{"id":36048,"date":"2022-03-28T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/?p=36048"},"modified":"2022-04-18T08:59:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T06:59:28","slug":"tips-for-optimizing-wordpress-rss-feed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/tips-for-optimizing-wordpress-rss-feed\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Tips for Optimizing Your WordPress RSS Feed"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If there were something you could do reasonably <strong>quickly and easily to improve the speed and overall user experience<\/strong> of your website, chances are you\u2019d do it: there are no downsides. Well, we\u2019re about to show you how to improve one functionality of your website: your RSS feeds.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]While they do cater to a minority of users, <strong>RSS feeds are a default feature of WordPress<\/strong>, so a bit of adjustment is all you need to do to <strong>show your RSS-using visitors you care about them<\/strong>. In this article, we will be talking about optimizing WordPress RSS feed for your website. But what are RSS feeds? What is their purpose? Before we get into the gory details, we would like to address the basics.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Here\u2019s what we\u2019ll be talking about:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;22px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#what-is-an-rss-feed-and-why-optimize-it\">What Is an RSS Feed And Why Optimize It<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#show-post-summary-instead-of-the-whole-post\">Show a Post Summary Instead of the Whole Post<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#add-before-and-after-the-feed-text\">Add Before and After the Feed Text<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#include-featured-images\">Include Featured Images<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#add-category-name-to-post-titles\">Add Category Name To Post Titles<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#add-custom-text-to-tags-or-categories\">Add Custom Text To Tags or Categories<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#allow-users-to-subscribe-to-categories-and-custom-feeds\">Allow Users to Subscribe to Categories and Custom Feeds<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#take-steps-to-prevent-content-scraping\">Take Steps to Prevent Content Scraping<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#delay-posts-from-rss-feed\">Delay Posts From RSS Feed<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#allow-visitors-to-subscribe-to-rss-feeds-by-email\">Allow Visitors To Subscribe to RSS Feeds By Email<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#add-social-sharing-buttons\">Add Social Sharing Buttons<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;5px&#8221;]<ul class=\"qodef-unordered-list-item qodef-toc\">\n    <li>\n\t        <div class=\"qodef-ul-title-holder\">\n            <span class=\"qodef-ul-title-content\"><a href=\"#regularly-fix-rss-feed-errors\">Regularly Fix RSS Feed Errors<\/a><\/span>        <\/div>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;80px&#8221;][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=&#8221;new-top-picks-banner&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;80px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"what-is-an-rss-feed-and-why-optimize-it\"><\/a>What Is an RSS Feed And Why Optimize It<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/what-is-rss-and-how-to-use-it-in-wordpress\/\">RSS stands for Really Simply Syndication<\/a>, and it is in essence a form of content delivery. Technically speaking, you do have to have a special piece of software called a news aggregator to access the feed, but most of them are very simple. The user subscribes to as many or as few websites they want, and <strong>all of their updates are aggregated and displayed in their readers.<\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To generate an RSS feed, you need an XML file. XML files are structured post data which the RSS feed readers use to present your content to their users. You don\u2019t need to do anything to create an XML file for your website \u2013 WordPress does it all automatically. You can find it by appending<em> \/feed<\/em> to your URL. For instance, the URL for the XML file for Qode Magazine is this:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<em>https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/feed\/<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]The users simply paste the link into their reader and the reader automatically checks for updates.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]As for why you should be optimizing WordPress RSS feed, there are a few good reasons. Other than those we\u2019ve already talked about (speed and UX), you also get better protection against content scraping, improve your online reputation, rank better on SERPs, and get more traffic coming into your website. There are no downsides, but it takes a little time and effort.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"show-post-summary-instead-of-the-whole-post\"><\/a>Show a Post Summary Instead of the Whole Post<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]It may be that your RSS feed is showing the entire article, eliminating the need for people interested in your content to visit your website at all. Setting your RSS feed to show a summary fixes this problem.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To do that, navigate to<strong> Settings\/Reading<\/strong> on your WordPress website.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<div class=\"qodef-single-image-holder   qodef-has-border \">\n    <div class=\"qodef-si-inner\" >\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"969\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Settings-Reading.