No matter what what industry you are in, you need to provide high-value information to your site or blog readers. For example, if you provide medical services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with the latest information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, takes an enormous amount of work and resources. You have to sift through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually 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 completely 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 site visitors with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news, music playlists, etc., to which any user can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites or blogs that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from different websites.
In this detailed article, we will show you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other sites to your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful method used for sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with a way to receive the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at how syndication is used.
Online media publications rely on syndication to publish content from content sources all around the world.
Syndication allows news reporting agencies and many leading media publications to deliver readers interesting stories and the most recent headlines from around the planet without having to post additional news reporting and content writing teams everywhere in the world …
(Online newspapers and highly-visited online media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. Global media publications syndicate their content using feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate content using feeds)
Most websites 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 site that originally published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many content publishers and major online media publications have 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.) …
(Many online newspapers and major content sites contain an RSS feed section. Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds list. Source: nytimes.com)
Each of these RSS feed items lets you access different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, arts news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain feed subcategories …
(Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories. Image: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you have to do is copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s content, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(Using RSS Feeds)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to use YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate content using your feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in a navigation menu …
(Your feed will display as many recent 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 the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or as a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content appears)
If you need help WordPress Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view a feed’s content, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website or blog and search for an RSS feed button …
(Search for a ’subscribe to feed’ 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 the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your subscribers.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Site
In the example below, we are going to add content sourced from another website to your site.
How To Add A Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding 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 RSS content to the WordPress sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a site that publishes content that you would like to display on your sidebar and copy the RSS feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen in the 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 RSS Feeds To Posts
What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of the sidebar?
You can easily do this using plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ section)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a number of auto blogging plugins that let you automatically add posts using RSS feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WP Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a feature-filled importer that lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of every item in the feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed allows you to combine content from multiple RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed priority, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, 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 allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, 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 Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress is a flexible Atom/RSS 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity 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. Just 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
(RSS Includes Pages)
Use 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 – WP 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 latest posts.
You can inspect this feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items as seen using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(Comments feed entries displayed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed 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 WordPress installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Single Post Items
Being able to select an RSS feed for individual post items 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 using an RSS feed for an individual post item is shown below:
(Individual Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not the post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your site displays content published under a number of categories, WordPress allows you to easily offer visitors a separate feed for each post category.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(WP post categories RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Now, append “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress category feed)
The RSS feed now only includes content specific to that 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 – Set Up A Feeds Directory
You can create a feeds list that allows readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them …
(Create An RSS Feeds List)
Link an RSS icon like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress pages and posts here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize feeds in several ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types that do not require code editing skills. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can display …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
Below 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 posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing a single post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that contains the latest comments made on specific posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/03/15/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Feed containing latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
It’s a good idea to let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to subscribe to your content if your information is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content to your site and get other sites to subscribe to your content with 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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing RSS specifications, guiding developers who create RSS applications and helping the general public gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation repository. Visit this site to learn more about using 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 content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues 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 website or blog please see our related posts section.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now