Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

Learn about the benefits of using RSS and how to access, format and use WordPress RSS feeds to import and syndicate your content …

WordPress RSS FeatureNo matter what what industry you belong to, providing high-quality information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if your business provides travel services, it’s not a bad idea to include the latest information from government and foreign travel-related departments, such as news or updates on travel warnings, tips from consular offices, etc.

The problem with providing this type of information, however, is that it takes a great deal of effort and expertise. You have to sort through, gather, and organize a ton of data, 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 is not only a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with great information.

It’s called RSS

RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your users with up-to-date information

(RSS is the simplest way to provide your readers with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Is RSS?

  • RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
  • After users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually check the source website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the site and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
  • Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news, video playlists, etc., which users can then subscribe to.
  • Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (XML = Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata such as published date, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse any updates posted on these sites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their web content automatically.
  • Feeds can be made available in different formats and 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 compatibility with different machines, feedreaders, and programs.
  • Many sites and software tools also let you combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates from different sources.

In this in-depth guide, you are going to learn where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to display content from other websites on your site via RSS.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful method used to share content online. Feeds provide a simple way for online users to receive the latest information published on sites and blogs they are interested in.

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

Many news reporting agencies use syndication to publish stories from content sources all around the world.

Syndication allows many online newspapers and leading online publications to deliver readers the latest news headlines and newsworthy content from around the planet without actually having to employ and send more news reporting agencies everywhere around the world …

Media publications rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the planet.

(Media publications use syndication to publish news and stories from news sources around the planet.)

Syndication is used to share information legitimately with other sites. Global media publications syndicate stories using feeds

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information

(Content syndication is used by global media publications to share information with other publications)

Most websites actually would like you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.

Many digital publishing agencies and major content sites include an RSS feed section (look for navigation links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “star tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

Many digital content agencies and major content sites have an RSS feed section

(Major sites provide links to a feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections …

RSS directory

(RSS feeds directory. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

These RSS feeds give readers access to information about different sections of the website (e.g. business news, arts news, health news, etc.)

An RSS feed directory can also include feed subdirectories …

RSS Feed section.

(Feed sections can also contain subcategory feeds. Image Source: latimes.com)

Info

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

Content Syndication – Benefits

Adding someone else’s content to your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s website additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …

Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else's Business And Yours!

(The Benefits Of Using Feeds)

While adding a feed 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 sites to syndicate your content.

When other sites syndicate content using your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain increased exposure online and drive more visitors …

Try to get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed ... it will help increase your exposure online!

(Consider trying to get other online users to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress Feed – Overview

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

1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget in a standard or custom menu …

The feed page will show as many recent items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section

(Your feed page will display the number of items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

The other setting in your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles as full text, or as a summary …

Settings - Reading Settings - 'For each article in a feed show' options

(Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’: ‘Full text’ or ‘Summary’)

Tip

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …

Post excerpts can affect how a feed appears

(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content will appear)

If you need help Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all you have to do to view the content of an RSS 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 show you how this works.

First, go to a website whose feed you want to syndicate and search for their RSS feed link …

Search for a 'subscribe to feed' link or icon.

(Look for a ‘subscribe’ link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard

(Copy your feed URL)

If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into a feed reader …

Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content.

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

Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.

Adding Feeds To WordPress Sites

Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.

How To Add A Feed To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are in, you could easily display on your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by importing 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 RSS content to your sidebar …

Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar

(Let’s add an RSS feed to your sidebar)

copy the RSS feed URL from a website or blog that publishes content that you want to display on your sidebar …

Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard

(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …

WordPress RSS Widget

(Widgets Screen – RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

Load your site in your browser. The content can now be seen in the sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget) …

RSS Feed Content Added To WP Sidebar

(RSS Feed Content Added To 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

(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 RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts

Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post? Yes, you can!

You can easily do this using plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.

WordPress RSS plugins

(WordPress RSS plugins)

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 can be used to 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 – WordPress Plugin)

WPeMatico is an easy to use autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds according to campaigns.

