No matter what what industry you are in, providing quality information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s a good idea to include the latest information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it requires a huge amount of effort and expertise. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a lot of information, 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 well beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your users up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your users with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Does It Mean?
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred to, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- After a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news headlines, video lists, etc., which other users can then subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes either full or summarized text along with other metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view updates posted on these sites using a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and 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 devices, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
This guide explains 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) method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide online users with a way to receive the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.
Syndication allows online newspapers to deliver readers stories and news from around the globe without having to hire more content writers everywhere in the world …
(Media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content with other sites. online media publications syndicate their information using news feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information)
Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies provide links to a feed section (look for 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 online newspapers and major content sites will have an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
These feed items give readers access to different sections of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS directory can also include feed subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s site additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding an RSS feed 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 sites to use YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
About Your WordPress RSS Feed
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 few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a navigation menu …
(Your feed 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 Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or just as a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how feeds will display)
To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, 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 an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your visitors.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other websites to yours.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their RSS 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 an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a site containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy the feed URL …
(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 using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now appear in the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed – e.g. custom menu, footer, etc) …
(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 Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of the sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer can be used to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or 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:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from various sources using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, 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 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)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create 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 Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress.
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 plugin to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
You can inspect this by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed on Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS comments feed items displayed on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste your comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: Feedreader)
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 subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Individual Item RSS Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for an individual 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 displaying an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:
(Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the URI of your post, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website or blog publishes content under many categories, you can provide a separate RSS feed for each different category.
All you need to do is use the format shown below:
(WordPress category RSS feed format)
Copy the category URL …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(RSS feed format for category)
Your category RSS feed will now only display content published under this category …
(Category 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 – Create Your Own Page Of Feeds
You can set up your own directory of feeds on your site that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger websites do …
(Create Your Own RSS Feeds List)
All you need to do is link a button graphic to category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS button image. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about adding tables to WordPress content, go here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
Feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed formats that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can display …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that contains the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed for the latest comments made on an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/10/14/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed that includes the latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
It’s a good idea to let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button in a visible location …
(Encourage your site users to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you provide great content. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get others to subscribe to your content with 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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- Feed Icons – Visit sites like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing RSS specifications, guiding developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and reference site. Go here for more information about using RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other sites to your site using RSS.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.
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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)