No matter what product or service you sell or what industry your business belongs to, it’s vitally important to provide quality information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your readers. For example, if you provide taxation services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax tips, etc.
To create and publish this kind of information, however, is really time-consuming. You have to sort through, gather, and organize a lot of information, 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 not only involves a huge amount of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is a much easier way to regularly provide your site readers with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is one of the easiest ways to provide your users with up-to-date information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
Some Basic Information About RSS
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
- RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that their users can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- RSS feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audios, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata like date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and blogs that publish feeds and then keep up with any updates posted on these websites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate web content automatically.
- Feeds can be made available in different types and read by different feed aggregators. 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 that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from many websites.
In this detailed guide, we will explain how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites to your site via RSS feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information posted on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at the uses of syndication.
Many online newspapers rely heavily on syndication to publish stories from news agencies around the world.
Content syndication allows most leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers up-to-date newsworthy items and stories of interest from around the planet without actually having to employ and send more staff to every place around the world …
(Most news reporting agencies and popular online media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately with other sites. Global media publications syndicate their news stories using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content)
Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their content. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it also sends visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with additional opportunities to generate significant web traffic.
Most news reporting agencies contain a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “daily telegraph rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Major content sites contain an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS feeds section. Source: New York Times RSS)
gives readers access to content from different areas of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, editorials, etc.)
Feed sections can also include feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use a feed is to copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Syndicating Content
Adding content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It helps someone else’s business and helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
While adding RSS feeds 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 syndicate your content.
When other sites syndicate your feed, this gives you the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(It’s a good idea to get other website owners to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
WordPress RSS Feed – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed in a navigation menu, just scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(WordPress Meta widget)
2) You can also find links and/or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS links to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On some websites and again, depending on your WP theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Subscribe, Social Share, or Links section …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Subscribe, Link To Us, or Social Share section)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your site’s feed …
(RSS feed items viewed using Firefox)
Note that your feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Feed items seen using Google Chrome)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
To specify how many entries you would like to show in your RSS Feed page, go to your Reading Settings section and enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(WP Reading Settings – Syndication items setting)
The feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your Reading Settings section …
(The feed page will show as many recent posts as you have specified in your WP Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WP Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or just as a summary …
(Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts affect how your feed content will display)
To learn more about WordPress Post excerpts, refer to this tutorial:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s take a look at how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link …
(Look for an RSS feed button. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)
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 also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds.
Adding A Feed To WordPress
Let’s show you how to add content from other sites to yours.
How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add RSS content to the WordPress sidebar …
(Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)
copy the RSS feed URL from a website containing content that you want to add to your site …
(Copy the feed URL)
Next, go to your Widgets section and paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content should display in your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WP 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 Feed Content To WordPress Posts
Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, it can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ section – RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us if you need assistance with plugin configuration.
Here are a number of plugins you can check out that allow you to add RSS feeds to your pages:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)
WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from multiple RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange feeds according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging WordPress plugin with premium add-ons for extended functionality.
For example, the Feed to Post extension for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into your WordPress posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to curate, syndicate, import, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress site.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full article content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed WP Plugin)
With POWr RSS, you can automatically combine and display content from a number of different content using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS Feed plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust feed priority, use custom backgrounds, fonts, colors, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, phone, or computer and supports text in every language.
The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
WP Pipes 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, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export your posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress)
FeedWordPress provides flexible 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 plugin to create aggregator site (sites that bring together content from many different sources), or display all of your online activity in one place.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev WordPress Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in your feed URL, 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 and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
By default, WordPress only posts posts in your RSS feed. Use RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types if you would like to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to making RSS feeds of your posts available to online users.
You can see the comments in your feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen on Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed items will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed items displayed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
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 site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Individual Item Feeds
Being able to access an RSS feed for a specific post can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.
The formula for creating an RSS feed for an individual post is shown below:
(RSS Feed For Single Post)
To create the above feed, copy the post URL, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of the web address of your post, WordPress will return the comments associated with your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only want to syndicate content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If your site publishes content under many categories, WordPress allows you to easily provide a separate RSS feed for each different category.
Just use the format below:
(Feed format for category)
Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …
(Copy your category link address …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(WP RSS feed format for post categories)
The category feed now only contains 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 – Provide Your Own Directory Of RSS Feeds
You can create your own RSS feeds page that allows readers to subscribe only to specific content, just like the larger websites do …
(Set Up An RSS Feeds Page)
Link a button like the one shown below to each category feed URL and then create a table or a list of all individual feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed tutorial on inserting tables into WordPress pages and posts, go here:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure different feed types without editing code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed types you can use …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Contains the latest comments left on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for an individual post entry
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: RSS Feed containing the latest comments made on specific post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Contains latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/03/01/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed containing latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: RSS feed displaying the latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the 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 feed. Make sure you place a subscribe buttons somewhere visible …
(Remember to promote your feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only subscribe to your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality content that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Add great content from other sites and get others to share your content with RSS feeds!)
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 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- Feed Buttons – Visit online resource sites like feedicons.com or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that contain downloadable RSS graphic elements.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about the history and benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress Codex: RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Go here for additional information about feeds in WordPress.
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 content from other websites and blogs on your site using RSS.
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To learn more about the benefits of using the WP CMS software please see other great content we have published on this site.
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