No matter what product or service you provide or what industry your business belongs to, you need to provide high-value information to your site or blog users. For example, if your business provides accounting or financial planning services, it’s a good idea to include useful information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, requires a huge amount of work and expertise. You have to do a ton of information gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually kept up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a simpler way to keep your site readers up-to-date with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is one of the simplest ways to provide your site visitors with the latest information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What You Need To Know

• RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “news feed”.
• After a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically check the source website for updated content. Instead, their web browser constantly monitors the site and keeps subscribers updated.
• RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as blog posts, news headlines, audio lists, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML document that includes either full or summarized text along with metadata like published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these sites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate information.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. 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, feedreaders, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to receive news and updates from several different sources.

This guide explains where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) way of sharing content online. Feeds provide a simple way for online users to keep up with the latest information posted on websites they are interested in.

First, let’s look at how content syndication is used.

Media publications rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news agencies all around the world.

Content syndication allows many digital news agencies and highly-visited media publications to deliver readers stories from all around the globe without having to set up more staff and content writers in every location around the world …

(Most digital content publishing agencies and many leading media publications rely on syndication to publish stories from other news agencies all around the world.)

Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. Digital agencies syndicate their content using news feeds …

(Digital publishing agencies syndicate news stories using news feeds)

Most websites actually want 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 that created and published the content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

Major sites have an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “international herald tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most leading online media publications will have an RSS feed section. Image: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a list of different RSS feeds …

(RSS feeds section. Image Source: nytimes.com)

gives readers access to different areas of the website (e.g. business news, sports news, jobs, etc.)

Feed sections can also contain further subcategory feeds …

(An RSS directory can also contain feed subcategories. Source: latimes.com feeds)

Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is copy the URLs and paste these into a program that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Content Syndication – Benefits

Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s business additional exposure online and helps you by freeing you up from having to create the content …

(The Benefits Of Using RSS Feeds)

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 a great idea to try and get other websites to use your content.

When other websites syndicate content using your RSS feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Get other websites to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your exposure online!)

WordPress RSS – Overview

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.

Depending on your WP theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your sidebar or footer menu …

(The feed page will display as many recent items you have specified in the 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 feeds is whether to display each article 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 your feed content appears …

(Post excerpts affect how your feeds appear)

To learn more about using WordPress Post excerpts, go here:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Guide For WordPress Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, 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 reads and translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for their RSS feed section using any of the methods described earlier …

(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link. 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 feedreader …

(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your subscribers.

How To Add Feeds To Your WP Site

In the example below, we’ll add RSS content from another website or blog to your WordPress site.

Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could display on your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding content from their 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 from an RSS feed to your sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)

copy the feed URL from a site containing content that you would like to display on your sidebar to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)

Next, go to Appearance > Widgets and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• How To Add And Configure WordPress Widgets In Your Site

Load your website in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed should now appear on your sidebar …

(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 Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Posts

Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post instead of the sidebar? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Just search inside the ’Add Plugins’ screen for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ screen – WordPress RSS plugins)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need help with plugin configuration.

The plugins below are useful if you want 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 easy to use plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds of your choice.

You can manage all the feeds you import and organize feeds according to campaigns and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with a number of premium add-ons for additional functionality.

For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress website or blog.

The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each feed item as a separate post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)

With POWr RSS Feed, you can automatically combine and display content from multiple 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 displays feeds correctly on all tablets, phones, and computers and supports text in all languages.

The premium version of this plugin contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes)

The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to create 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 WordPress posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes WP Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress content.

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 site (sites that combine posts from various different sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Facebook, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog by WPMUDev

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WordPress Plugin)

Install 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:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site.

You can inspect these 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 will appear in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed entries viewed on Firefox)

Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on which web browser you use …

(Comments feed entries viewed with Google Chrome)

Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …

(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

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 WP installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Specific Post Feeds

Being able to access 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 using an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:

(Specific Post Feed)

To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and add “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post URI, WordPress will return the comments left on that post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds

Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content about certain topics. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If your website publishes content under several categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate RSS feed for each of these categories.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Format for WP category RSS feed)

Copy the category URL …

(Copy your category URL …)

Add the word “feed” to the end of it …

(Format for WordPress post categories feed)

Your RSS feed now only contains content published in this particular category …

(Category-specific RSS 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 – Publish A Feeds Page

You can set up your own page of RSS feeds that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories they are interested in …

(Create Your Own Page Of Feeds)

Link an image like the one shown below to category feeds and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …

(RSS graphic. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

We have created a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress posts here:

• Creating And Adding Tables In WordPress Content

WordPress RSS – Additional Notes

You can customize your RSS in several ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations that do not require messing with code. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can use …

(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – Includes your latest post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that displays the latest comments posted on your blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: Feed that includes a post entry
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: RSS Feed for the latest comments made on a single post
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Displays the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/12/07/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/01/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – RSS feed containing the latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Displays latest post entries for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Displays latest items 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 feed. Make sure you place your subscribe links somewhere visible …

(Encourage your site users to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with high-quality content that can add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Easily add someone else’s content and get other users to share your content with 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 feed 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• RSS Feed Graphics – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS graphic elements.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and resources about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
• WordPress Codex: Feeds – WordPress software documentation and information repository. Visit this site for additional information about using WordPress RSS.

Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, 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, this information has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other great content we have published on this site.

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