Complete Guide on Importing RSS Feeds into WordPress Posts

Looking for a way to import RSS feeds into WordPress as actual posts?

In this step-by-step WordPress RSS-to-post tutorial, we’ll show you how to take the content from any RSS feed and automatically import it into your WordPress site as actual posts (or any other post type) with the easy-to-use WP RSS Aggregator plugin.

You’ll be able to control exactly how feed items look, including the ability to automatically filter out content from feeds (like ads or social media buttons) and map RSS feed content to custom fields on your WordPress site via some of the best WordPress RSS feed plugins like RSSImport.

Ready to get started? Let’s dig in…

Use Cases for WordPress RSS to Post

Because you can find an RSS feed for pretty much any content, there are a ton of different use cases to import RSS feeds into your WordPress site via plugin:

• Create a news aggregator or curate content – create an entire site like Personal Finance Blogs or just add a subsection to your existing site. Many people already use custom feeds like Feedzy RSS Feeds, Atom Feeds, and other external RSS feeds.
• Add related news from your niche – this helps you boost credibility and provides your visitors with content that they’re interested in. This helps if you’re a blogger experimenting with auto-blogging.
• Supplement existing content to keep it fresh – you don’t have to rely completely on original content to fill your site with fresh content. This is useful if you’re a blogger and you want to generate new posts.
• Create a curated content email newsletter – you can import content as posts and then automatically use those to create an email newsletter.
• Migrating from another CMS to WordPress – importing content from an RSS feed can help you migrate your content from another CMS or website builder (like Weebly).
• Improve your SEO – implemented well, content curation can help you boost your SEO efforts.
• Import affiliate products – some eCommerce stores offer affiliate product RSS feeds that let you showcase or aggregate the latest affiliate products. For example, Day of the Shirt aggregates the latest products daily from t-shirt sites.

WordPress RSS to Post Tutorial: Step-by-Step Guide

No matter why you need to auto post RSS feeds to WordPress, the basic steps are the same.

To import RSS feeds into WordPress, you’ll need two plugins:

• WP RSS Aggregator – this free plugin lets you import RSS feeds to WordPress.
• WP RSS Aggregator Feed to Post add-on – the Feed to Post WordPress plugin extends WP RSS Aggregator with the ability to import those RSS feed items as actual WordPress posts.

You can purchase the Feed to Post add-on individually, or, for more functionality and to save some money, you can get it as part of the WP RSS Aggregator plugin Pro plan which also includes other add-ons to help you:

• Filter out certain feed items based on keywords or taxonomies
• Import the full text from RSS feed items even if the RSS feed itself doesn’t include the full text

Once you’ve installed both the WP RSS Aggregator plugin and the Feed to Post add-on, here’s how to set them up.

1. Find RSS Feeds for Your Content Sources

To get started, you need to gather the RSS feeds for all the sources of content that you want to import.

Most sites offer an RSS feed in one form or another – here are some tips for how to find a site’s RSS feed.

2. Create a New Feed Source

Once you have the RSS feed that you want to import, go to RSS Aggregator → Feed Sources → Add New in your WordPress dashboard.

Give your feed source a name and add the RSS feed URL to the URL box. If the feed is valid, you should see the Feed Preview section populate with the feed’s most recent content:

Next, you’ll use the options below to configure how your WordPress RSS to post feed functions. You won’t even need a shortcode.

3. Choose Whether to Automatically Publish New Items

If you’re posting content from a feed source that you absolutely trust, you can opt to publish content right away without manual review. Otherwise, you’ll probably want to hold content as a draft until you can manually review it.

You can control this using the Post Status drop-down in the Feed to Post – General settings.

In this same settings area, you should also make sure to check the box for Canonical Link, which helps you avoid issues with duplicate content in Google by adding a canonical link to the original content source in the <head> of the post.

By default, the WP RSS Aggregator plugin will import feed items as blog posts, but you can also use the Post Type drop-down to choose a different post type.

4. Set Up Featured Image

Next, choose how to handle featured images. You have two options. You can:

1. Automatically import a featured image from the RSS feed if available.
2. Manually add featured images.

To set up image behavior, you can use the Feed to Post – Images settings:

If you’re unable to pull images from your RSS feed, you might need to force full content, which you can enable in the Feed to Post – General settings. This requires the Full Text RSS Feeds add-on, which is available as part of the WP RSS Aggregator plugin Pro plan.

5. Add a Credit Link

To credit the original author and build a mutually beneficial relationship, you should link to the source for each post.

To help you do this, the WP RSS Aggregator plugin lets you automatically prepend or append content to the imported content. You can also include dynamic tags, like a post’s URL and content source.

You can see the available dynamic placeholder shortcodes in the Feed to Post – Prepend to Content or Feed to Post – Append to Content settings.

For example, here’s what it might look like to add a credit link to the beginning of an imported content item:

6. Remove Unwanted Elements from Feed Items

Some feeds might include content that you don’t want to import and show in your widget, like ads or social media share buttons.

To remove unneeded content, you can use the Feed to Post – Extraction Rules settings.

Extraction rules work by targeting specific CSS selectors for removal – here’s how to find the required CSS selector.

7. Set Up Custom Field Mapping (Optional)

This is an advanced feature and won’t apply to all use cases, but if you want more control over how feed content displays on the front-end of your site in the widget, WP RSS Aggregator lets you map content from feed sources to custom fields on your WordPress site (like those you’d add with Advanced Custom Fields).

If you’re not sure what this means, feel free to skip this!

You can set this up from the Feed to Post Custom Field Mapping section:

8. Publish

At this point, you’re ready to publish your content source and start importing content.

WP RSS Aggregator will then start importing content according to the post type and post status that you selected.

If you opted to hold imported feed items as drafts, you’d need to then manually go in and publish them:

To include additional content sources, you can repeat the same steps above for each RSS feed that you want to curate.

Import RSS Feeds into WordPress Today

With the WP RSS Aggregator plugin, it’s easy to auto-post RSS feed items to WordPress with the free version.

You can:

• Import feed items as WordPress posts from unlimited sources and make the best WordPress website.
• Control how content displays, including adding or removing content from the feed.
• Import content to any post type and map data to custom fields if needed.

To start importing content, all you need is WP RSS Aggregator and the Feed to Post add-on.

For the best value, though, you should go with the WP RSS Aggregator Pro plan. Not only does this plan include the Feed to Post add-on, but it also includes:

• Keyword Filtering – automatically filter feed items based on keywords or taxonomies.
• Full Text RSS Feeds – import the full content from RSS feeds even if the feed only provides an excerpt.

Purchase WP RSS Aggregator Pro today