As a content creator, you might have come across the term RSS feed. What is it? Do you need it? Well, you’ll learn the answers to these questions, as well as some of the best WordPress RSS feed plugins.
What is a RSS feed?
RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication where you can access a website’s content and read it in a standard format. It has been around since 1999. Most content management systems like WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, offer a method to allow you to give your readers an option to read your website’s content using a RSS aggregator tool.
With an aggregator tool, you can add as many RSS feeds as you wish from as many websites, and read it. In a way, it’s kind of like curating your own personal reading content. When your favorite website publishes new content, and their RSS feed option is enabled, your RSS reader will pick that new article up. The standard format used by a RSS reader allows you to read the site on any device, whether desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
The actual RSS feed is a bunch of code called XML, but there are readers that will display that content in an organized and simple format for anyone to see. This Extensible Markup Language, or XML format displays content without your website’s branding, but it gives your readers an accessible way to get your content on the fly.
And just to be straight, even if you don’t have a content management system, you can manually build your own XML file if you wish people to access your website’s content via a RSS reader like Feedly, NewsBlur, or Inoreader.
With WordPress, you can also import content using RSS, especially if you wish to curate content. Some WordPress RSS feed plugins will help pull in content from sites you like, and publish some articles. Other WordPress RSS feed plugins can help you pull in content from your own social media handles, like posts and images, and you can display them on a page or a widget.
Why would you need a RSS feed enabled on your website?
Might seem like extra work to make sure your RSS feed allows people to subscribe and read your stuff, but here are a couple main reasons why you need it:
Easy access for readers on the go.
Assures that content can be seen on any device.
Easy access for readers on the go.
Your readers and fans prefer specific methods in reading your content, than others. Some will like to listen to a podcast, some like video, some like to read from their inbox, and some like reading directly from your blog. However, for the reader that is on the go and reads quite a lot of blogs, an rss reader is what they usually choose.
Assures that content can be seen on any device.
Web accessibility is important. How you use the Internet, may be a bit different from others who have issues with their eyes, ears, or other physical problems. RSS feeds can be downloaded into RSS readers, and are far easier on the end-user, whether or not they have a disability.
What are WordPress RSS Feed Plugins?
WordPress RSS feed plugins tap into the RSS feed that your website generates, and pulls in images, texts, or other content that you wish to display. You can do this either from your own website or from others. The website file is called an XML file and things like RSS readers can decipher and place your content in an easily readable format.
8 Best WordPress RSS Feed Plugins
WordPress RSS feed plugins can be used for a lot of different purposes. Here’s just a few WordPress RSS feed plugins that could be useful:
WP RSS Aggregator
Smash Balloon Social Feed Photo
Smash Balloon Social Post Feed
Featured Images in RSS
Super RSS Reader
Feeds for YouTube
WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher
WordPress RSS Feed Retriever
