RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a way for programs to tap into a website’s content in a fast and easy way. The most commonly found use of RSS feeds is for website readers to subscribe to content via an RSS reader. The RSS readers essentially collect the RSS feeds from all their favourite sites in just one place.
RSS feeds have declined in popularity but still remain an important part of any website. They will allow you to manipulate and distribute your WordPress posts in such very helpful ways. If you also extend their functionality with third-party services or plugins you can become a lot more creative.
You can utilise RSS feeds to boost the reach of your website. As an example, if you run a website about health products and a blog about nutrition, you could use an RSS feed to display all your latest posts about nutrition somewhere on your health products site. And you can delve deeper and use RSS to set up an email marketing campaign for your readers.
As long as you are using some type of permalink, WordPress will automatically create your main RSS feed at ‘yoursite.com.au/feed’. And unless you or your website developer tell WordPress otherwise, it will automatically add all of your new posts to this feed.
Even using any particular plugins, you can change a few simple controls over your WordPress RSS feed direct from your dashboard. Simple go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Reading’ and two options will be displayed:
Syndication feeds show the most recent X items – this allows you to select how many posts will display in your feed. The default setting is to display the most recent so in selecting 5 the feed will display the 5 most recent posts.
For each article in a feed, show – this allows you to select whether or not you would like to have the full post text in your feed or just a snapshot, a summary, if you like. A snapshot might be a great idea to entice readers to head to your website to read the entire post.
If you want to do more with your WordPress RSS feed you can install and activate a plugin. These plugins can do a range to things such as:
- Giving users more control over the type of content they subscribe to
- Including adverts or other, additional content in your feed
- Highlight RSS feeds in different ways
Have a chat with the team at Website Design Centre to learn more about making your WordPress RSS feed work for your website.
