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 …

A Basic Overview On Using WordPress RSSNo matter what product or service you provide, you need to provide high-value information on your site or blog that better educates, informs, or improves engagement with your visitors. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, it’s a good idea to publish information from government departments, such as news or updates on statistical findings, insurance advice, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, requires a lot of work and resources. You have to sort 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 continually ensure that this information is kept 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 beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a simpler way to continually provide your readers with up-to-date information.

It’s called RSS

RSS is the simplest way to provide your readers with the latest information

(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – Basic Definition And Overview

  • RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
  • Once a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for content updates. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
  • Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news, videos, etc., to which users can choose to subscribe.
  • You can read RSS feeds with web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based programs called feed readers, or feed aggregators. Aggregators are used to find new content published on websites and syndicate this content (and updates made to the content) to other online properties.
  • There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed readers. 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 compatibility with different devices and programs.
  • Many sites and software applications also let you combine different RSS feeds to display news and updates from many different sources.

In this detailed guide, we show you where to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via their RSS feed.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate method used for sharing content online. RSS Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on websites and blogs they are interested in.

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

Most news reporting agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the world.

Content syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers interesting stories and up-to-the-minute newsworthy content from all over the planet without having to post more reporters and content writers everywhere around the world …

News reporting agencies rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources all around the planet.

(News reporting agencies use content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies around the globe.)

Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. online media publications syndicate news stories using feeds

Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing information

(Online newspapers syndicate their stories using news feeds)

Most sites actually would like you to share their content. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the site that published the original content being syndicated. This creates links that can drive traffic back to their site.

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

Most online newspapers and major sites contain a feed section

(Many news publishing agencies and major content sites include an RSS feed section. Source: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section will bring up a list of RSS feeds for different areas of the site …

A website's directory of different feeds

(A website’s directory of different RSS feeds. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

These feeds give you access to content about different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, sports news, editorials, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further feed subcategories …

Feed sections can also include subcategory feeds.

(RSS Feed section. Image Source: latimes.com)

Important

Note: A feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use RSS feeds is 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 Content Syndication

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

Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else's Business And Yours!

(Syndicating Content Has Many Benefits!)

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 use YOUR content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more web traffic …

Get other online users to syndicate your RSS feed ... it will help drive more traffic to your site!

(It’s a good idea to get other online users to syndicate your feed … it will help to increase your traffic!)

About Your WordPress Feed

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.

Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:

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

Your feed will display as many recent items you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section

(Your feed page will display as many recent items you have specified in the WordPress Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display your posts as full text, or a summary …

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

(WordPress Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

Useful Information

Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content displays …

Post excerpts can affect how content in feeds will display

(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)

To learn more about using WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view the content of a feed, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s show you how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link …

Look for a 'subscribe to feed' link or button.

(Search for a ‘subscribe’ link. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

Copy your feed URL

(Copy the feed URL)

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

Paste your URL of your feed into a feedreader to view the content.

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Source: Feedreader)

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

How To Add Feeds To Your WordPress Site

Let’s show you how to add content from other websites to your WordPress site.

Adding Feeds To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you are part of, you can easily add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding 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 from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …

Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar

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

copy the RSS feed from a site that publishes content that you want to display on your site to your clipboard …

Copy your feed URL to your clipboard

(Copy your feed URL to your clipboard)

Next, go to your Widgets section and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

WP RSS Widget

(RSS Widget)

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

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed will now show on the sidebar …

RSS Feed Content Added To WP Sidebar Menu

(RSS Feed Added To WordPress 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

(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 Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts

Can content from RSS feeds be added to posts? It sure can!

You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search inside the Plugins admin section (Plugins > Add New) for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

RSS plugins

(’Add Plugins’ screen)

Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for complete instructions, or contact us for help configuring plugins.

Here are some autoblogging plugins that let you automatically create posts with RSS feeds:

WPeMatico

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin)

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

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

For more details, go here:

WP RSS Aggregator

WP RSS Aggregator Plugin

(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).

For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced importer that allows you to import RSS feeds directly into WP posts or any other custom post type.

For more details, go here:

RSS Post Importer

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer Plugin)

The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the entire 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)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin automatically combines and displays content from a number of different RSS feeds.

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

The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

WP Pipes

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)

The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that allows you to 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, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Twitter/Facebook, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.

For more details, go here:

FeedWordPress

FeedWordPress - WordPress Plugin

(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides flexible syndication for WordPress 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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

Autoblog by WPMUDev

Autoblog by WPMUDev WP Plugin

(Autoblog)

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

For more details, go here:

RSS Includes Pages

RSS Includes Pages Plugin

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

Use RSS Includes Pages 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 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts.

You can see these by clicking on Comments RSS in the ‘Meta’ section of your sidebar (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

Comments Feed

(WordPress Comments Feed)

All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in your Comments RSS page …

RSS comments feed items seen using a Firefox browser

(RSS comments feed items viewed with Firefox)

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

RSS comments feed entries viewed on Google Chrome

(RSS comments feed items seen on Google Chrome browser)

Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into a feedreader …

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

(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the 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 or blog has been installed in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Individual Post Item RSS Feeds

Being able to use an RSS feed for a single post item 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 making an RSS feed for a single post is shown below:

Individual Post Feed

(RSS Feed For Specific Post)

To create the above feed, copy the web address of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

Single Post RSS Feed

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of a post URI, WordPress will return the comments for your post, not actual 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 all of your site’s content.

With WordPress, you can create category feeds.

All you have to do is use the format below:

Format for WordPress category RSS feed

(WP post categories RSS feed format)

Copy the selected category link address to your clipboard …

Select and copy your category link address ...

(Copy the selected category link address …)

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

Use this format for WP category RSS feed

(WP post categories feed format)

The RSS feed will now only include content posted under this category …

Category RSS feed page

(Category 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

(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 – Publish Your Own Feeds List

You can set up a feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to content in specific categories …

Set Up A Feeds List

(Publish A Feeds Page)

All you need to do is link a button image to the URL of your category feed and then create a table or a list of all your category feeds on a new page …

RSS icon

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

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about creating tables in WordPress posts and pages, go here:

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

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

WordPress allows a number of RSS feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feed formats you can create …

WordPress RSS - Feed Types

(Different Feed Types You Can Create With WordPress RSS)

For your convenience, here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:

  • Feed Type: All Posts
  • Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest entries
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
  • Feed Type: All Comments
  • Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments left on your website
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts
  • Description: Feed that includes a specific post
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
  • Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
  • Description: Contains the latest comments made on single posts
  • 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/2016/07/20/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Month – RSS feed that displays latest items in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/10/feed/
  • Feed Type: Archives
  • Description: Year – Includes latest posts in each archive
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/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: Feed that contains the latest post entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
  • Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One last thing …

It’s a good idea to promote your RSS feed. Place a subscribe link or button in a visible location …

Promote your feeds!

(Remember to make your RSS feeds visible your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if the information that you publish on your site is useful, educational, or highly engaging. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.

Add great content from other sites and get other sites to syndicate your content using RSS feeds!

(Add content to your site and get others to subscribe to your content 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 RSS feed 🙂

Additional Resources:

  • Download RSS Graphics – Visit an online resource site like Feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS icons.
  • RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
  • Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about RSS.
  • WordPress Codex – WordPress software documentation. Visit this site for more information about RSS feeds in WordPress.

A Beginner's Guide To Understanding WordPress RSS

Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add someone else’s content to your site using RSS.

Hopefully, this information has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you build a better business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress please see other great content on this site.

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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group