No matter what your business provides or what industry you are a part of, it’s important to provide quality information to your site or blog visitors. For example, if your business provides insurance-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.
The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it requires an enormous amount of work and resources. You have to do a lot of data gathering, researching and organizing, fact-checking, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually up-to-date. As you can imagine, this is not only a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is completely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS - The easiest way to provide your subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
RSS – What You Need To Know
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It it is also called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save readers time from having to keep revisiting their site to check for updates.
- Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog post items, news headlines, video lists, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be read with web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based software programs called feed readers, or aggregators. Feed readers are used to access new content published on websites and syndicate this content (and updates made to this content) to many online properties.
- There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. 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 that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software tools also let you combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from multiple websites.
This guide explains how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to display content from other sites on your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a powerful (and legitimate) method used to share web content. RSS Feeds provide a simple way for online users to stay up-to-date with the latest information posted on sites and blogs they are interested in.
First, let’s look at the uses of content syndication.
Online newspapers rely heavily on syndication to publish newsworthy content from other news agencies all around the world.
Syndication allows most digital publishing agencies and many popular media publications to deliver readers the most recent stories and headlines from all over the globe without actually having to send additional reporting agencies to every place around the world …
(Many news publishing agencies rely heavily on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from other news agencies around the globe.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate news stories using feeds …
(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content)
Most websites actually would like you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows information to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate significant web visitors.
Most content publishers and major sites will 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”, “express tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many news reporting agencies and major content sites have a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )
Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(RSS feeds section. Image Source: New York Times)
These feeds allow you to source different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, travel news, jobs, etc.)
An RSS list can also include further subcategories …
(Feed sections can also include feed subcategories. Image Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: A feed is simply a URL. To use a feed, all you have 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
Syndicating someone else’s content on your site 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 this content …
(The Benefits Of Syndicating Content)
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 content using your RSS feed, you have the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive new visitors …
(Get visitors to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)
Your WordPress Feed
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your latest posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites.
Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a number of ways to access your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme displays the Meta widget on your navigation menu …
(Your feed page will display as many recent posts as you have specified in the WP 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 a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in a RSS feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed appears …
(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds appear)
To learn more about Post excerpts, go here:
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 to your clipboard and paste it into a feedreader, i.e. an application that can read and translate feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s see how this works.
First, find a website or blog and look for a ‘subscribe’ button …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ link or button. 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 URL of your feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS/XML feeds and convert these into human-readable content.
How To Add An RSS Feed To WordPress
In the example below, we’ll add content from another website to your WordPress site.
Adding An RSS Feed To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could 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 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 your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)
First, find a website or blog containing content that you would like to display on your sidebar and copy its feed URL …
(Copy the URL of your feed)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your website in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed will now appear on your sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed – e.g. custom menu, footer, etc) …
(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)
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 Add Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
Can you add content from RSS feeds to a post? Yes, you can!
You can do this using plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS feed, RSS feed to post, etc.
(WordPress RSS plugins)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for full instructions, or contact us if you need assistance configuring plugins.
Here are a few plugins that let you add RSS feeds to your posts:
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico – WordPress Plugin)
WPeMatico is an autoblogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from RSS/Atom feeds that you choose.
You can manage all of your imported feeds and organize them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress)
RSS Post Importer allows you to curate, import, syndicate, merge and display full-text feeds on your WordPress website or blog.
The plugin fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of every item in your feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed Plugin For WordPress)
The POWr RSS Feed plugin combines and displays content from a number of different RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust feed spacing and size, use custom backgrounds, colors, fonts, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium edition of POWr contains a number of additional features.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes Plugin For WordPress)
The WP Pipes plugin 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 powerful functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Twitter/LinkedIn/Facebook, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides versatile syndication options for WordPress site 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.
You can use this FeedWordPress to create aggregator site (sites that bring together posts from various different sources), or bring together all your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog by WPMUDev)
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 the URL of your feed, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog to post content to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
The RSS Includes Pages plugin lets you display pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site.
To inspect this, locate the ‘Meta’ widget on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments Feed)
Comments posted on your site by visitors will appear in the Comments RSS page …
(RSS comments feed entries displayed on a Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(Comments feed entries displayed on a Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the URL of your comments feed into a feedreader to view the content. Image: 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 is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Creating RSS Feeds For Individual Posts
Being able to select an RSS feed for specific posts 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 single post is shown below:
(Specific Post RSS 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 post URL, WordPress will return the comments left on your post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Post Category Feeds
Some your site visitors may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
If you publish content under a number of categories, WordPress allows you to provide a separate feed for each category.
All you have to do is use the format below:
(Use this format for WP category feed)
Copy the category link address …
(Copy the selected category URL …)
Append “feed” to the end of it …
(Format for WordPress post categories feed)
Your RSS feed will now only contain content posted for that particular category …
(Category-specific 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. 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 – Publish Your Own List Of Feeds For Your Subscribers
You can publish an RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe only to specific categories …
(Set Up Your Own Page Of RSS Feeds For Visitors)
All you need to do is link an RSS icon like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of all category feeds on a separate page …
(RSS image. Image: public-domain-photos.com)
We have created a detailed tutorial about inserting tables into WordPress posts and pages here:
WordPress RSS – Notes
RSS feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require editing code.
WordPress allows a number of feed configurations without code editing skills. Here are some examples of custom feeds you can create …
(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
For your convenience, here are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – RSS feed that displays your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Feed that contains the latest comments posted on your website or blog
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that displays single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on single post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes latest entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/07/12/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Displays the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Feed containing the latest post entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains the latest entries for a custom type (e.g. book)
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book
One last thing …
Remember to promote your RSS feeds. Place your subscribe link somewhere visible …
(Encourage visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that online users will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your visitors with very high-quality content that will add value to their sites and benefit their visitors.
(Easily add someone else’s content and get other sites to subscribe to 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 feed 🙂
RSS – Resources:
- Feed Images – Visit a site like Iconspedia 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 Go here to learn more about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – Learn more about RSS.
- WordPress Codex: Feeds – Official WordPress documentation and information site. Visit this site for more information about using WordPress feeds.
Congratulations! Now you know where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add someone else’s content to your site via RSS.
Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you grow your business online. To read more about using WordPress for a business website please click on links to visit other great content we have published on this site.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now