No matter what product or service you sell or what industry your business belongs to, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if you provide travel-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, tips from consular offices, etc.

The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data 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 kept 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 completely beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to keep your readers up-to-date with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the simplest way to provide your readers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

Basic Information About RSS

• RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
• Once users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their content automatically.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed 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 devices, feedreaders, and programs.
• Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from various sources.

This article shows you 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 via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful way of sharing web content. Feeds provide an easy way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.

First, let’s look at syndication.

Online newspapers use content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the world.

Syndication allows news reporting agencies and many influential media publications to deliver readers stories from all around the globe without having to set up additional reporters all around the world …

(News reporting agencies use syndication to publish content from news sources all around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their newsworthy content using news feeds …

(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share newsworthy content with other news publications)

Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Leading online newspapers will include 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”, “miami herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most online newspapers and major content sites will have a feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content areas of the site …

(RSS feeds list. Image Source: nytimes.com)

gives readers access to information about different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, health news, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further subcategory feeds …

(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com feeds)

Note: A feed is only a URL. All that’s required to use an RSS feed is to copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

The Benefits Of Syndicating Content

Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s business additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that 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 websites to use your content.

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

(Try to get users to syndicate your content … it will help to increase traffic!)

WordPress RSS Feed – Overview

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on your WP 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 your sidebar …

(Your feed 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 the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …

(WordPress Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your RSS feed)

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

(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds appear)

For a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts, go here:

• How To Use Post Excerpts In WordPress

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link …

(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link or button. 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 feedreader …

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

Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.

How To Add Feeds To Your WP Site

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

Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you could add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their 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 RSS content to your sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the feed URL from a website that publishes content that you want to display on your site …

(Copy the feed URL)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• Adding And Configuring WordPress Widgets In Your Sidebar

Load your site in your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in the 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

How To Add A Feed To WordPress Posts

Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts? Yes, it can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin directory for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.

(RSS plugins)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.

Here are some autoblogging tools that let you create posts with feeds and imported content:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging 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 and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator)

WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers premium add-ons for extended functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)

The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.

RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)

With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from multiple RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.

The premium edition of POWr contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)

The WP Pipes plugin 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, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress)

FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication 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.

You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)

By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin

Using RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.

You can see your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar menu …

(Comments Feed)

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

(RSS comments feed items seen with a Firefox browser)

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

(RSS comments feed content as seen on Google Chrome web browser)

Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …

(Paste the comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Image: Feedreader.com)

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 is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Individual Post Feeds

Being able to access an RSS feed for specific posts 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 using an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:

(Feed For Single Post Item)

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

(Single Post Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Category Feeds

Some your site users may only want to syndicate content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can create category feeds.

All you have to do is use the format below:

(RSS feed format for category)

Select and copy the category link address …

(Copy the category link address to your clipboard …)

Now, append “feed” to the end of it …

(Feed format for post categories)

The category RSS feed will now only contain content published in that 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 – Provide A Directory Of Feeds For Your Subscribers

You can set up an RSS feeds directory that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them …

(Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds List)

All you need to do is link an RSS button graphic like the one shown below to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …

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

To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress posts and pages, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding Tables Into Your Content In WordPress

RSS Feeds – Notes

RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows several feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can use and how to create your feeds …

(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed containing an individual post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed that displays the latest comments made on specific post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/04/26/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes the latest items in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/03/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Feed that contains the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: RSS feed containing latest posts for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Contains latest posts 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 let visitors know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe buttons somewhere visible …

(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)

Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you publish useful information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Add content from other sites and get visitors 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 🙂

Additional RSS Resources:

• Feed Icons – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org/Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Go here to learn more about RSS feeds in WordPress.

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 via RSS feeds.

Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To read more about the benefits of using the WordPress platform please see other great content we have published on this site.

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