No matter what your business sells or what industry you are a part of, providing high-value information to your blog visitors is important. For example, if your business provides accounting services, it’s a good idea to include the latest information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, etc.
The problem with providing this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to do a ton of information sifting, researching and organizing, checking the accuracy of your sources, writing and editing content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then make sure that this information is continually 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 entirely beyond your control.
Thankfully, there is an easier way to provide your users with great information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your blog subscribers with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What You Need To Know About RSS
- RSS stands for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly referred, Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “news feed”.
- RSS allows content publishers to automatically syndicate their content to save users time from having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
- Feeds are often used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog posts, news headlines, videos, etc., which other users can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feeds can be viewed with web-based, desktop-based, and even mobile-based programs called feed readers, or aggregators. Aggregators can be used to access content on all kinds of topics and distribute this content to other sites.
- There are different feed formats and these can be read by different feed readers. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom feeds and RDF (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, feedreaders, and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine many RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates sourced from various other sites.
This in-depth article shows you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to add content from other websites and blogs to your site via RSS.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate method used for sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to receive the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s look at content syndication.
Media publications use syndication to publish content from news sources around the world.
Content syndication allows digital content publishers and influential media publications to deliver readers up-to-the-minute news items and newsworthy content from all around the globe without actually having to set up additional news reporting departments everywhere in the world …
(Many news reporting agencies and many popular online media publications rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. Global media publications syndicate news stories using feeds …
(Content syndication is used by digital news agencies to share information with other news publications)
Most sites actually want you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows high-quality information to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for creating and publishing the content being syndicated. This provides websites with new opportunities to generate additional web traffic.
Many news reporting agencies and leading online media publications contain a feed section (look for links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, 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.) …
(Major content sites contain a feed section. Image: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feeds of the site …
(A list of RSS feeds. Source: nytimes.com)
These feed items let you access information from different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, arts news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
An RSS directory can also include feed subdirectories …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is only a URL. To use an RSS feed, all you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into an application that can translate the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using Feeds
Syndicating content from someone else’s site on your site has some obvious benefits. It gives additional exposure online to someone else’s site and helps you by freeing you up from having to create that content …
(Using RSS Feeds - Benefits)
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 a great idea to try and get other sites to use your content.
When other websites and blogs syndicate your content, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive more visitors …
(Get other website owners to syndicate your content … it will help increase your exposure online!)
About Your WordPress RSS
WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar, scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(Meta section – Entries RSS)
2) You can also find links and buttons on certain themes that let your visitors copy your feed.
For example, in the screenshot below, a visitor can copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)
3) On many sites and again, depending on your WordPress theme, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Follow Us, or Links toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Social Share, Follow Us, or Link To Us section)
4) You can also view your RSS feed by 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 website is located in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your RSS page …
(RSS feed entries seen on Firefox)
Note that your feed items will display differently depending on the browser you are using …
(Feed entries displayed on Chrome web browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many posts you want to show in your Feeds section in the Reading Settings section. Enter the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items)
Your feed page will show the number of items you have specified section …
(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 your WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your feeds is whether to display articles as full text, or a summary …
(Settings – Reading Settings – Display ‘Full Text’ or ‘Summary’ for each article in your feed)
Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …
(Post excerpts affect how content in your feeds will display)
To learn more about using Post excerpts in WordPress, go here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned previously, all you need to do to view the content of an RSS feed is to copy the feed’s URL and paste it into an application that translates feeds into readable content for humans.
Let’s show you how this works.
First, go to a website or blog and search for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon. Image source: YourCoffeeGuru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to the clipboard)
If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feedreader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
Adding A Feed To Your WP Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from another site to yours.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your Sidebar
As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry your business is in, you could easily add to your site the latest content from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing content from their feed. You can use RSS feeds to 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 RSS content to the WordPress sidebar area …
(Add an RSS feed to your sidebar)
First, go to a website containing content that you would like to display on your sidebar and copy the RSS feed …
(Copy the feed URL to your clipboard)
Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into an RSS widget …
(WP RSS Widget)
To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content should now appear on the sidebar (or wherever the RSS widget has been placed) …
(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:
Adding RSS Feeds To Posts
Can you add content from an RSS feed to WordPress posts? Yes, you can!