For more details, go here:

WP RSS Aggregator

WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

(WP RSS Aggregator WordPress Plugin)

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

For example, the Feed to Post extension lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

RSS Post Importer

RSS Post Importer WP Plugin

(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)

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

RSS Post Importer will fetch an RSS feed and publish the entire content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

Powr RSS Feed

Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin

(Powr RSS Feed)

With the POWr RSS Feed plugin, you can combine and display content from a number of different sources using RSS feeds.

The plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any phone, tablet, or computer and supports text in all languages.

The premium version of this plugin contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

WP Pipes

WP Pipes Plugin

(WP Pipes Plugin)

The WP Pipes plugin 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 Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!

For more details, go here:

FeedWordPress

FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress

(FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication 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 site (sites that combine and display content from various different sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, in one place.

For more details, go here:

Autoblog by WPMUDev

Autoblog WordPress Plugin

(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)

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, 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 WP Plugin

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types – WordPress Plugin)

You can install a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

Tip

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your post comments.

You can view these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ widget of your sidebar menu …

Comments Feed

(Comments RSS)

Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …

RSS comments feed items as seen with a Firefox browser

(Comments feed items viewed with Firefox)

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

RSS comments feed items as seen using a Google Chrome web browser

(RSS comments feed entries viewed using a Google Chrome web browser)

Again, you can check what the comments RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feedreader …

Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the content.

(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed 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 site is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Individual Item Feeds

Being able to select an RSS feed for specific 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 accessing an RSS feed for a specific post item is shown below:

RSS Feed For Individual Post Item

(Individual Post Feed)

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

Single Post Feed

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post URL, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not the post content itself.

Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds

Some your site users may only want to syndicate content from a specific category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

If your site displays content published under various categories, you can provide a separate RSS feed for each of your categories.

All you have to do is use the format below:

WordPress category feed format

(Feed format for post categories)

Copy the selected category URL …

Select and copy your category link address ...

(Select and copy your category URL …)

Add “feed” to the end of it …

Format for WordPress post categories feed

(Feed format for post categories)

The feed will now only contain content published under this particular category …

Category-specific feed

(Category 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

(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

(WordPress post category feed format)

To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …

Posts > Categories menu

(Posts > Categories menu)

Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …

Post Category 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

(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

(Paste the feed into your browser)

This will display the feed for that specific category …

RSS feed of a specific post 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

(Post category feed format)

Here is the feed format again …

Post category feed

(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

(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

(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 Your Own Feeds Directory

You can set up your own feeds page that allows your readers to subscribe only to content in the categories that interest them …

Set Up Your Own RSS Feeds Page

(Provide Your Own Feeds List)

Link an icon to your category (or specific post) feeds and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …

RSS graphic

(RSS graphic. Image: public-domain-photos.com)

We have created a detailed tutorial on creating tables in WordPress posts here:

RSS Feeds – Notes

RSS feeds can be customized in several ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.

WordPress allows several RSS feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of feed formats you can display …

WordPress RSS - Feed Types

(WordPress RSS – Feed Formats)

Here are the 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 – Includes the latest comments posted on your website
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts
  • Description: RSS feed that includes single post entries
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
  • Description: Contains the latest comments made on individual posts
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Day – Includes the latest posts in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/11/01/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Month – Includes the latest items in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/09/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Year – RSS feed displaying the latest items in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/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: Includes the latest posts for a custom type (e.g. book)
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One more thing …

Remember to promote your RSS feed. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …

Promote your RSS feeds!

(Remember to promote your feeds!)

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

Add great content to your site and get others to syndicate your content using WordPress and RSS!

(Add content to your site and get visitors to subscribe to your content online using RSS!)

Practical Tip

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 🙂

Resources:

  • RSS Graphics – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable Free RSS graphics.
  • RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
  • Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
  • WordPress Codex: WordPress Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and reference site. Visit this site for additional information about WordPress and RSS.

The Benefits Of Using WordPress RSS

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to add content from other sites to your site via RSS feeds.

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other great articles and tutorials on this site.

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