No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, providing quality information on your site or blog is essential. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, you may want to provide users with the latest information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance tips, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to sift through, research, and organize a lot 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 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 beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your users up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your blog subscribers with up-to-date 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 is also often called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be viewed using a software program called a feedreader, or feed aggregator. Aggregators can be used to find content on all different kinds of topics and distribute this content (and updates made to this content) to other online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom 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 allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from many websites.
This article explains 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 using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used to share content online. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on sites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
News reporting agencies and influential media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most news reporting agencies and highly-visited media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news items and newsworthy stories from all over the globe without actually having to post more news reporters and content writers everywhere in the world …
(Media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies all around the world.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately. News reporting agencies syndicate their information using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by digital content publishing agencies to share content with other publications)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Major sites provide links to 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”, “calgary herald rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most online newspapers and major content sites provide links to a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Image Source: New York Times)
gives you access to content about different areas of the website (e.g. business news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
A feed directory can also contain further subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use a feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
RSS Feeds – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s content additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding RSS feeds 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 websites and blogs syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Get other online users to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …
(Your feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed displays)
If you need help Post excerpts, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all you have to do to view a feed’s content is 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.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website whose feed you want to syndicate and look for a ‘subscribe’ icon or link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ icon. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
Adding A Feed To Your WordPress Site
Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another site to your WordPress site.
How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, Facebook updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed URL from a site containing content that you would like to display on your site …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed will now show on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been inserted – e.g. custom menu) …
(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 Feeds To Your Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post? It sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that let you add RSS feeds to your site:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from selected 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 plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each item in your feed as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
POWr RSS Feed lets you automatically combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on all phones, tablets, and computers 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, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication options 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 display all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog – WordPress Plugin)
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 the URL of your feed, give it a name of your choosing (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 – WordPress Plugin)
Install RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your 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 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available.
You can access your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items as seen with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(Comments feed items viewed using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image Source: 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 site has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Post RSS Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for an individual post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific items to RSS aggregator sites, 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 specific post is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Specific Post)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, 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 post URI, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your website or blog displays content published under many categories, you can easily create a separate feed for each post category.
Just use the format shown below:
(WordPress category RSS feed format)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Copy the selected category URL to your clipboard …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
The feed now only includes content posted under that particular category …
(Category 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 – Provide Your Own RSS Feeds Page
You can publish your own RSS feeds page that allows readers to subscribe only to specific content, just like large authoritative sites …
(Create Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds)
All you need to do is link an image like the one shown below to each feed URL and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button image. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
We have created a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress content here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations that do not require editing code. For example, here are some of the kinds of feeds you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed 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 – Feed that contains the latest comments published on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – RSS feed that contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/12/18/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Feed displaying 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 users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link in a visible location …
(Remember to make your RSS feeds visible your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add someone else’s content and get other users to subscribe to your content online using WordPress and 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 feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit an online resource site like www.iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference repository. Visit this site for additional information about using RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how 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 using RSS.
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 learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please see our related posts section.
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