No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, you need to provide high-value information to your site visitors. For example, if you provide medical services, you may want to provide users with the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is 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 completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much easier way to regularly provide your users with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Does It Mean?
- RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news, audio lists, etc., to which other users can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view any updates posted on these websites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate content automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed readers. 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 devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates from multiple sources.
In this detailed guide, we will explain where your RSS feed is located, 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.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate way of sharing web content. Feeds provide an easy way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Media publications use content syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows online newspapers and many leading online media publications to deliver readers the most recent news items and stories from all over the globe without actually having to hire and send more staff to every location around the world …
(Many news publishers use syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies all around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. online media publications syndicate stories using feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Many online newspapers contain an RSS feed section (look for menu 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.) …
(Most leading online media publications provide links to a feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS Feeds. Image Source: nytimes.com)
These feeds allow you to access different sections of the website (e.g. business news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also include subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. To use feeds, all you need to do is copy the URLs and paste these into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s business, it also helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this 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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate content using your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
About Your WordPress RSS Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your sidebar menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed links to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on the WP theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Links, or Keep In Touch toolbar section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Stay In Touch, Links, or Share toolbar section)
4) You can also view your WordPress 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 site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …
(Feed items as seen using Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(Feed items viewed on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many posts you would like to show in your RSS Feed section, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feeds)
Your feed will display as many recent posts as you have specified section …
(The feed page will display the number of 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 your Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or a summary …
(WP Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how content in your feeds will display)
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 the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for a ‘subscribe’ button or link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed section. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content. Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from other site’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you could easily add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their feed. You can use RSS 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a site containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy its feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
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 browser. The content will now appear in the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been added) …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress 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:
Adding Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to posts instead of a sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your Plugins admin screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of autoblogging plugins for WordPress that let you create new with RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you import RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you curate, import, syndicate, 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 feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
POWr RSS allows you to combine content from multiple RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, phone, or computer and supports text in all languages.
The premium plugin version contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin 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 powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, 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 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 bring together posts from different sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev – WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name of your choosing (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 Plugin For WordPress)
Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types 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:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
You can access these by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area …
(Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items viewed with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you use …
(Comments feed entries seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the 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 WP installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Post Item RSS Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for a specific post item 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 post items is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URL 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 your post, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format below:
(Format for WordPress post categories feed)
Select and copy the category link address …
(Copy the category link address to your clipboard …)
Add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WP post categories feed format)
The RSS feed now only includes content posted under 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 – Create An RSS Feeds Page
You can publish a directory of feeds on your site that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Provide A Directory Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
All you need to do is link an image like the one shown below to a category feed and then create a table or a list of your individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS button graphic. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations that do not require touching code. For example, here are some of the kinds of custom feeds you can display …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/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 posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/05/31/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/08/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed that contains the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
It’s a good idea to let your visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link in a visible location …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if you publish great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, you must provide high-quality information that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content to your site and get other users 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 RSS feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- RSS Buttons – Visit sites like Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logos”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress documentation. Visit this site to learn more about 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 add content from other sites to your site via RSS.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.
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