You can do this using WordPress plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS, RSS feed to post, etc.
(RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.
The plugins listed below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An auto blog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):
WPeMatico
(WPeMatico)
WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that lets you publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.
You can manage all the feeds you import and organize them according to campaigns.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress that offers extended functionality with a number of premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on allows you to add content to your site automatically by importing RSS feeds directly into posts.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)
RSS Post Importer lets you syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full text feeds (RSS, Atom, etc.) on your WordPress blog.
The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full article content of every item in the feed as a standalone post.
For more details, go here:
Powr RSS Feed
(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)
With POWr RSS, you can combine and display content from a number of different RSS feeds.
This plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom borders, colors, fonts, and more. It also displays feeds correctly on any tablet, computer, or phone and supports text in every language.
The premium version contains a number of additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.
For more details, go here:
WP Pipes
(WP Pipes WP 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 powerful features like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export WordPress posts as podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and more!
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)
FeedWordPress provides simple and 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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator site (sites that combine content from many different sources), or bring together all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, YouTube, or other online services, into a Lifestream.
For more details, go here:
Autoblog
(Autoblog Plugin For WordPress)
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 your feed a name (for admin purposes) and select a blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types)
By default, WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed. Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages to include pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
WordPress RSS Feeds – Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of your post comments in addition to making RSS feeds of your latest posts available.
You can inspect your comments feed by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section …
(WordPress Comments Feed)
All the comments posted on your site by visitors and users display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries displayed on Firefox browser)
Like post entries, your comments feed content will display differently depending on the browser you use …
(RSS comments feed entries displayed with Google Chrome)
Again, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste your comments 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Displaying Feeds For Individual Post Items
Being able to use an RSS feed for specific posts can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts 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 individual posts is shown below:
(Specific Post Feed)
To create the above feed, copy the post address, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.
(Single Post RSS Feed)
Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of the post URI, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual post content itself.
Tip #3 – Post Category RSS Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in subscribing to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.
With WordPress, you can create separate category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(WordPress category feed format)
Copy the selected category link address …
(Select and copy your category URL …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(Use this format for WordPress post categories RSS feed)
The category RSS feed will now only contain content specific to that category …
(Category 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 – Create Your Own List Of Feeds
You can provide a feeds list that allows readers to subscribe to content in the categories they are interested in …
(Publish A Feeds Page)
Link an image like the one shown below to each category feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a new page …
(RSS image. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
If you need help with inserting tables into WordPress posts, see this step-by-step tutorial:
RSS Feeds – Notes
Feeds can be customized in a number of ways, such as adding images to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows different RSS feed configurations without messing with code. For example, here are some of the kinds of custom feeds you can use and how to structure your feeds …
(WordPress RSS – Feed Types)
Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – displays your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – RSS feed displaying the latest comments published on your website
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: Feed that displays individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Displays the latest comments made on individual posts
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/blog-post-title/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – Includes the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2017/09/10/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Includes the latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/05/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – RSS feed displaying latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Includes the latest entries for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Contains 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 to RSS’ button image somewhere visible …
(Encourage your visitors to syndicate your RSS feeds!)
Also, keep in mind that other sites will only want to syndicate your content if you provide your subscribers with high-quality content that can add great value to their sites and benefit their users.
(Easily add great content to your site and get online users to subscribe to your content 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 RSS feed 🙂
RSS – Additional Resources:
- RSS Feed Graphics – Visit sites like www.iconspedia.com/search/rss or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “RSS images”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable Free RSS graphics.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board is an independent organization responsible for publishing the RSS specification, guiding developers who create RSS applications and helping to further the understanding of RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about using RSS.
- WordPress Codex – Official WordPress documentation. Go here to learn more about WordPress RSS.
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 add content from other sites to your site via RSS feeds.
Hopefully, now you have 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 website or blog please click on links to visit our related posts section.
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