No matter what service or product you sell, you need to provide high-quality information to your site readers. For example, if your business provides taxation services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.
The problem with creating this type of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to sort through, research, and organize a lot of information, check your facts, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually make sure that this information is 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 beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your site readers up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your blog subscribers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- When a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- Feeds are also used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, videos, etc., to which other 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 through an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their information automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different formats and read by different feedreaders. 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 and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from different websites.
This guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful way of sharing web content. Feeds provide a simple and easy way for online users to keep up with the latest information published on sites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Digital news publishing agencies and influential media publications rely on content syndication to publish news from news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most digital news publishing agencies and many popular online media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute headlines from around the planet without actually having to send more content writers to every place around the world …
(Media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the world.)
Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. News reporting agencies syndicate their content using news feeds …
(News agencies syndicate their stories using news feeds)
Most websites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows valuable 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 provides websites with additional opportunities to generate new web traffic.
Leading digital news publishing agencies contain 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”, “huffington post rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many news reporting agencies include an RSS feed section. Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of different RSS feeds …
(RSS feeds section. Source: NY Times)
Each of these RSS feed items allows readers to access information from different sections of the site (e.g. business news, sports news, science news, etc.)
A feed list can also include subcategory feeds …
(Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories. Image: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Content Syndication – Benefits
Syndicating content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s content and helps your site by freeing you up from having to create this content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to syndicate your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Consider trying to get other sites to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)
WordPress RSS Feed
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget as part of your navigation menu …
(Your feed will show the number of posts as 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 RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or just a summary …
(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how content in your feeds appear)
To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for their RSS feed icon …
(Look for an RSS feed link. 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 what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feed readers, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your visitors.
Adding Feeds To WordPress
In the example below, we’ll add RSS content from another website or blog to yours.
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could easily display on your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a website or blog containing content that you want to add to your sidebar and copy its RSS feed URL …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your website in your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now show 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 Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? It sure can!
You can easily do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ screen)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins below are useful for adding 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 – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you specify.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds into campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from various RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.
The premium version of POWr contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin)
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 powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides simple and flexible syndication options 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from multiple sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Just 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
(RSS Includes Pages)
Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you want 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
WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available to online users.
You can access these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in your Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries viewed using a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(Comments feed entries as seen with a Google Chrome web browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed 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 website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Specific Post Items
Being able to access an RSS feed for an individual post item can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 a single post item is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the URI of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of your post address, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content about specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
WordPress allows you to create separate category feeds.
All you need to do is use the format below:
(WordPress RSS feed format for category)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy your category link address …)
Append the word “feed” to the end of it …
(RSS feed format for post categories)
Your feed will now only include content posted in that category …
(Category 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 A List Of Feeds On Your Site
You can provide your own feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in specific categories …
(Set Up A Page Of Feeds)
Link an RSS graphic to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a new page …
(RSS button image. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial about creating tables in WordPress posts here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding videos and images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed formats that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of feeds you can use …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments published on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for a single post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that displays the latest comments made on single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/04/15/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Displays the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/04/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed displaying the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed that contains the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the 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 feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ links in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Finally, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add content from other sites and get others to syndicate 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 Resources:
- RSS Feed Icons – Visit a site like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS logos”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation and reference. Visit this site for additional information about using RSS feeds in WordPress.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other websites to your site using RSS.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress software please click on links to visit other posts on this site.
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