No matter what what industry you are in, providing quality information to your blog visitors is essential. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish useful information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to sift through, gather, and organize a ton of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually 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 well beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a much easier way to keep your users up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your site readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – A Basic Overview
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog entries, news, audios, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites or blogs that publish feeds and then browse any updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate their content.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and 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 allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates from multiple sources.
In this detailed article, we will show you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful (and legitimate) method used to share content online. Feeds provide a simple and easy way for online users to keep up with the latest information published on sites they are interested in.
First, let’s look at how content syndication is used.
Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish stories from content sources around the world.
Syndication allows leading content publishing agencies to deliver readers stories from around the globe without having to hire more news reporting departments in every place around the world …
(Media publications use syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share newsworthy content with other news publications)
Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows great information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and leading online media publications include an RSS 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”, “telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major content sites have a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections of the site …
(RSS Feeds. Image Source: nytimes.com)
gives you access to content from different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, sports news, health news, etc.)
Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com)
Note: A feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s content, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)
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 you also want other sites to syndicate YOUR content.
When other websites syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Try to get other online users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
WordPress Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on which 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 in your navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta widget – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the RSS feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Link To Us, Share, or Follow Us slide-out, floating, or fixed toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow Us, Social Share, or Links toolbar)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by simply 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 website is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your RSS …
(RSS feed content displayed using a Firefox web browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(RSS entries as seen on Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many entries you want displayed in your RSS Feed section in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Syndication items)
The feed section will show as many recent posts as you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section …
(The feed page 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 the WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or just a summary …
(WordPress Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content displays)
For a detailed tutorial on Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, find a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for their RSS feed button …
(Search for an RSS feed icon. 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 the feed content by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
How To Add Feeds To Your Site
Let’s show you how to add content from other websites to your WordPress site.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their RSS feed. You can easily 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 the WordPress sidebar navigation area …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
copy the feed URL from a website that publishes content that you would like to display on your sidebar …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content can now be seen on your sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget) …
(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 Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from an RSS feed to a post instead of a sidebar?
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside your Plugins admin screen for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are some plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer)
RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design 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 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 functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin for WordPress-generated 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 sites, or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, 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 – 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:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments.
You can inspect these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed items as seen with a Firefox web browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries viewed with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image Source: 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 WordPress site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Feeds For Single Posts
Being able to use 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 accessing an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Individual Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the web address 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 certain topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(RSS feed format for post categories)
Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy your category URL …)
Now, append “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories RSS feed format)
The feed will now only display content posted in this particular category …
(Category RSS 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 – Set Up An RSS Feeds Page
You can set up a page of feeds on your site that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in, just like large authoritative sites …
(Provide Your Own Directory Of Feeds)
All you need to do is link a button like the one shown below to a feed URL and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a new page …
(RSS button image. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
To learn more about creating tables in WordPress content, see this tutorial:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize feeds in several different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows various RSS feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed types you can use …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed displaying the latest comments published on your blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that contains a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Feed displaying latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/06/03/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed displaying latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed containing latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes 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 feeds. Make sure you place your subscribe button image in a visible location …
(Promote your feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add content from other sites and get other users to subscribe to 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 RSS feed 🙂
Additional RSS Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation and reference. Go here for additional information about WordPress and RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have 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 WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit our related posts section.
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)