No matter what what industry you belong to, providing high-value information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if your business provides insurance services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical research, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is 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 keep your site readers up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your subscribers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news headlines, video lists, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- You can view an RSS feed with software called feed readers, or feed aggregators. Feedreaders are used to access content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and updates made to this content) to online properties.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feed aggregators. 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 and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
In this in-depth guide, we will show you 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 using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide web users with an easy way to receive the latest information published on different websites and blogs.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Most online newspapers rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers the latest news headlines and the most recent stories from around the planet without having to send more news reporting and content writing staff to every location around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies and many popular online media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information. Global media publications syndicate news stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share content with other publications)
Most websites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Many online newspapers and major sites will have a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” 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 provide links to an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Source: New York Times RSS)
These feeds let readers source content from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
A feed directory can also contain feed subdirectories …
(An RSS directory can also include subcategory feeds. Image: Los Angeles Times)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All that’s required to use the feed is copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
RSS Feeds – Benefits
Adding content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s business additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create the content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business 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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other sites to syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Consider trying to get users to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on your sidebar or footer, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Access your WordPress RSS feed in the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find built-in links and/or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can simply copy the feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow Us, Link To Us, or Share toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Share, Links, or Follow Us fixed, slide-out, or floating toolbar)
4) You can also view your WordPress site’s 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 WordPress site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(Feed entries viewed on Firefox browser)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS content displayed with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you want displayed in your RSS Feed page, by going to your Reading Settings section and selecting the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)
Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section …
(The feed will show as many recent items you have specified in the Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or a summary …
(Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content appears)
We have written a detailed tutorial on using Post excerpts in WordPress here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to syndicate and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon. Image source: 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 an online feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites and blogs to yours.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you can easily display on your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
First, Find a site containing content that you want to display on your site and copy the RSS feed …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted) …
(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:
Adding Content From RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts? Yes, you can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your Plugins admin section for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are a few autoblogging plugins for WordPress that let you automatically create new using RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WP 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 arrange feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a feature-filled importer that allows you to import RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can automatically combine and display content from various RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium version contains many 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 WordPress 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 many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export 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 Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress site-generated 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 plugin to create aggregator site (sites that display content from many different sources), or display all of your online activity into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog 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 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 and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types modifies your default WordPress RSS feed to include pages and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
To access this, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content displayed on a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed items seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader 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 or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Item Feeds
Being able to use 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 single posts is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post Item)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If you publish content under many categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate RSS feed for each category.
All you need to do is use the format below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
Add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WP post categories feed)
Your RSS feed will now only include content published in this 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 – Create An RSS Feeds Page
You can create a list of RSS feeds that allows your readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Publish A Directory Of Feeds For Your Site Visitors)
Link an image like the one shown below to each feed and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS graphic. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress content, go here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
You can customize your feeds in several different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feeds you can use …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that contains your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed containing the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for specific posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/06/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Place your subscribe link somewhere visible …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other website owners will only syndicate your content if your information is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content to your site and get online users to subscribe to your content using WordPress and 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 RSS feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- Download RSS Feed Graphics – Visit a site like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and information. Go here to learn more about using 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 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 WordPress for a business website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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