No matter what service or product you provide or what industry your business is in, you need to provide high-quality information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your visitors. For example, if you provide health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with the latest information from the health department, such as news and updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it 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 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 entirely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with the latest information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The simplest way to provide your blog subscribers with the latest information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – Basic Information
- RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- After a user subscribes to a website’s feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for content updates. Instead, their web browser will constantly monitor the feed and keep subscribers updated.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news, video lists, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- You can view the content of RSS feeds with a web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software program called an RSS reader, or aggregator. Aggregators are used to find content on all kinds of topics and syndicate this content to many online properties.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom Publishing Protocol) feeds and RDF feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure that feeds are compatible with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from different sources.
This in-depth article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful and legitimate method used to share web content. Feeds provide a simple way for web users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at syndication.
News reporting agencies and highly-visited online media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows most online newspapers and highly-visited media publications to deliver readers stories from around the planet without having to send more reporters to every place around the world …
(News reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources around the planet.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Content publishing agencies syndicate newsworthy content using news feeds …
(News reporting agencies syndicate their information using news feeds)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows valuable information to be shared, but it also sends 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 online newspapers and major content sites 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”, “courier rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many online newspapers provide links to a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(RSS feeds section. Source: NY Times)
These feeds let readers access information from different areas of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, health news, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also include feed subcategories …
(A feed directory can also include feed subdirectories. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use RSS 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.
The Benefits Of Using Feeds
Syndicating content from someone else’s website or blog on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s content additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create this content …
(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)
While adding an RSS feed 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 websites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Get users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – Overview
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WP theme, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on your sidebar menu …
(The feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in your WP Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display posts as full text, or just a summary …
(WordPress Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content appears)
For a detailed tutorial about using Post excerpts in WordPress, 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 reads and translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, go to a website whose content you want to subscribe to and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ button using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ button. Image source: 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 URL of your feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds.
How To Add Feeds To WordPress Sites
In the example below, we are going to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to yours.
How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing content from their RSS feed. You can use feeds to 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 menu …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, Find a website or blog that publishes content that you would like to display on your site and copy its RSS feed …
(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed should appear on the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To Sidebar)
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 Posts
Can content from RSS feeds be added to WordPress posts? It sure can!
You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin repository for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ search results – RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a few plugins that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from selected RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds into categories and campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers premium add-ons for additional functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is a popular, feature-rich importer that lets you autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
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 – WordPress Plugin)
POWr RSS Feed combines and displays content from multiple content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.
The premium edition of POWr contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, manually accept or reject posts in your feed, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes)
WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a flexible syndication plugin for WordPress.
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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator sites, or bring together all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
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, give the feed a name (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 – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages plugin modifies your default WordPress RSS feed to include pages and not just posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to giving online users access to RSS feeds of your latest posts.
To access the comments in your feed, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries displayed on Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries seen on Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: 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 has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Single Item Feeds
Being able to select an RSS feed for single 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 displaying an RSS feed for single post items is shown below:
(Feed For Individual Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, 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 that post, not actual content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create separate category feeds.
Just use the format shown below:
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
Copy the category link address …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WP post categories feed)
The feed will now only include content posted under that category …
(Category-specific 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 List
You can create a feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like the larger online publishers do …
(Publish An RSS Feeds Page)
You can also link a button icon to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS graphic. Source: public-domain-photos.com)
We have written a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress content here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
You can customize your feeds in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations that do not require touching code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feeds you can use and how to create your feeds …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here 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 – Displays the latest comments published on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that contains a post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Feed that contains the latest comments made on an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – RSS feed containing latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/04/23/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed displaying the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Includes 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 feeds. Make sure you place a subscribe button in a visible location …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if your content is useful, informative, or highly engaging. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get online users to subscribe to your content using RSS feeds!)
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 RSS Resources:
- RSS Graphics – Visit Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about using RSS feeds.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference repository. Visit this site for more information about WordPress RSS.
Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WordPress platform please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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