No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business belongs to, providing high-value information on your site or blog is important. For example, if you provide accounting or financial planning services, you may want to provide users with information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it requires a great deal of effort and expertise. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your facts, 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 is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is an easier 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 blog subscribers with great information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Does RSS Stand For?

• RSS, which, according to some definitions stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “web feed”.
• When a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
• Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
• You can view an RSS feed with a software-based program called a feed reader, or aggregator. Feedreaders are used to access content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and any updates made to the content) to other sites.
• Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed readers. 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 that feeds are compatible with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from a number of sites.

In this comprehensive article, we explain where your RSS feed is located, 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.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing web content. Feeds provide a way for online users to receive the latest information published on different websites.

First, let’s take a look at content syndication.

Media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy content from news agencies around the world.

Syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news items from all around the globe without having to send additional news reporting and content writing staff to every location around the world …

(Global media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the planet.)

Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate stories using feeds …

(Online newspapers syndicate their news stories using feeds)

Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.

Most news reporting agencies and major sites have a feed section (look for menu links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “times of india rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major content sites will include an RSS feed section. Image: Sydney Morning Herald )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …

(RSS feeds section. Image: nytimes.com)

Each of these feeds lets readers access information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, science news, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain feed subcategories …

(An RSS directory can also include subcategories. Source: latimes.com)

Note: A feed is just a URL. To use feeds, all you need to do is copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

The Benefits Of Syndicating Content

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 that content …

(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)

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 sites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …

(Get other website owners to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)

WordPress RSS Feed – About

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

Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a standard or custom menu, 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 and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your feed.

For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On many websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Share, Links, or Subscribe toolbar …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Links, or Social Share slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar)

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

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS feed …

(Feed entries viewed using Firefox)

Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which web browser you use …

(RSS feed entries displayed using Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

Specify how many posts you want to show in your RSS Feed section in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feed items)

The feed section will display the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section …

(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 your posts as full text, or as a summary …

(WordPress 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 your feed content appears)

To learn more about using excerpts in WordPress Posts, go here:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view the content of a feed, you have 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 take a look at how this works.

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

(Look for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)

If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …

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

Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Site

Let’s show you how to add content from another website or blog to yours.

Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can easily add to your site the latest content 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, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

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

(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the RSS feed from a website or blog that publishes content that you would like to display on your site …

(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(WordPress RSS Widget)

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

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In WordPress

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed should now display in the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget – e.g. custom menu, footer, etc) …

(RSS Feed Added To 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:

• How To Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Posts

Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts? It sure can!

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

(’Add Plugins’ screen)

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

The plugins listed below are useful if you want to add feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress 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 allows you to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.

The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)

POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from a number of different RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.

The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.

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 allows you to create 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 Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides versatile 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.

You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress WP Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)

By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Install the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you want to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types

Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments.

To access your comments feed, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …

(WordPress Comments RSS)

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

(Comments feed entries viewed using Firefox)

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

(Comments feed entries displayed on Google Chrome browser)

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

(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: 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 or blog is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Using Feeds For Single Post Items

Being able to select an RSS feed for a specific post 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 a specific post is shown below:

(Single Post Feed)

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

(Single Post Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds

Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can create separate category feeds.

Just use the format shown below:

(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)

Copy the category link address to your clipboard …

(Copy your category link address …)

Append the word “feed” to the end of it …

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

Your RSS feed will now only contain content posted 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 – Set Up A Feeds Directory

You can publish an RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories, just like the larger authoritative sites do …

(Create A List Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)

Link an icon to each feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a separate page …

(RSS graphic. Image: public-domain-photos.com)

If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts, go here:

• How To Add Tables In WordPress Content

RSS Feeds – Notes

You can customize RSS in several different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.

WordPress allows you to configure a number of different feed types without editing code. Here are some examples of feed formats you can use …

(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)

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

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

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

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

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/22/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/09/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Feed that contains latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/

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

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

One more thing …

Remember to let users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place your subscribe button image in a visible location …

(Remember to promote your feeds!)

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 great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add someone else’s content and get others to subscribe to your content using RSS feeds!)

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 RSS feed 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• Feed Icons – Visit FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
• WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site to learn more about feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know how 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 their RSS feed.

Hopefully, this post has given you 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 the WP CMS software please see other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.

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