No matter what service or product you sell, it’s important to provide high-value information to your site or blog readers. For example, if you provide insurance services, you may want to publish the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it involves a huge amount of time and expertise. You have to sort 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 continually make sure that this information is 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 beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to provide your readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your site readers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS, which, according to some experts is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news headlines, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view any updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom 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 tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from different sites.
In this guide, we will show you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide online users with a way to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s look at how content syndication is used.
Most digital content publishing agencies and global online media publications rely on content syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most digital news publishing agencies to deliver readers interesting stories and the most recent news from around the planet without having to employ and set up additional reporters in every location in the world …
(Global media publications rely on syndication to publish content from other news agencies around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Digital news agencies syndicate their information using feeds)
Most sites actually want you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.
Leading digital news agencies will include 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”, “express tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major content sites include an RSS feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content sections of the site …
(RSS feeds section. Source: NY Times RSS)
These feed items allow readers to source different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also contain feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application 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 site on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s website additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Content Syndication 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 a great idea to try and get other sites to syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Look for ways to get users to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display in a navigation menu, you can 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 links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the 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 sites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Subscribe, or Share toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Subscribe, or Links section)
4) You can also view your feed by 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 WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS feed page …
(Feed entries displayed on Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS entries as seen 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 …
(WP Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed will display as many recent posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section …
(The feed will show the number of 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 each article in a feed as full text, or just a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)
To learn more about using excerpts in WordPress Posts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
Adding Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from another website to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you could easily add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their RSS 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 RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Go to a website containing content that you would like to display on your site and copy its feed URL …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on your sidebar …
(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:
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside the Plugins screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
Here are a few plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension is an advanced, feature-rich importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer allows you to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire content of every item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every 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)
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 powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress-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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display posts from many different sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
RSS Includes Pages modifies 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 latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
You can access these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items as seen with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries viewed using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed 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 WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Individual 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 a single post item is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post URL, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Copy the category URL …)
Now, append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP category RSS feed format)
The RSS feed now only contains content posted under 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 – Publish A Directory Of Feeds For Subscribers
You can provide a page of RSS feeds on your site that allows readers to subscribe to specific content …
(Create Your Own List Of RSS Feeds For Your Site Visitors)
Link an RSS image like the one shown below to category feeds and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …
(RSS graphic. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts, go here:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)
Here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed containing individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/06/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/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 items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to let your site users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link in a visible location …
(Encourage your site users to syndicate your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide useful content. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add someone else’s content and get others to syndicate 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 feed 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit online resource sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress.org/WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and reference. Visit this site for more information about WordPress feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know 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.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about using the WP website publishing platform please see other posts we have published on this site.
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