No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, you need to provide high-value information on your site or blog that educates, informs, and engages your readers. For example, if your business provides taxation services, you may want to include information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually 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 well beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your users up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your subscribers with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What You Need To Know About RSS
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is short for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that their users can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog post items, news, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be read using programs called feed readers, or feed aggregators. Aggregators are used to find content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content (and updates made to the content) to other online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed readers. 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 machines and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates from various sources.
In this detailed guide, you are going to learn 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 via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a way for web users to keep up with the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Most online newspapers rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the world.
Syndication allows most news reporting agencies and leading online media publications to deliver readers stories from all around the planet without actually having to hire additional news staff in every place around the world …
(Media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by online newspapers to share newsworthy content with other publications)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their content. Content syndication not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Most leading online media publications will have a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu 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.) …
(Many online newspapers and major content sites include an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Image: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
gives you access to content from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
Feed sections can also include subcategories …
(Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds. Image: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. All you have to do to use the feed is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can process the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
While adding a feed 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 you also want other sites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate your content … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your sidebar or footer, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta section)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can simply copy the site’s RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy feed URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On some sites and again, depending on the theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Follow Us, or Share toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Link To Us, or Stay In Touch section)
4) You can also view your WordPress RSS 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 WordPress installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS …
(RSS feed items seen on Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Feed entries displayed on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
You can specify how many entries you would like displayed in your RSS section, by going to your Reading Settings section and entering the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)
Your feed section will display the number of items you have specified section …
(Your feed will show 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 your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles as full text, or as a summary …
(WP Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds will display)
To learn more about Post excerpts, refer to 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 and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for a ‘subscribe’ link or button …
(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link or button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your subscribers.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from other websites to your WordPress site.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their feed. You can use RSS 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …
(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a website that publishes content that you would like to display on your site and copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen in the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content 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:
Adding Feed Content To WordPress Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to posts instead of the sidebar? Yes, you can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below are useful if you would like to add feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them into campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with extended functionality with a number of premium add-ons.
For example, the Feed to Post extension is a feature-rich importer that allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WP Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to import, syndicate, curate, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each feed item as a separate post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you automatically combine and display content from various RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any computer, tablet, or phone and supports text in every language.
The premium edition of this plugin 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 lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export posts as 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 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 content from many different sources), or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, 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
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies your RSS feeds to include pages and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts.
You can inspect these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu …
(Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries displayed with a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …
(Paste your 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 site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Specific Item Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for individual posts 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 using an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(Feed For Specific Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post URL, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website publishes content under multiple categories, you can easily provide a separate RSS feed for each category.
Just use the format shown below:
(Feed format for post categories)
Copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category feed format)
Your category RSS feed will now only include content published under that particular category …
(Category-specific feed page)
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 – Publish Your Own Directory Of Feeds For Your Visitors
You can publish a page of feeds for your subscribers that allows your readers to subscribe to specific content, just like large authoritative sites …
(Create A Feeds Page)
You can also link a button icon like the one shown below to a feed and then create a table or a list of your category feeds on a separate page …
(RSS icon. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress, go here:
RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize your RSS in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows several feed configurations without touching code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of custom feed types you can create …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that includes your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that displays the latest comments posted on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed containing a specific post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that contains the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed containing the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/11/14/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed containing the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed that displays latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One more thing …
Remember to let visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Place your subscribe button or link in a visible location …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only subscribe to your content if you publish useful information. In other words, focus on providing your visitors with high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content from other sites and get other sites to syndicate your content using 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 🙂
Resources:
- Feed Icons – Visit an online resource site like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS buttons”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org/RSS Feeds – WordPress documentation and information repository. Visit this site for additional information about 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 add someone else’s content to your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article 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 using the WordPress CMS platform please see other great content on this site.
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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