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Settings Reading\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Settings-Reading.jpg 969w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Settings-Reading-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Settings-Reading-768x411.jpg 768w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Settings-Reading-620x331.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/>                        <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;38px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Find the<strong> For each post in a feed, include<\/strong> radio button, and set it to show an <em>Excerpt<\/em>. Click the <strong>Save Changes<\/strong> button.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<div class=\"qodef-single-image-holder   qodef-has-border \">\n    <div class=\"qodef-si-inner\" >\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"969\" height=\"654\" src=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Excerpt.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Excerpt\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Excerpt.jpg 969w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Excerpt-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Excerpt-768x518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Excerpt-620x418.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/>                        <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;38px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Now, news aggregate users will need to visit your website if they want to read the entire text of each article which interests them.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"add-before-and-after-the-feed-text\"><\/a>Add Before and After the Feed Text<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]With before and after the feed text, you get a chance to <strong>add a blurb to your articles<\/strong>. The more information a reader has, the more likely they are to know whether they are interested in your content. Your SEO plugin likely contains the requisite functionality. Our preferred SEO plugin is <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/seo-by-rank-math\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rank Math<\/a>, and we will be using it in this demonstration.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]After <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/how-to-install-a-wordpress-plugin\/\">installing and activating the plugin<\/a>, you will need to configure it to make full use of it, but that is beyond the scope of this article. To set up the before and after feed texts, navigate to <strong>Rank Math\/General Settings<\/strong> from your WordPress dashboard.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<div class=\"qodef-single-image-holder   qodef-has-border \">\n    <div class=\"qodef-si-inner\" >\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"969\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Rank-Math-General.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Rank Math General\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Rank-Math-General.jpg 969w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Rank-Math-General-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Rank-Math-General-768x411.jpg 768w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Rank-Math-General-620x331.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/>                        <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;38px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Once there, click the <strong>Others<\/strong> tab.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<div class=\"qodef-single-image-holder   qodef-has-border \">\n    <div class=\"qodef-si-inner\" >\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"969\" height=\"690\" src=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Others.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Others\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Others.jpg 969w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Others-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Others-768x547.jpg 768w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Others-620x441.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/>                        <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;38px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Here, you can edit the <strong>RSS Before Content<\/strong> And<strong> RSS After Content<\/strong> text and add the variables outlined in the table. Once you are happy with everything, click the <strong>Save Changes<\/strong> button.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<div class=\"qodef-single-image-holder   qodef-has-border \">\n    <div class=\"qodef-si-inner\" >\n                                    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"969\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Before-After-Text.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"Before After Text\" srcset=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Before-After-Text.jpg 969w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Before-After-Text-300x217.jpg 300w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Before-After-Text-768x555.jpg 768w, https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Before-After-Text-620x448.