RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication, which is a protocol that makes the latest updates on websites available in a format that can be read by browsers, news aggregators, dedicated RSS readers, and other applications. The RSS feed of a website is updated when new content is available, and they are checked periodically by the applications subscribed to those feeds.
By subscribing to the feed of a website, readers can stay up to date with the most recent content on that site without having to visit it themselves to check if it has been updated.
WordPress includes a number of different RSS feeds:
- Post feed: includes the most recent posts on your site. URL:
www.website.com/feed/ - Comment feed: the most recent comments on your site. URL:
www.website.com/comments/feed/ - Post-specific comment feed: the most recent comments posted on a specific post. URL:
www.website.com/post-name/feed/ - Taxonomy feed: the most recent posts for a term in a taxonomy, like a category or a tag. What URL the taxonomy feed has depends on your permalink structure, but you can usually reach the feed for any term by going to the archive page for that term and appending
/feed/to the URL in your browser address bar. - Author feed: the most recent posts published by a specific author. You can reach the feed by going to the archive page for an author and appending
/feed/to the URL in your browser address bar. - Search feed: the most recent posts on your site that match a specific search query. You can view it by searching for something on your site, and then appending
&feed=rss2to the URL in your browser address bar.
WordPress includes an RSS widget which can be used to display the latest updates from another website RSS feed. If your active theme supports widgets, you can add the widget to your website by going to Appearance → Widgets, where you drag the RSS widget to a widget area and enter the details of the RSS feed you wish to display.