No matter what product or service your business provides, you need to provide high-quality information on your site or blog that better educates, informs, and engages your readers. For example, if your business provides accounting or financial planning services, you may want to include useful information from the taxation office, such as news or updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.

The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it takes a huge amount of effort and expertise. You have to do a ton of data sorting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your facts, content writing and editing (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 not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is a simpler way to provide your users with great information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS - One of the easiest ways to provide your users with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What You Need To Know About RSS

• RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly known now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also referred to as a “feed” or “newsfeed”.
• Once a user subscribes to an RSS feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their web browser will continually monitor the content and automatically keep subscribers up-to-date.
• Feeds are typically used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news headlines, audios, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is a structured XML document that includes full or summarized text along with other metadata such as date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on websites and then browse updates posted on these sites using an RSS feed reader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to automatically syndicate information.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom 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 machines and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from many sites.

This detailed guide explains where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other sites on your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful way to share web content. RSS Feeds provide web users with a simple way to keep up with the latest information posted on different websites and blogs.

First, let’s look at content syndication.

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

Content syndication allows most online newspapers to deliver readers stories on all kinds of topics as well as the latest newsworthy content from all over the globe without having to hire and post additional content writers to every location around the world …

(Media publications use content syndication to publish stories from news sources all around the globe.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content. Global media publications syndicate their content using news feeds …

(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site that created and published the content being syndicated. This creates new ways to drive traffic back to their site.

Most leading online media publications include 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”, “international herald tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Most online newspapers will include a feed section. Image: SMH )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a list of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …

(RSS directory. Image: nytimes.com)

gives you access to information from different sections of the website (e.g. business news, entertainment news, science news, etc.)

An RSS directory can also include feed subcategories …

(Feed sections can also contain subcategories. Image: Los Angeles Times)

Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you need to do is copy the URL and paste it into software that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

The Benefits Of Syndicating Content

Adding someone else’s content to your site has some obvious benefits. It not only gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site, it also helps you by freeing you up from having to create this content …

(Syndicating Content Benefits Someone Else’s Business And Yours!)

While adding an RSS feed from another site is a great way to add content to your site that you don’t have to create, it’s worth keeping in mind that you also want other websites to use your content.

When other sites syndicate content using your feed, you have the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new web traffic …

(Consider trying to get other websites to syndicate content using your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

WordPress RSS – About

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.

Depending on which theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to get the WordPress RSS feed:

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

(Your feed will display the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in your Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display posts as full text, or as 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 can affect how a feed will appear)

To learn more about using Post excerpts in WordPress, refer to this tutorial:

• WordPress Post Excerpts A Practical Guide For Beginners

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that reads and translates feeds into readable content.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, find a website or blog and look for an RSS feed icon …

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

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

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

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

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

Adding RSS Feeds To Your WP Site

In the example below, we are going to add content from other website or blog’s RSS feeds to yours.

How To Add A Feed To Your Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is a part of, you could add to your site the latest news from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry simply by adding content from their feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar …

(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)

First, Find a website that publishes content that you would like to add to your sidebar and copy the RSS feed URL …

(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(Widgets Section – RSS Widget)

To learn more about using widgets, go here:

• How To Use Widgets In WordPress

Refresh your web browser. The content will now display on the 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 Content From RSS Feeds To WordPress Posts

Can content from RSS feeds be added to WordPress posts instead of your sidebar? Yes, it can!

You can do this using plugins. Just search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Post, RSS feed to post, etc.

(RSS plugins)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us for help with plugin configuration.

Here are some autoblogging plugins for WordPress that allow you to automatically add new using feeds:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).

For example, the Feed to Post add-on lets you add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into WP posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)

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

RSS Post Importer 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 – WordPress Plugin

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed)

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

This plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in every language.

The premium plugin version contains many additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes – WordPress Plugin)

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 features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your 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

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin)

FeedWordPress provides versatile Atom/RSS syndication for WordPress-generated 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.

FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that bring together posts from many 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:

• FeedWordPress WP Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, without coding skills or complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give it a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)

By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin

Using WordPress RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds

WordPress displays RSS feeds of comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts.

You can inspect these comments by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

(WordPress Comments Feed)

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

(RSS comments feed content as seen on Firefox)

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

(RSS comments feed items as seen on Google Chrome)

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

(Paste the comments feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. 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 site has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Specific Post Item Feeds

Being able to access an RSS feed for specific post items 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 displaying an RSS feed for individual posts is shown below:

(Single Post Feed)

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

(Single Post Feed)

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

Tip #3 – Displaying Post Category Feeds

Some your site visitors may only want to subscribe to content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If your website or blog contains content published under a number of categories, you can easily provide a separate RSS feed for each category.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Feed format for category)

Select and copy the category URL …

(Copy the category URL …)

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

(Feed format for category)

The RSS feed will now only include content assigned to that particular category …

(Category-specific 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. 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 Page Of Feeds

You can create your own RSS feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …

(Provide Your Own List Of Feeds)

You can link an image to category feed URLs and then create a table or a list of all your feeds on a new page …

(RSS button. Source: public-domain-photos.com)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding tables to WordPress, go here:

• Adding Tables In WordPress

RSS Feeds – Additional Notes

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

WordPress allows you to configure several feed types without touching code. For example, the table below lists some of the kinds of custom feed formats you can use …

(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)

Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the image above:

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

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – Feed displaying the latest comments left on your website or blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – RSS feed that displays the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2011/03/10/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Contains the latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2010/01/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Contains latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Displays the latest posts 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 let your site visitors know that they can subscribe to your RSS feeds. Place a subscribe link somewhere visible …

(Remember to promote your RSS feeds!)

Also, keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their visitors.

(Add great content to your site and get other users to syndicate your content online using 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 🙂

Additional RSS Resources:

• RSS Images – Visit Iconspedia.com or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “RSS icon”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information about RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – General information about using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org/RSS Feeds – WordPress software documentation and reference. Go here for more information about using feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know how 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 using their RSS feed.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of problems that can affect your website and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To learn more about using WordPress for a business web site please see our related posts section.

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