content to your site and get online users to subscribe to your content with RSS feeds!)

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 🙂

Resources:

• RSS Feed Images – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and reference site. Visit this site for more information about using RSS feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add content from other sites to your site using RSS.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit our related posts section.

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