No matter what what industry you belong to, you need to provide high-value information on your site or blog that educates, informs, or improves engagement with your readers. For example, if your business provides health-related services, it’s not a bad idea to publish the latest information from the health department, such as news or updates on medical research, health and fitness tips, etc.

The problem with creating this kind of information, however, is that it is really time-consuming. You have to filter through, research, and organize a lot of data, check your facts, 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 lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is entirely beyond your control.

Thankfully, there is a simpler way to keep your site visitors up-to-date with the latest information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the easiest way to provide your site visitors with up-to-date information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

What Is RSS?

• RSS is an acronym for RDF Site Summary, or, as is more commonly known, Really Simple Syndication. It is also often 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.
• RSS feeds are often used to publish information that is frequently updated, such as new blog posts, news, video lists, etc., to which users can then subscribe.
• Essentially, an RSS feed is an XML (Extensible Markup Language) document that includes full or summarized text along with metadata such as date of publishing, feed author, etc. It allows people to subscribe to content on sites that publish feeds and then view updates posted on these sites through a feedreader. Conversely, RSS feeds also enable publishers to syndicate their web content automatically.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feedreaders. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different machines, feed readers, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine multiple RSS feeds to receive news and updates sourced from a number of sites.

This guide explains where your RSS feed is located, how to syndicate your content online using RSS feeds, and how to display someone else’s content on your site using RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a very powerful and legitimate method used to share content online. Feeds provide web users with a simple way to keep up with the latest information published on sites they are interested in.

First, let’s take a look at how syndication is used.

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

Syndication allows most leading news agencies to deliver readers global stories and up-to-the-minute news items from all over the planet without actually having to hire and send additional news reporters and content writers everywhere in the world …

(Most news reporting agencies and many influential online media publications use syndication to publish newsworthy items from news sources all around the planet.)

Syndication is a legitimate way of sharing content. online media publications syndicate their stories using feeds …

(Content syndication is a legitimate way of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually would like you to syndicate their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also send visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Major sites include an RSS 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”, “chicago tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Major sites provide links to a feed section. Image Source: smh.com.au )

Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of RSS feeds for different content topics on the site …

(RSS feeds section. Image Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

Each of these RSS feed items lets you access information from different sections of the website (e.g. technology news, entertainment news, editorials, etc.)

Feed sections can also include further feed subdirectories …

(Feed sections can also contain feed subdirectories. Source: latimes.com feeds)

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

RSS Feeds – Benefits

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

(Content Syndication Has Many Benefits!)

While adding RSS feeds 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, this gives you the opportunity to get increased exposure online and drive new visitors …

(Get users to syndicate your feed … it will help drive more traffic to your site!)

Overview Of The WordPress RSS

By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing others to easily syndicate your content on their sites.

Depending on the theme you have installed, there are a few ways to access your RSS feed:

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

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

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles as full text, or 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 displays …

(Post excerpts can affect how your feeds will display)

We have created a detailed tutorial on WordPress Post excerpts here:

• A Basic Guide To Using Post Excerpts In WordPress

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned earlier, to view the content of an RSDS feed, you need 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 take a look at how this works.

First, go to a website or blog and look for their RSS feed link using any of the methods described earlier …

(Search for an RSS feed link. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the feed URL to the clipboard)

If you want, you can check what the feed contains by pasting the feed URL into a feed reader …

(Paste your feed URL into a feedreader to view the content. Image: http://feedreader.com/online)

Like feed readers, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into readable content for humans.

Adding Feeds To Your Site

Let’s show you how to add content from another website’s RSS feeds to your site.

Adding A Feed To Your Sidebar

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

Let’s add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar area …

(Add content from an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar navigation area)

copy the RSS feed from a website containing content that you would like to add to your site to your clipboard …

(Copy your feed URL to the clipboard)

Next, paste the feed into an RSS widget …

(Widgets Area – RSS Widget)

To learn more about using sidebar widgets, go here:

• How To Add And Configure Widgets In WordPress

Refresh your browser. The content from the RSS feed should display in 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

Adding RSS Feed Content To Posts

Can content from an RSS feed be added to WordPress posts? It sure can!

You can do this using plugins. Just search inside your Plugins section for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins for WordPress)

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

The plugins below can be used to feed content to posts, or “auto blog” (An autoblog is a blog with content that is automatically gathered and compiled from RSS feeds):

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

WPeMatico is an easy to use auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange feeds into categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

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

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

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer)

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

The plugin will fetch an RSS feed and publish the full 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 – WordPress Plugin)

POWr RSS Feed automatically combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and article content, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom colors, borders, fonts, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.

The premium edition of this plugin contains many additional features, such as the ability to display different feeds, accept or reject posts, and more.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed WordPress Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin)

The WP Pipes plugin is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and 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 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 Plugin For WordPress

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress WP Plugin)

FeedWordPress is a simple and flexible Atom/RSS 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 bring together posts from multiple sources), or bring together all your online activity into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress

Autoblog

(Autoblog by WPMUDev Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Just copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give it a name of your choosing (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin)

RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types lets you display pages in your RSS feed in addition to posts.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types Plugin For WordPress

WordPress RSS – Useful Tips

Tip #1 – Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to displaying RSS feeds of your latest posts, WordPress also displays RSS feeds of your post comments.

You can inspect this by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ section …

(Comments Feed)

Comments posted on your site by visitors can be seen in the Comments RSS page …

(Comments feed items seen using Firefox)

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

(RSS comments feed entries as seen on Google Chrome web browser)

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

(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image 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 website or blog has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Creating Single Item Feeds

Being able to display an RSS feed for a specific post item 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 making an RSS feed for individual post items is shown below:

(RSS Feed For Specific Post Item)

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

(Single Post RSS Feed)

Note: By default, if you only add “/feed” to the end of your post address, WordPress will return the comments for 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 specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.

With WordPress, you can easily create individual category feeds.

All you need to do is use the format below:

(Format for WordPress category RSS feed)

Select and copy the category link address to your clipboard …

(Copy the category link address …)

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

(WordPress category feed format)

Your category feed will now only contain content published in 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 – Provide Your Own Feeds Directory

You can provide an RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe to content in specific categories, just like large authoritative sites …

(Set Up Your Own Page Of Feeds On Your Site)

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

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

To learn more about inserting tables into WordPress, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• How To Create And Add Tables In WordPress Posts And Pages

WordPress RSS – Notes

RSS 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 RSS feed configurations that do not require editing code. For example, here are just some of the kinds of feeds you can display …

(Different Feed Formats You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)

Below are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the image above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – RSS feed that includes your latest post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

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

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

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Includes the latest comments made on single items
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/post-title/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2013/06/24/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Includes latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2016/11/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – RSS feed containing latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/

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

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: Contains latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One more thing …

Remember to promote your feeds. Make sure you place a ’subscribe to RSS’ button in a visible location …

(Promote your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if your content is useful, educational, or highly entertaining. In other words, provide high-quality information that can add value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Add content from other sites and get online users 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 RSS feed 🙂

RSS Resources:

• RSS Feed Icons – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free rss icons”, “rss buttons”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS images and icons.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board Go here if you want to gain a better understanding of RSS.
• Wikipedia/RSS – Learn more about using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org – WordPress software documentation and reference repository. Visit this site for more information about RSS feeds in WordPress.

Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using RSS, and how to add content from other sites to your site via RSS feeds.

Hopefully, this post has given you a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business website or blog please see our related posts section.

***