No matter what your business provides or what industry you belong to, providing high-quality information to your site users is vitally important. For example, if you provide health-related services, it’s a good idea to publish useful information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.
The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a lot of information sifting, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS, which, according to some is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content so that subscribers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, audios, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata like date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then browse updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their information.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. 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 compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
In this detailed guide, we explain 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 really powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with an easy way to keep up with the latest information posted on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at syndication.
Global media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows many digital publishers and many highly-visited media publications to deliver readers stories from all around the planet without having to employ and send additional news reporting departments to every location in the world …
(Many news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies around the globe.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content with other sites. online media publications syndicate content using feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate newsworthy content using feeds)
Most websites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.
Most online newspapers and major online media publications include a 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”, “salt lake tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Leading news reporting agencies will include an RSS feed section. Image Source: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS feeds list. Image: nytimes.com)
Each of these feed items lets you access different sections of the website (e.g. business news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also contain subcategories …
(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is only a URL. All you have to do to use the feed is copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Adding content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s website, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(RSS Feeds Has Many Benefits!)
While adding an RSS feed 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 websites to use your content.
When other sites syndicate your content, you have the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Consider trying to get other sites to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your sidebar menu …
(Your feed page will display as many recent items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
The other setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display your posts as full text, or a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed will display)
To learn more about Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed section. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …
(Paste your URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
Adding A Feed To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their feed. You can use feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media comments, 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 your sidebar)
First, Find a website or blog that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy its RSS feed to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content can now be seen on your sidebar …
(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 A Feed To Your Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your Plugins screen (Plugins > Add New) for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a few auto blogging tools that allow you to create new using feeds:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin that offers premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is a feature-rich importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer can be used to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin 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)
With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, fonts, borders, 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 Plugin For WordPress)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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 Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress is a flexible Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress site 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev WP Plugin)
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 a blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages)
Install RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types 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 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.
To access the comments in your feed, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) and click on Comments RSS …
(WordPress Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed items seen with a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed entries seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the comments feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image Source: Feedreader)
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 installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Specific Item Feeds
Being able to access an RSS feed for individual 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 using an RSS feed for single posts is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Displaying Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content about specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can easily create individual category feeds.
All you have to do is use the format shown below:
(Format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Copy the category link address …
(Copy your category URL …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
The feed now only displays content published under that 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 Your Own Directory Of Feeds
You can create your own RSS feeds page that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Publish Your Own Directory Of Feeds For Your Subscribers)
All you need to do is link a button icon to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …
(RSS graphic. Image Source: public-domain-photos.com)
If you need help with creating tables in WordPress pages and posts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS – Notes
You can customize your feeds in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations without messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)
For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the diagram above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that displays your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/06/03/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed containing the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/09/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Contains the latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: RSS feed displaying 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 promote your RSS feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button or link somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other sites will only want to subscribe to your content if your content is useful, informative, or highly engaging. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add great content from other sites and get online users to share your content using WordPress and 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 feed 🙂
RSS Resources:
- Feed Graphics – Visit sites like iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing the RSS specification, providing guidance to developers who create RSS applications and helping the public gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation and information. Visit this site for additional information about WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 websites on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you improve your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website or blog please see other posts on this site.
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