No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, it’s important to provide high-value information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your readers. For example, if your business provides travel-related services, you may want to include the latest information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, tips from consulates, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to do a lot of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, writing and editing 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.
Fortunately, there is a much simpler way to keep your users up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your blog subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Mean?
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog post items, news, videos, etc., which other users can then subscribe to.
- RSS feed content can be read using a program called a feedreader, or aggregator. Aggregators can be used to access new content published on websites and distribute this content to other sites.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates from several different sources.
This detailed 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 display content from other sites on your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way of sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide an easy way for online users to keep up with the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Most online newspapers rely on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows news reporting agencies to deliver readers interesting stories and the most recent headlines from around the globe without actually having to send more staff all around the world …
(Many online newspapers and many influential media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the planet.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. online media publications syndicate content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Many digital content agencies and leading online media publications include a feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say “RSS” 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.) …
(Most digital publishing agencies and major online media publications have a feed section. Image: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds section. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feed items allows you to access information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
An RSS directory can also include subcategories …
(An RSS feed list can also include subcategory feeds. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is simply a URL. All that’s required to use an RSS feed is copy the URL and paste it into an application that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Adding content from someone else’s site on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s website additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Syndicating Content - Benefits)
While adding 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 there are benefits in getting other websites to use YOUR content.
When other sites syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Try to get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your sidebar or footer …
(The feed page will display the number of items you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts in the feed as full text, or a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds will display)
If you need help using Post excerpts in WordPress, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you need 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.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for an RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your subscribers.
Adding RSS Feeds To WordPress
Let’s show you how to add RSS content from another website to your site.
Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you could display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their 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 content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the RSS feed from a website or blog containing content that you would like to display on your sidebar …
(Copy your feed URL)
Next, go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content should display on your sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget – 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:
Adding RSS Feed Content To Your Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to posts instead of the sidebar? You sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS, 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 with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that allow you to add RSS feeds to your posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
The plugin 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 Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you combine and display content from multiple RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom fonts, backgrounds, colors, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.
The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.
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 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, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible syndication plugin for WordPress site 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 display posts from various different sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or 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
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available 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 these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar …
(Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries viewed with a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed 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 website or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing RSS Feeds For Single Posts
Being able to create an RSS feed for a specific post item 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 accessing an RSS feed for specific posts is shown below:
(Individual Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and add “/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 left on your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content about specific topics. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If you publish content under several categories, you can offer subscribers a separate feed for each of your categories.
Just use the format shown below:
(WordPress category RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
And append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Your feed now only displays content posted under this particular category …
(Category-specific RSS 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 A Page Of RSS Feeds For Your Subscribers
You can create your own list of feeds that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …
(Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds List)
All you need to do is link an image to your category (or single post) feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS graphic. Image Source: 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, go here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows various feed configurations that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of feeds you can create …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Includes your latest post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Includes the latest comments published on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed for an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed that contains the latest comments made on a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed displaying the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/12/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed that displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes the latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to syndicate your content if you publish useful information. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add great content from other sites and get other sites to syndicate 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:
- Feed Graphics – Visit online resource sites like FeedIcons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization with three primary duties: publishing the RSS specification, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – Official WordPress documentation and reference site. Visit this site for additional information about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other great articles and tutorials we have published on this site.
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