No matter what service or product you sell or what industry your business is a part of, providing high-quality information to your site visitors is essential. For example, if you provide accounting services, it’s not a bad idea to provide users with useful information from the taxation office, such as news and updates on tax rulings, small business tax deductions, 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 ton 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 well beyond your control.
Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your site readers up-to-date with your information.
It’s called RSS …
(RSS is the simplest way to provide your users with great information)
The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS
What Does RSS Stand For?
- RSS, which, according to some definitions is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It is also often called a “feed” or “web feed”.
- When users subscribe to a website’s feed, they no longer have to manually visit and check the website for updated content. Instead, their browser will constantly monitor the feed and automatically keep subscribers updated.
- RSS feeds are typically used to publish frequently updated information, such as blog entries, news headlines, audios, etc., which any user can choose to subscribe to.
- RSS feed content can be read using a software program called an RSS feed reader, or feed aggregator. Feedreaders can be used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content (and updates made to the content) to other online properties.
- 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 that feeds are compatible with different devices and programs.
- Many sites and software applications also let you combine several RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from various sources.
This article shows you how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display content from other sites on your site using their RSS feed.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds
Content syndication is a very powerful way of sharing web content. RSS Feeds provide a way for online users to receive the latest information published on different sites.
First, let’s take a look at content syndication.
News reporting agencies and many highly-visited online media publications rely on syndication to publish newsworthy content from news sources all around the world.
Content syndication allows most digital publishing agencies and many highly-visited online publications to deliver readers the most recent newsworthy items and content of interest from around the globe without having to post additional writers to every location around the world …
(Online newspapers rely on content syndication to publish newsworthy stories from news sources around the world.)
Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing content. Global media publications syndicate information using news feeds …
(Content syndication is a legitimate method of sharing information)
Most sites actually want you to share their content. Syndicating content not only allows great information to be shared, but it also drives visitors back to the original site that published the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.
Leading digital agencies contain a feed section (look for menu links that say ”RSS”, “Syndication”, or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “huffington post rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …
(Many content agencies have a feed section. Image: Sydney Morning Herald RSS )
Clicking on a site’s RSS links section brings up a directory of different RSS feed sections …
(RSS feeds directory. Image: nytimes.com)
gives you access to different sections of the site (e.g. business news, travel news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)
A feed list can also contain subcategory feeds …
(RSS Feed section. Source: latimes.com feeds)
Note: An RSS feed is just a URL. All you need to do to use feeds is to copy the URLs and paste these into an application that can translate the feed code into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.
Using RSS Feeds
Syndicating content from someone else’s website on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only gives someone else’s business additional exposure online, it also adds value to your site without you having to create that content …
(Content Syndication - Benefits)
While adding a 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 content, this gives your business the opportunity to gain more exposure online and drive more web traffic …
(Get users to syndicate content using your RSS feed … it will help increase your exposure online!)
Overview Of The WordPress RSS
By default, WordPress automatically publishes a feed of your posts, allowing others to syndicate your content on their websites and blogs.
Depending on your WordPress theme, there are a number of ways to get your WordPress RSS feed:
1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to be displayed on the sidebar, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …
(You can access your WordPress RSS feed from the Entries RSS menu)
2) You can also find built-in links or buttons on certain themes that allow your visitors to copy your feed.
In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can copy the site’s RSS feed URL by clicking on on the Subscribe to RSS link …
(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe to RSS” buttons)
3) On many websites and again, depending on which theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Social Share, Links, or Follow toolbar …
(Look for an RSS button in a a Links, Follow Us, or Share toolbar section)
4) You can also view your feed by typing your site’s URL into a browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:
- http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
- http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your WP site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Using any of the above methods will bring up your site’s feed page …
(Feed items seen on a Firefox browser)
Note that your feed content will display differently depending on the web browser you use …
(RSS feed items as seen with a Chrome browser)
Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed
Specify how many posts you would like to display in your Feeds page in the Reading Settings section. Type the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …
(Reading Settings – Number of syndication feed items field)
Your feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified section …
(The feed page will show the number of items you have specified in your WordPress Reading Settings section)
Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed
Another setting in the WordPress Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display articles in the feed as full text, or just as a summary …
(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 affect how a feed will appear)
We have created a detailed tutorial about using WordPress Post excerpts here:
View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds
As mentioned earlier, all that’s required to view a feed’s content is to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into 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 to feed’ link using any of the methods described earlier …
(Look for an RSS feed button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)
Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
If you want, you can check the feed content by pasting the feed URL into an online feed reader …
(Paste the feed URL into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image: Feedreader.com)
Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process RSS feeds and convert these into content that is readable by humans.
How To Add RSS Feeds To Your WP Site
In the example below, we are going to add content from other website’s RSS feeds to your WordPress site.
How To Add Feeds To Your 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 importing 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 RSS content to your sidebar …
(Let’s add an RSS feed to the WordPress sidebar)
First, Go to a website or blog containing content that you want to display on your site and copy its RSS feed …
(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)
Next, go to your Widgets screen and paste the feed into a new RSS widget …
(RSS Widget)
To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:
Load your site in your web browser. The content from the RSS feed should appear in your sidebar (or wherever you have inserted the RSS widget – e.g. custom menu) …
(RSS Feed Added To WP 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:
Adding RSS Feeds To Your WordPress Posts
What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to WordPress posts instead of a sidebar?
