No matter what what industry you belong to, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information to your site or blog readers. For example, if you provide taxation services, you may want to provide users with the latest information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to continually provide your readers with expert, up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the easiest way to provide your subscribers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What Is It?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
- Feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, audio playlists, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then view updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate web content.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF (Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to display news and updates from multiple sources.
In this article, you are going to learn 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 via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate way of sharing content online. Feeds provide web users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Global media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish content from news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most leading content agencies to deliver readers the latest news and newsworthy stories from around the globe without having to post additional news staff all around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies and highly-visited online media publications rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content. News publishing agencies syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content)
Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows valuable information to be shared, but it can also drive 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.
Most news reporting agencies and major sites will have an RSS feed section (look for links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “express tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers and major online media publications have an RSS feed section. Image: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com)
Each of these feed items allows readers to access information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, jobs, etc.)
A feed list can also contain further feed subdirectories …
(An RSS feed directory can also include feed subdirectories. Source: Los Angeles Times)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. All you have to do to use a feed is to copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s business and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Using Feeds - Benefits)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate your feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress Feed – About
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on the sidebar …
(Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or a summary …
(Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for articles in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how a feed will display)
To learn more about using Post excerpts in WordPress, see this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or icon …
(Look for a ‘subscribe’ link or button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the feed URL)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other websites to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you can easily add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like 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 an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu)
First, Go to a site containing content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy its feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Panel – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress Sidebar Menu)
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 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 on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on lets you 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 – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish 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)
With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in every language.
The premium plugin edition 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 curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress.
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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display posts from various different sources), or display all your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(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. 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 and Custom Post Types)
Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages if you want to include pages in your 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 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your latest post comments in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts.
You can view these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget area of your sidebar …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries as seen with Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed items displayed on Google Chrome web 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 content. 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating Feeds For Single Posts
Being able to use an RSS feed for a single 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 making an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Individual 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 address, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from a specific post category. 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:
(WP category RSS feed format)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Select and copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WP post categories feed)
The feed will now only include content published in this particular category …
(Category-specific 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 – Provide An RSS Feeds Page
You can publish a list of RSS feeds for subscribers that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …
(Publish Your Own Feeds List)
Link an RSS button image like the one shown below to your category (or single post) feeds and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with creating tables in WordPress pages and posts, go here:
RSS Feeds – Additional Notes
You can customize your RSS in a number of ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows various feed configurations without touching code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of feed types you can use on your site and how to create the feeds …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table 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 – RSS feed displaying the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that contains specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Includes the latest comments made on a post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/06/21/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/11/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Contains latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to promote your feeds. Place a subscribe link in a visible location …
(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality information that will add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content from other sites and get other users to subscribe to your content with WordPress and 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 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- RSS Feed Icons – Visit feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and furthering the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about using RSS.
- WordPress.org/WordPress Feeds – WordPress software documentation repository. Go here to learn more about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other websites on your site via RSS.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business website please see our related posts section.
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"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)