No matter what what industry you are a part of, providing high-value information to your blog visitors is essential. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, you may want to provide users with information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure 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 a much simpler way to continually provide your site visitors with expert, up-to-date 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
Basic Information About RSS
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web 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 also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news headlines, video lists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata such as date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view any updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates from multiple sources.
In this in-depth article, we will show 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 content from other websites and blogs to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used to share content online. RSS Feeds provide online users with a way to receive the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from content sources around the world.
Content syndication allows news publishing agencies to deliver readers stories and headlines from all over the planet without actually having to send more writers everywhere in the world …
(Global media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. Content publishers syndicate their stories using feeds …
(Digital news publishing agencies syndicate newsworthy content using feeds)
Most sites actually want you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Most online newspapers and major sites have an RSS feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, 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 include a feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com)
These feeds let readers source information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, jobs, etc.)
A feed list can also contain subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories. Source: latimes.com feeds)
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 an application that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s content additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
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 content using your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Try to get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget as part of your navigation menu …
(The 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
The other setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles in the feed as full text, or as a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content displays)
To learn more about Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you have 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, find a website whose feed you want to syndicate and look for a ‘subscribe’ link or icon …
(Search for an RSS feed link. Image source: 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 feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
Adding An RSS Feed To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we’ll add content from another website’s RSS feeds to your WordPress site.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you could add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed from a website or blog containing content that you want to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content will now appear on your sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WP Sidebar)
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 RSS Feed Content To Your Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of your sidebar? You sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ search results)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us for help with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of WordPress plugins that let you add RSS feeds to your site:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin with additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin 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 allows you to combine content from various content using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, backgrounds, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, computers, and tablets and supports text in any language.
The premium version contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, 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 many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export 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 provides versatile syndication options for WordPress 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 bring together all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, give it 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
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
Install a plugin like RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
You can see these by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries displayed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(RSS comments feed items viewed using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. 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 WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Item RSS Feeds
Being able to create an RSS feed for single posts 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 accessing an RSS feed for an individual post is shown below:
(Single Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content about certain topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can easily create category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP RSS feed format for post categories)
The category feed now only includes content assigned to 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 – Publish Your Own List Of RSS Feeds
You can create your own feeds directory that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …
(Set Up Your Own List Of RSS Feeds For Your Site Visitors)
Link an icon like the one shown below to each category feed URL and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations that do not require editing code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of custom feeds you can use …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments posted on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that contains a post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/06/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed displaying latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to promote your feeds. Place your subscribe button image somewhere visible …
(Encourage visitors to subscribe to your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality content that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to share your content using 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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- Feed Icons – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and information. Visit this site for more information about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know 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.
Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using the WordPress CMS software please click on links to visit other posts on this site.
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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com