No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if you provide travel-related services, it’s a good idea to provide users with information from government and foreign travel departments, such as news and updates on travel warnings, advice from consulates, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to regularly provide your site readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your blog subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – A Basic Overview
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- Once a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for content updates. Instead, their browser constantly monitors the site and keeps subscribers updated.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news, video lists, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites and blogs that publish feeds and then browse updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their web content.
- 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 (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from different sites.
This article shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide an easy way for online users to receive the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers stories from all over the planet without actually having to post more news reporting departments everywhere around the world …
(Media publications use syndication to publish content from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share content legitimately. News reporting agencies syndicate stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share content with other publications)
Most sites actually want you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Many online newspapers and leading online media publications 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”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major sites contain a feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives readers access to information from different areas of the website (e.g. business news, sports news, jobs, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All you have to do to use the feed is copy the URL and paste it into a program that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
RSS Feeds – Benefits
Adding content from someone else’s site on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s site 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 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 sites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Try to get users to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Your WordPress Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your sidebar or footer menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed in the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the 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 your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Keep In Touch, or Social Share slide-out, fixed, or floating toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Follow Us, or Links toolbar)
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 website has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your WordPress RSS …
(RSS items viewed on a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(RSS feed items as seen on Google Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you want displayed in your Feeds section, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WP Reading Settings – Syndication feed items setting)
Your feed page will display as many recent items you have specified section …
(The feed page will display the number of items you have specified in your 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 RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in feeds display)
We have written a detailed tutorial about Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view the content of an RSS feed is 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 show you how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button …
(Look for an RSS feed section. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into readable content.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other site’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can display on 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 easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
First, Go to a website or blog containing content that you want to add to your site and copy the RSS feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
Next, go to your Widgets area and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WordPress RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed should now appear in the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been added) …
(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 Add RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to posts? It sure can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins 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 WP Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to campaigns and categories.
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 that offers additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to add content to your site automatically 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)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
POWr RSS automatically combines and displays content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all tablets, computers, and phones and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress.
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 display all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev 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 the URL of your feed, name your feed (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 – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages modifies your RSS feeds to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
To view this, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (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 and users can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries displayed on Google Chrome)
Again, 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 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 WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Using Feeds For Specific Posts
Being able to create an RSS feed for a specific post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS directories, 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 item is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WP post categories feed)
Copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category link address …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(RSS feed format for category)
The category feed now only displays content specific to that particular 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 – Publish Your Own Feeds List
You can provide a list of RSS feeds that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …
(Set Up Your Own List Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
All you need to do is link a button graphic like the one shown below to your category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about creating tables in WordPress content, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed types that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of feed formats you can use …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes 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 individual items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed for the latest comments made on a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/08/28/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed containing latest items 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 your users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Place a subscribe button image in a visible location …
(Remember to make your feeds visible your feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that online users will only syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add great content from other sites and get others to syndicate your content with RSS!)
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 feed 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Images – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – WordPress documentation and reference. Go here for additional information about RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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