How to find your RSS feed
Last updated
Last updated
An RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a simple text file of content on your website that automatically updates when content is added. RSS feeds are universally supported in web standards and allow applications and users to follow updates from a website’s content.
This is an example of what an RSS looks like. It is a programmatic way of showing blog posts, articles, podcasts, and videos on the web. Every valid RSS feed has several data elements in common: title, description, published date, and link. It is also common for an RSS <item> to have the full content, categories, and author information.
If you want to see an example in your browser window, visit this sample rss feed link.
When trying to find an RSS feed, start with the most common URLs for your page. Many websites have a feed tag that can be appended to the base URL. An example is any website built on WordPress where the RSS feed typically looks like this:
Looking at the HTML source code of a web page is another great way to quickly find the RSS feed.
Let’s navigate to the HubSpot blog at: https://blog.hubspot.com
Right-click on the website’s page, and choose Page Source. In the new window that appears, use the “find” feature (Ctrl + F on a PC or Command + F on a Mac), and type in RSS. In this case, the correct RSS feed is https://blog.hubspot.com/rss.xml
The RSS Feed URL for the Marketing category of their website is https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/rss.xml
Note: It is very common for websites to offer a second RSS feed full of blog comments. These are typically not useful so be careful to skip any feed URLs that have the word ‘comments’ in their tag.
Nearly 30% of websites are estimated to be run on Wordpress so this is a good place to start. Wordpress has RSS feeds baked in so finding them is much easier.
In fact, WordPress is so popular we have created dedicated guides for their RSS feeds. Please read the following articles for more information on WordPress RSS feeds:
WordPress.org RSS Documentation
2 More WordPress RSS Resources
HubSpot blog's have a standard url structure for their RSS feeds as well.
If you are unsure of your RSS feed URL or the above formats do not resolve to a feed contact your website support team for help locating your blog's RSS feed URL.
While WordPress powers much of the web there are several other CMS systems that are less RSS-friendly.
A quick look at the market share of most used CMS platforms reveals that Joomla, Drupal, and Magento all power significant parts of the web.
Unfortunately, these CMS systems don’t enable RSS by default which means the site operator must explicitly create or enable an RSS feed that displays some or all of the site’s content. If you know your website is running Joomla, Drupal, or Magento your best bet is to examine the source code of key pages (homepage, blog page, newsroom) and search for “RSS”.
If you are reading this and working on your own website you may need to ask your website developer to enable and/or create an RSS feed for you. Here are several steps to help you create custom RSS feeds should this be your objective.
This great video walkthrough of how to create RSS feeds in Drupal is quite helpful. It’s up-to-date (as of 2019) and illustrates how to turn any bit of Drupal content into a custom RSS feed.
For Joomla, it is recommended to install an RSS plugin such as gsRSSFeed. This plugin will make setting up an RSS feed in Joomla as simple as possible.
Step 1: Go to the RSS Feeds section on Joomla.org.
Step 2: Download gsRSSFeed or another plugin of your choosing.
Step 3: Install gsRSSFeed via the Joomla installer.
Step 4: Go to Components >> gsRSSFeed and click “New”
Step 5: Fill in the information requested. Most of these fields are self-explanatory. You can happily just give your feed a name and click save.
Magento is an online storefront CMS used for eCommerce. Magento has some great RSS functionality built-in and excellent documentation on how to create custom RSS feeds, such as:
Setting Up RSS Feeds for Magento Version 1
Settings up RSS Feeds for Magento Version 2
eCommerce RSS feeds are super useful and can be used to tell customers about new products, specials, or even automate product-filled newsletters using a tool like FeedOtter.
While not holding a significant percentage of market share, the CMS Expression Engine is one of the most popular among business websites. If you are looking for the RSS feed from a company blog or newsroom, the following tips may be helpful.
These resources will help you set up RSS for ExpressionEngine:
AEM - coming soon!
While most sites on the web have an RSS feed to help promote and syndicate their content it is not always the case. Hopefully, this guide provided some insight into where RSS feeds most commonly reside and how to set them up if you’re working on your own website and how to find an RSS feed.
