No matter what what industry you are a part of, it’s vitally important to provide high-value information to your site users. For example, if you provide health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
To create and publish this type of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to do a ton of data sifting, researching and organizing, checking your sources for accuracy, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is 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 entirely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to continually provide your users with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - One of the simplest ways to provide your users with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Definition
- RSS is short for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the source website for content updates. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the site and keeps subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news headlines, videos, etc., to which any user can choose to subscribe.
- RSS feeds can be read with software-based tools called feed readers, or feed aggregators. Feedreaders can be used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content to other sites.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed readers. 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 that feeds are compatible with different machines and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to display news and updates sourced from different websites.
In this detailed article, 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 content from other websites and blogs on your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate method used for sharing web content. Feeds provide online users with a simple way to receive the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Media publications rely on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading content publishers to deliver readers up-to-the-minute newsworthy items and content of interest from all around the globe without actually having to send more reporting agencies to every location around the world …
(Global media publications use content syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content with other sites. Global media publications syndicate newsworthy content using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by news reporting agencies to share information with other publications)
Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Most leading online media publications provide links to a feed section (look for links in their navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “la times rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major content sites contain a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feeds allows readers to access different areas of the website (e.g. technology news, arts news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories …
(An RSS list can also contain feed subcategories. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. To use the feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into an application that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Syndicating Content – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s business, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)
While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s worth keeping in mind that you also want other sites to use YOUR content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new web traffic …
(Get other websites to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on the WP theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget in your navigation menu …
(The feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feeds will display)
We have created a detailed tutorial on Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view the content of a feed is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and look for an RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …
(Search for an RSS feed button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Site
In the example below, we’ll add content from other site’s RSS feeds to yours.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you could add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from 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 content sourced from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a website that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy its feed URL …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your web browser. The content should appear on your sidebar (or wherever you have placed 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:
How To Add Content From RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to a post instead of the sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search inside your Plugins admin section for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
The plugins listed below are useful if you would like to add feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds according to categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress 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 your 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 on your WordPress site.
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)
POWr RSS lets you automatically combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed size and spacing, use custom colors, fonts, backgrounds, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in all languages.
The premium version of POWr contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you 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 Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress is a versatile 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.
You can use this plugin to create aggregator sites, or display 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
(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. Just 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
(RSS Includes Pages Plugin For WordPress)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like the RSS Includes Pages plugin if you would like to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
You can inspect your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu (note: your theme may not be configured to display this widget) …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed content as seen using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed entries as seen using Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feedreader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the 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 website has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Post Feeds
Being able to access an RSS feed for single post items 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 making an RSS feed for an individual post item is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Individual Post Item)
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 post address, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in subscribing to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
If your website displays content published under different categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each category.
Just use the format below:
(Format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Copy the category link address …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(RSS feed format for post categories)
The RSS feed now only contains content assigned to 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 – Set Up A Feeds List
You can set up a page of feeds that allows readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories, just like large websites …
(Publish A Page Of Feeds)
Link an RSS button image like the one shown below to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of your category 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)
We have written a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress content here:
RSS – Notes
You can customize feeds in various different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different feed configurations that do not require code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can display …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – contains your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that displays the latest comments posted on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed for the latest comments made on a specific post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/06/30/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Feed displaying latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/06/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays 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 let users know that they can subscribe to your feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ links in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if you publish useful content that educates, engages, and entertains. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Add content to your site and get others to share 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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- Feed Icons – Visit www.feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS feeds.
- WordPress.org – WordPress software documentation and information repository. Go here for more information about using 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 someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website please see other posts on this site.
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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)