RSS Widget In WordPress - What Is It? How Can I Use It? Learn All You Need To Know

The RSS widget allows you to display content from any other blog on a WordPress platform in your sidebar. You could for example use this to display recent posts from another blog in the same subject matter as yours; this is where the RSS widget comes into play. So you may think how this can be achieved, well lets have a look at how you can add the widget to your blog.

Go to the widgets page on WordPress you will find all the widgets in the 'Available Widgets Section', click the widget menu bar then use your cursor to drag and drop the widget over to your sidebar section on the right of the page. Click the arrow for the drop-down menu which allows you to configure your widget. In the 'Enter the RSS URL' box, type the RSS URL of the blog you wish to add. Type in the title of the RSS widget. This title will then appear in your blog above the links from this blog.

You now need to select the number of items to display; you have a choice of between 1-20. click the Select the 'Display the item' content box. By selecting this box you are telling WordPress that you wish to display the content of the feed, if you only want to display the title then do not click this box.

You can also select 'Display item author' box and 'Display item date box' which allows you to choose the date the item was published and to display the author's title next to the feed. Both of these options are not necessary but can add that little bit extra. Then when you are done just click the 'Save changes' button. WordPress will now save all of your options and will reload your widget page with RSS widget now included.

RSS feeds are a great way to interact with other sites and blogs. For example if you have a small bog that you have only just started on say losing weight by adding popular blog RSS feeds from this niche you can make your blog more appealing to your visitors whilst giving them good content. Be aware though that in recent times many webmasters were just filling their sites with RSS feeds and not any original content of their own. If you want good search engine rankings you need original content too. Google does not look kindly at sites or blogs just thrown together with RSS feeds and no content.