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px\" \/>                        <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=&#8221;78px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"include-featured-images\"><\/a>Include Featured Images<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Featured images are not added by default to your RSS feed. You can include them in your RSS feeds even if they don\u2019t appear in the main body of the article by <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/how-to-add-custom-code-to-wordpress\/\">adding some custom code to your WordPress website<\/a>. The code you need to add to your <em>.functions.php<\/em> file is this:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">function rss_featured_image($content) {\r\nglobal $post;\r\nif(has_post_thumbnail($post-&gt;ID)) {\r\n$content = '&lt;div&gt;' . get_the_post_thumbnail($post-&gt;ID) .\r\n'&lt;\/div&gt;' . get_the_content();\r\n}\r\nreturn $content;\r\n}\r\nadd_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'rss_featured_image');\r\nadd_filter('the_content_feed', 'rss_featured_image');<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Note that changing your<em> functions.php<\/em> file can be risky, and you should always use a <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wordpress-child-theme\/\">child theme<\/a> or snippet plugin.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"add-category-name-to-post-titles\"><\/a>Add Category Name To Post Titles<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]You can supplement the post titles of your RSS feeds with the category they belong to if you wish to make it clearer to your visitors what the post is about. To add a category name to the post title, you need to add this code to your <em>functions.php<\/em> file, as described above:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">function rss_title_category($content) {\r\n$post_category = \"\";\r\nforeach((get_the_category()) as $cat) {\r\n$post_category .= ' ('.$cat-&gt;cat_name . ')';\r\n}\r\n$content = $content.$post_category;\r\nreturn $content;\r\n}\r\nadd_filter('the_title_rss', 'rss_title_category');<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]This code will display all the categories a post belongs to in parentheses next to the title. For instance, if you are <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/how-to-start-food-blog\/\">running a food blog<\/a>, a recipe post title might look something like this:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<em>Boeuf Bourgignon (Mains)(Meat Dishes)(French)<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"add-custom-text-to-tags-or-categories\"><\/a>Add Custom Text To Tags or Categories<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]If you want to provide more information to your RSS feed followers, you can add more text to an item which contains a certain tag or category.<br \/>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Suppose, for instance, you are running a news website and there is an election ongoing. If you add the following code to your<em> functions.php<\/em> file:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">function rss_taxonomies($content) {\r\nif( is_feed() ){\r\nif ( has_term( array( 'politics', 'elections_2021' ), 'post_tag' ) ) {\r\n$content = $content.\"&lt;br \/&gt;&lt;br \/&gt;Read the latest on the 2021 election!\";\r\n}\r\n}\r\nreturn $content;\r\n}\r\nadd_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'rss_taxonomies');\r\nadd_filter('the_content', 'rss_taxonomies');<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]any post with the <em>politics<\/em> or <em>elections_2021<\/em> tag will also display the message \u201cRead the latest on the 2021 election,\u201d thus informing your readers that the post pertains to the ongoing political process. This should go without saying, but the code will do nothing if the tags mentioned do not exist.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]If you are using this method for categories, simply replace <em>post_tag<\/em> with <em>category<\/em> in the code above. Also make sure to replace the relevant tags (or categories) in line 3 of the code as well as the message in line 4 with your own.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"allow-users-to-subscribe-to-categories-and-custom-feeds\"><\/a>Allow Users to Subscribe to Categories and Custom Feeds<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Not all your website visitors will be interested in all your website content. This is where <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wordpress-taxonomy\/\">organizing your content into taxonomies<\/a> comes into play. You can find a category feed on your website the same way you would find the website\u2019s general RSS feed: by adding<em> \/feed<\/em> to a category URL. This, for example, is the RSS feed link for the \u201cDesign\u201d category of Qode Magazine:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/category\/design\/feed[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]There are also easy solutions to facilitating subscriptions to <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/how-to-create-rss-feeds-for-each-category-in-wordpress\/\">category-based RSS feeds<\/a>, and you can even create <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wordpress-custom-rss-feed\/\">custom RSS feeds<\/a>, if you so choose.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"take-steps-to-prevent-content-scraping\"><\/a>Take Steps to Prevent Content Scraping<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Content scraping is a technique used by bad actors to basically <strong>steal your content and present it as their own<\/strong>. Not only is somebody using your content without putting in any of the work you did or paying you any money for it, scraped content also competes with your own content for visits. Scraping also generates false page views and can slow down your website.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]There are many techniques you can use to <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/what-is-content-scraping\/\">protect your website from content scraping<\/a>: so many they merit an article for themselves.