No matter what what industry you are a part of, you need to provide high-value information to your site readers. For example, if your business provides insurance services, you may want to include information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, writing and editing 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 not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your users up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
Basic Information About RSS
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is short for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also 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 often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feed content can be read using a software program called a feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feedreaders are used to find content on all different kinds of topics and syndicate this content (and updates made to this content) online.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from several different sources.
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 add someone else’s content to your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way to share content online. RSS Feeds provide web users with a simple way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
Most news reporting agencies and many global media publications rely on content syndication to publish news from other news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows many online newspapers and leading online media publications to deliver readers the latest news and stories from all around the globe without actually having to hire more staff everywhere in the world …
(Many news reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content. Digital content publishers syndicate their information using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.
Most leading online media publications provide links to an RSS feed section (look for links in their navigation section that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “texas tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Most digital publishing agencies and leading online media publications provide links to a feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Image Source: New York Times RSS)
Each of these feeds allows readers to access different sections of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, science news, etc.)
A feed directory can also include further feed subcategories …
(Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is just a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you have to do is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s site and helps you by freeing you up from 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 that you don’t have to create, it’s worth keeping in mind that there are benefits in getting other websites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – Overview
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar or footer menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section – Accessing your RSS feed)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your RSS feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on the WordPress theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Links, Social Share, or Follow toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Links, or Share section)
4) You can also view your feed by typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your WordPress RSS page …
(RSS content seen on a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS feed content displayed with Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many entries you would like to show in your RSS Feed page, go to your Reading Settings section and type in the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication items)
Your feed section will show the number of posts as you have specified section …
(Your feed will show as many recent items you have specified in the WordPress 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 in a feed as full text, or just a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how content in feeds appear)
We have written a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you have 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 see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites
Let’s show you how to add content from another website or blog to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can easily add to your site the latest updates 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 comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a site containing content that you want to add to your site and copy the RSS feed to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, go to your Widgets panel and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget) …
(RSS Feed Added To Sidebar)
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 Feed Content To Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to a post? It sure can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside your ’Add Plugins’ screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – WordPress RSS plugins)
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 tools that allow you to create posts with RSS feeds and imported content:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an 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.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of each feed item as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
POWr RSS allows you to combine content from various RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.
The premium version of POWr contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create 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 LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, 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 WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible syndication options for WordPress-generated content.
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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, LinkedIn, YouTube, or other online services, in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed and not just posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to displaying feeds of your posts.
You can see the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar menu …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries displayed on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed entries displayed using a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed 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 installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Individual Items
Being able to use an RSS feed for specific posts 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:
(Specific 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 your post URL, WordPress will return the comments associated with that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website contains content published under a number of categories, you can easily provide a separate feed for each of your categories.
Just use the format shown below:
(RSS feed format for post categories)
Copy the category link address …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories feed)
Your feed now only includes content posted in that 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 – Set Up A Feeds List
You can provide your own list of RSS feeds that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories, just like large websites …
(Publish Your Own List Of Feeds On Your Site)
You can also link an image to category (or specific post) feeds and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
To learn more about adding tables to WordPress, see this tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed types that do not require touching code. For example, the table below shows some of the kinds of feeds you can create …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed containing the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing specific posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that includes the latest comments made on single items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/05/26/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/07/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/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: Feed containing the latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let users know that they can subscribe to your RSS feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link somewhere visible …
(Encourage visitors to syndicate your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if your content is useful, educational, or highly entertaining. In other words, focus on providing your subscribers with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add great content from other sites and get other users to subscribe to your content online with RSS!)
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 – Resources:
- RSS Feed Images – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images.
- 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 helping to further the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
- WordPress.org – WordPress documentation. Visit this site to learn more about feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WP CMS platform please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum