No matter what product or service your business sells, providing high-value information on your site or blog is vitally important. For example, if your business provides medical services, you may want to provide users with information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness advice, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is very time-consuming. You have to do a lot of data sifting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, content writing and editing (or hire someone to do this for you), and then ensure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is a much simpler way to regularly provide your site readers with up-to-date information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your readers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Is RSS?
- RSS, which, according to some experts stands for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. It is often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- Once users subscribe to an RSS feed, they no longer have to physically visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will continually monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- Feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news headlines, audio lists, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
- You can view an RSS feed with a software called an RSS reader, or feed aggregator. Aggregators can be used to access content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content to online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF 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 let you combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from different sites.
This guide shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful method used for sharing content online. Feeds provide online users with a simple way to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
Many digital content agencies rely on syndication to publish content from content sources all around the world.
Syndication allows leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics and up-to-the-minute newsworthy content from around the globe without actually having to send additional news writers to every location in the world …
(Most online newspapers use content syndication to publish newsworthy items from other news agencies around the world.)
Syndication is used to share content legitimately with other sites. online media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …
(Content syndication is used by online newspapers to share newsworthy content with other news publications)
Most websites actually want you to syndicate their information. Content syndication not only allows information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the site that originally created theoriginally created and published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies have an RSS feed section (look for menu links that say “RSS” 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.) …
(Most digital content agencies and major content sites provide links to an RSS feed section. Image Source: SMH )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …
(A website’s directory of different RSS feeds. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)
Each of these feeds allows readers to access different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, science news, etc.)
An RSS feed directory can also contain feed subdirectories …
(Feed sections can also contain subcategories. Image Source: LA Times)
Note: A feed is only a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
The Benefits Of Content Syndication
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives someone else’s site additional exposure online and adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Content Syndication Benefits Someone Else’s Website And Yours!)
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 worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to use your content.
When other websites syndicate your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …
(It’s a good idea to get other websites and blogs to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)
WordPress Feed – About
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their sites.
Depending on your theme, there are a few ways to access the WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme has been configured to display the Meta widget on the sidebar …
(The feed will show as many recent 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 the Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or as a summary …
(Reading Settings – Show ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for posts in your RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how your feed content appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feed content appears)
We have written a detailed tutorial about WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, to view the content of a feed, you have to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can translate feeds into readable content.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website whose feed you want to subscribe to and search for their RSS feed link …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ 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 feed reader …
(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
Like feedreaders, WordPress has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add A Feed To WordPress
In the example below, we are going to add content from another website or blog’s RSS feeds to your WordPress site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business operates in, you can easily add to your site the latest news and updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply adding content from their RSS feed. You can use RSS feeds to display a range of information on your WordPress site like news, social media updates, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.
Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation menu …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area)
copy the feed URL from a site that publishes content that you want to add to 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 …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on the sidebar …
(RSS Feed Content Added To WordPress 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)
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 WordPress Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to a post? You sure can!
You can easily do this using WordPress plugins. Search on the WordPress plugin repository for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(’Add Plugins’ screen)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for help configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below are useful for adding feed content to posts, or “autoblog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and arrange them into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and autoblogging WordPress plugin that offers additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on is an advanced, feature-rich importer that lets you import RSS feeds directly into your WP posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin can be used to syndicate, import, curate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed)
POWr RSS allows you to combine content from multiple sources using RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and articles, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom borders, fonts, colors, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in any language.
The premium version of this plugin contains a number of 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 Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.
This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress is a versatile syndication plugin for WordPress.
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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that display posts from various different sources), or display all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog by WPMUDev
(Autoblog by WPMUDev WP Plugin)
Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up in minutes, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in your feed URL, give your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types
(RSS Includes Pages WordPress Plugin)
RSS Includes Pages lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress makes available RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to displaying feeds of your latest posts.
You can see these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section …
(Comments RSS)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen with a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …
(Comments feed entries displayed on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image Source: 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 WordPress site installation is in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Individual Post 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 aggregator sites, 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 posts is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post URI, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/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 – Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from a particular category. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If you publish content under multiple categories, WordPress allows you to easily offer subscribers a separate RSS feed for each of these categories.
Just use the format below:
(Feed format for category)
Copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the category URL …)
And add the word “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress post categories feed format)
The category RSS feed will now only contain content posted for this particular category …
(Category-specific 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 – Set Up A Directory Of RSS Feeds
You can provide a directory of RSS feeds for subscribers that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Set Up Your Own List Of RSS Feeds)
Link an image like the one shown below to your category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button. Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with adding tables to WordPress pages and posts, see this tutorial:
RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows various feed configurations without touching code. Here are some examples of custom feed types you can create …
(Different Feed Types You Can Create With 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 – RSS feed that includes the latest comments posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed for individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on an individual post
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/10/20/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2015/02/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Includes the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays latest posts for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays 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 RSS feed. Make sure you place your subscribe link in a visible location …
(Encourage your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide useful content that educates, engages, and entertains. In other words, provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get others to share your content online with RSS!)
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 🙂
Additional Resources:
- RSS Icons – Visit FeedIcons or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss logo download”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download Free RSS images and icons.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about the benefits of using RSS.
- WordPress.org/WordPress Feeds – WordPress documentation and reference. Go here for more information about WordPress RSS feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know 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 via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about using the WordPress content publishing software please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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