No matter what what industry you are a part of, providing high-value information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if you provide accounting or financial planning services, it’s a good idea to include useful information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a ton of information, check your sources for accuracy, 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 is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your site visitors with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS Made Simple
- RSS, which, according to some experts is short for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the source website for updated content. Instead, their browser constantly monitors the content and keeps subscribers updated.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog entries, news, videos, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be read using a software program called a feed reader, or aggregator. Aggregators can be used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content to various online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. 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 that feeds are compatible with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple sites.
This guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful (and legitimate) method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide a simple and easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Online media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy content from content sources around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading online newspapers to deliver readers interesting stories and the latest news headlines from all around the globe without having to hire more news staff and reporters everywhere in the world …
(Many online newspapers and highly-visited media publications use syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate news stories using news feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate their news stories using feeds)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Major sites 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”, “courier mail rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major content sites include an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a list of different RSS feeds …
(RSS feeds section. Source: NY Times RSS)
These RSS feeds give you access to content from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS directory can also contain feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Image: LA Times)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s website, it also adds value to your site without you 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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other sites to syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your content … it will help to increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a number of ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on your navigation menu …
(Your feed page 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 Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article as full text, or as a summary …
(Settings – 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 a feed will appear)
If you need help Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you need to do 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 translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button or link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other site’s RSS feeds to your site.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you could easily display on your site the latest news and 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 like news, social media comments, 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 …
(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Go to a site that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy its RSS feed …
(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content can now be seen in your sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WP 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 Feeds To Your Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to posts instead of the sidebar?
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need help configuring plugins.
Here are a number of plugins that allow you to add RSS feeds to your content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to import RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
RSS Post Importer allows you to 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 article content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
With POWr RSS Feed, you can combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features.
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 Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication options 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from many different sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the 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)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. You can use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you want to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts.
To inspect these comments, locate the ‘Meta’ widget area on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items displayed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen using a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader 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 WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Specific Post Items
Being able to select an RSS feed for an individual post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for making an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Individual Post Item)
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 content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to syndicate content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create individual category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(WordPress category feed format)
Copy the category URL …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Feed format for post categories)
Your feed will now only include content published in this category …
(Category-specific 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 RSS Feeds List
You can create your own page of feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large online publishers …
(Provide Your Own List Of Feeds)
Link an icon like the one shown below to each category feed and then create a table or a list of all your individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button image. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress pages and posts, go here:
WordPress RSS – 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 code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure various feed formats without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed types you can use …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays 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 individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed for the latest comments made on a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/05/29/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest posts 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 your users know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place your subscribe button somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with very high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content to your site and get other users to share 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- Feed Graphics – Visit Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images and icons.
- 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.org/RSS – Learn more about RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation repository. Visit this site 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, and how to add content from other websites to your site using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To read more about using the WP software please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)