No matter what what industry you are a part of, providing quality information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if your business provides travel-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from government departments and foreign travel offices, such as news or updates on travel warnings, advice from consulates, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it requires an enormous amount of time and resources. You have to sort through, research, and organize a lot of data, check your facts, write and edit content (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 not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS is short for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that their users 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 posts, news headlines, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these websites through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate web content.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from various sites.
This comprehensive article shows you where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display content from other websites and blogs on your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful way to share content online. Feeds provide a way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Many news reporting agencies and highly-visited online media publications rely on syndication to publish content from news sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows most online newspapers and popular media publications to deliver readers stories from around the planet without actually having to hire and set up additional reporters and writers everywhere in the world …
(Content publishing agencies rely on syndication to publish content from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. News reporting agencies syndicate their information using feeds …
(Digital agencies syndicate news stories using news feeds)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content 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 links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Most digital news publishing agencies provide links to a feed section (look for menu links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “salt lake tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most news reporting agencies and major sites have an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds list. Image Source: nytimes.com)
gives readers access to information from different areas of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain further feed subcategories …
(A feed list can also include subcategories. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use the feed, all that’s required is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can process 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 not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …
(The Benefits Of Content Syndication)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Try to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help to increase your web traffic!)
WordPress 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 WP theme, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar menu, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed from the Meta section)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying 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 WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Follow, or Share toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Share, or Links toolbar section)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your website or blog is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(Feed entries displayed with Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(Feed items viewed using a Google Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many entries you want to display 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 …
(Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)
The feed will display the number of items you have specified section …
(The feed will display the number of posts as you have specified in your 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 feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or just a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how feeds will appear)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for their RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ icon or link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites or blogs to your WordPress site.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can 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 RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to 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 RSS content to the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a website or blog containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy its RSS feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed will now display in the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress Sidebar Menu)
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 Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar? You sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Search inside the Plugins admin screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below can be used to 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 easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them into campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers a number of premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress site.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you automatically combine and display content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium edition of this plugin contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress posts as iTunes 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 is a versatile 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 site (sites that combine content from many different sources), or display all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
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 to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
To access your comments feed, go to the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content displayed on Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed items seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image: 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 has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Single Items
Being able to select 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 displaying an RSS feed for a specific post is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments made on that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from a specific post category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WordPress post categories feed format)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Now, append “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress RSS feed format for category)
The RSS feed will now only display content published in this particular category …
(Category-specific 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 An RSS Feeds Page
You can set up your own feeds directory that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger websites do …
(Publish A Page Of RSS Feeds)
Link an icon to your category feeds and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS button image. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with creating tables in WordPress content, see this tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed formats that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed types you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that contains your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments published on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on single posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/10/18/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed that contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays 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 promote your feeds. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button in a visible location …
(Promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if you provide useful content that educates, engages, and entertains. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add content to your site and get others 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 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- Feed Images – Visit FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – Official WordPress documentation. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using their RSS feed.
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 using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)