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"delay-posts-from-rss-feed\"><\/a>Delay Posts From RSS Feed<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Delaying posts from appearing in your RSS feed will <strong>give search engines time to index your content<\/strong>, making sure yours is the original version. This deters content scrapers by preventing your posts from appearing plagiarized in case you wish to make a quick edit (for typos, say) immediately after publishing a post.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To delay posts from the RSS feed, add the following code to your website:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">function publish_later_on_feed($where) {\r\nglobal $wpdb;\r\nif ( is_feed() ) {\r\n$time = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');\r\n$delay = '15';\r\n$interval = 'MINUTE';\r\n$where .= \" AND TIMESTAMPDIFF($interval, $wpdb-&gt;posts.post_date_gmt, '$time') &gt; $delay \";\r\n}\r\nreturn $where;\r\n}\r\nadd_filter('posts_where', 'publish_later_on_feed');<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]The above code will delay a post from appearing in your RSS feed for 15 minutes. You can change it by replacing <em>15<\/em> with an integer number of minutes in the line:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">$wait = '15'<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"allow-visitors-to-subscribe-to-rss-feeds-by-email\"><\/a>Allow Visitors To Subscribe to RSS Feeds By Email<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]While they have been around for decades, RSS feeds have slightly fallen out of fashion. And, thanks to so many instant messaging apps, so has e-mail. But just as sure as TV did not kill the radio star, e-mail is still out there and has a purpose. Now, while many people use RSS news aggregators, many don\u2019t, but you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a person who doesn\u2019t use e-mail. We have talked about <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/how-to-create-email-newsletter\/\">starting up an e-mail newsletter<\/a> using Mailchimp, but you can also use it to <a href=\"https:\/\/mailchimp.com\/help\/share-your-blog-posts-with-mailchimp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">create an e-mail RSS feed<\/a>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"add-social-sharing-buttons\"><\/a>Add Social Sharing Buttons<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Like them or not, social networks are how many people find new content and people spend a lot of time curating their social profiles. Adding social buttons to your RSS feed will make this easier for them, and can only result in a wider social reach for your website.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]To do that, you need to add the following code to your website:[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<pre class=\"EnlighterJSRAW\" data-enlighter-language=\"generic\">function social_add($content) {\r\nif(is_feed()) {\r\n$encoded_permalink = urlencode(get_permalink());\r\n$title = get_the_title();\r\n$content .= '&lt;p&gt;\r\n&lt;a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=' . $encoded_permalink . '\" title=\"Share this on Facebook\"&gt;&lt;img src=\"ICON URL\" title=\"Share this on Facebook\" alt=\"Share this on Facebook\" width=\"64px\" height=\"64px\" \/&gt;&lt;\/a&gt;\r\n&lt;a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/share?&amp;text='. $title . '&amp;amp;url=' . $encoded_permalink . '\" title=\"Share this on Twitter\"&gt;&lt;img src=\"ICON URL\" title=\"Share this on Twitter\" alt=\"Share this on Twitter\" width=\"64px\" height=\"64px\" \/&gt;&lt;\/a&gt;\r\n&lt;\/p&gt;';\r\n}\r\nreturn $content;\r\n}\r\nadd_filter('the_excerpt_rss', 'social_add');\r\nadd_filter('the_content', 'social_add');<\/pre>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;28px&#8221;][vc_column_text]Be sure to replace the<em> ICON URL<\/em> placeholders with proper icon file URLs.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\"><a id=\"regularly-fix-rss-feed-errors\"><\/a>Regularly Fix RSS Feed Errors<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This one should go without saying, but we will iterate it: always test for and <a href=\"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/fix-wordpress-rss-feed-errors\/\">fix any RSS feed errors<\/a>. A buggy website is a UX nightmare, and you should always take care to fix any errors which may arise. The same goes for RSS feeds, as they are a default function of your WordPress website.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;68px&#8221;][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"qodef-h4\">In Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]As you can see, there is a lot of ways to improve the experience of your RSS feed subscribers. Some of them are easy to implement, while some of them might take a little effort to set up, but there is an important commonality to all of them: each and every one of them is useful. If you happen to know that a lot of your website visitors are RSS feed users, optimizing your RSS feed should be a priority. If they are a small minority, you can still do a lot for them and for yourself with just a little effort and no money at all.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Optimize the RSS feed of your WordPress website, improve its UX, and get more traffic: we will show you how. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16990,"featured_media":36062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[152,74,4],"class_list":["post-36048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources","tag-optimization","tag-rss","tag-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16990"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}