You can do this using plugins. Just search on the WordPress plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.
(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins for WordPress)
Note: These plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for configuration 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 easy to use 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 feeds into campaigns and categories.
For more details, go here:
WP RSS Aggregator
(WP RSS Aggregator – WordPress Plugin)
WP RSS Aggregator is an RSS feed importer and auto blogging plugin for WordPress that offers additional functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).
For example, the Feed to Post add-on for the WP RSS Aggregator plugin is an advanced, feature-filled importer that allows you to autoblog by importing RSS feeds directly into your posts or any other custom post type.
For more details, go here:
RSS Post Importer
(RSS Post Importer WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Post Importer plugin lets you syndicate, curate, import, merge and display full-text RSS feeds on your WordPress site.
RSS Post Importer 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)
POWr RSS combines and displays content from multiple RSS feeds.
The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display videos, images, and articles, adjust the priority of different feeds, use custom fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. It is also mobile responsive and supports text in any language.
The premium version 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 WP Plugin)
The WP Pipes plugin for WordPress 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, autoblogging, auto post to LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, export posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to a new level.
For more details, go here:
FeedWordPress
(FeedWordPress – WordPress Plugin)
FeedWordPress provides versatile Atom/RSS syndication options for WordPress site content.
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.
FeedWordPress can be used to create aggregator sites, or bring together 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 – WordPress 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, name your feed (for admin purposes) and select the blog that you want it to post to.
For more details, go here:
RSS Includes Pages
(RSS Includes Pages – WordPress Plugin)
The RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types plugin modifies your RSS feeds to include pages in addition to posts.
For more details, go here:
Useful Tips
Tip #1 – WordPress Comment RSS Feeds
WordPress displays RSS feeds of the latest comments posted on your site in addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts.
To inspect these comments, locate the ‘Meta’ section on your sidebar menu (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) and click on Comments RSS …
(Comments RSS)
Comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …
(Comments feed entries as seen using Firefox)
Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on the web browser you are using …
(RSS comments feed content as seen on Google Chrome browser)
Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into an online feedreader …
(Paste the comments feed URL into a feed reader to view the content. Source: http://feedreader.com/online)
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 has been installed in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)
Tip #2 – Accessing Specific Post RSS Feeds
Being able to use an RSS feed for single 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 individual posts is shown below:
(Feed For Specific Post Item)
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 URI of your post, WordPress will return the comments for that post, not the content of the post itself.
Tip #3 – Using Category Feeds
Some your site users may only be interested in syndicating content from one or two post categories. They may not want to subscribe to your entire site’s feed.
With WordPress, you can create individual category feeds.
Just use the format below:
(Use this format for WP post categories RSS feed)
Select and copy the category URL to your clipboard …
(Copy the selected category link address …)
Add “feed” to the end of it …
(WordPress category RSS feed format)
Your category RSS feed now only contains content assigned to that category …
(Category-specific RSS 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 – Create Your Own RSS Feeds Directory
You can publish an RSS feeds page that allows readers to subscribe to specific content …
(Provide A Page Of RSS Feeds On Your Site)
All you need to do is link an RSS button like the one shown below to your category feeds and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a separate page …
(RSS button. Image Source: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)
For a detailed tutorial on adding tables to WordPress posts and pages, go here:
WordPress RSS – Additional Notes
Feeds can be customized in several different ways, such as adding images and videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these customizations require code editing skills.
WordPress allows you to configure a number of feed types that do not require touching code. Here are some examples of feed formats you can display …
(Different Custom Feeds You Can Create Using WordPress RSS)
Here are the different feed types, descriptions, and feed examples shown in the table above:
- Feed Type: All Posts
- Description: Content feed – Feed that contains your latest entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/
- Feed Type: All Comments
- Description: Comments feed – Displays the latest comments posted on your site
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts
- Description: RSS feed that displays individual post entries
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
- Description: Contains the latest comments made on specific items
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Day – RSS feed displaying latest posts in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/10/19/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Month – Contains the latest items in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/11/feed/
- Feed Type: Archives
- Description: Year – Feed that contains the latest post entries in each archive
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/feed/
- Feed Type: Search Results
- Description: Displays the latest items for a search query
- Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/
- Feed Type: Custom Post Type
- Description: Displays the 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 feeds. Make sure you place your ’subscribe to RSS’ button somewhere visible …
(Promote your RSS feeds!)
Keep in mind that other website owners will only want to subscribe to your content if you provide your subscribers 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 syndicate your content using 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 🙂
Resources:
- RSS Buttons – Visit sites like Iconspedia or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logos”, etc.) for sites containing downloadable RSS images.
- RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
- Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about 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 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 websites on your site using their RSS feed.
Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of problems that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you get better results online. To read more about using WordPress please click on links to visit other great content on this site.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)