How to embed an RSS feed on any website

An example of an RSS feed embed for a website

Are you looking to display RSS feeds on a website? Here's how you can embed RSS feeds into popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and others.

Brands often have multiple websites to cater to different audiences and showcase their different offerings. For instance, major sports and athletic wear brands Nike has subdomains like Nike SB, Nike SNKRS, and Nike Training Club to cater to different audience interests apart from its primary domain.

But how can you ensure your website visitors never miss the latest news and updates on your offerings, regardless of the website domain they visit?

By embedding RSS feeds in these websites. RSS feeds help you put together the latest updates, news or blog posts from all these websites (even third-party ones) in one place: your website. And here’s the best part, you can do it easily and in under five minutes using a social media aggregator like Flocker.

In this blog, we discuss how to embed an RSS feed in your website using Flockler.

But before we begin, let’s get to the basics.

Why do brands add RSS feeds to websites?

An RSS feed, short for Really Simple Syndication, stores information about every piece of content a website has published as XML files. By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can access the latest content on any website without visiting it manually. Here are some other benefits of adding an RSS feed to your websites.

1. Showcase diverse content in one place

If your website has multiple subdomains for the latest news, blogs, etc., you can use RSS feeds to consolidate relevant content from them on your main website. This way, you can ensure that your visitors don’t miss out on the latest and relevant content you put out.

On top of that, you can also display content from other websites on topics relevant to your audience using an RSS feed. This helps you cover more diverse content categories and provide more value to your visitors in a cost-effective way.

2. Updated content every time

With RSS feeds added to your website, you never have to worry about stale and outdated content. Every time a new piece of content gets added to a website, the RSS feed linked to it also gets updated. With relevant content on your websites, people are more likely to spend more time and engage with your websites.

You can also add RSS feeds to your intranet websites to display the latest news to your employees in an engaging way.

3. More visitors and increased user engagement

Boring and text-heavy websites won’t make the cut anymore. Adding a visually appealing RSS feed to your website will hook your readers and urge them to spend more time on it.

You can also take it a step further by combining RSS feeds with other social media feeds like Instagram or Facebook to make your websites more interesting. You can do this easily with Flockler.

Here’s an example from the New Zealand National Cricket team on how they use Flockler to embed feeds from different social media channels together:

An example of combining RSS feeds on a website with other content

3-Step guide to quickly add RSS feeds on a website

Manually adding an RSS feed to a website is a time-consuming process that requires the help of a website developer. You’ll need to create XML files, upload them to the website’s server, add the RSS link to the website’s HTML, and validate and promote them.

But you can skip all this using social media aggregators like Flockler. With tools like Flockler, you can easily add RSS feeds to any website in under 5 minutes.

Here’s a three-step guide on how to embed RSS feeds on any website using Flockler:

  1. Aggregate RSS feeds with Flockler
  2. Select the RSS feed layout
  3. Add RSS feed to your website, intranet, and digital screens

1. Aggregate RSS feeds with Flockler

Log in to your Flockler account. If you haven’t signed up for Flockler yet, create a free account now. After logging in, you can add RSS feeds via the 'Automated Feeds' tab. Start by selecting 'RSS' from the available options.

Selecting RSS as a source on the Flockler platform
On the Flockler app, you can combine content from social media and RSS feeds and display all content feeds in one place.

Next, add the RSS feed URL to Flockler. Website builders like WordPress have RSS available out of the box. For custom-built websites, check with your website developer to find the RSS feed URL.

Adding the RSS feed URL to Flockler app

If the RSS URL is valid, Flockler generates a preview of your content. If you are satisfied with the outcome, click ‘Create RSS feed.’

A preview of the RSS news feed for websites

The final step is to choose whether the content should be moderated before posting or if it can be added to the feed without review. You can opt for ‘Display Automatically’ if the content in your feed is mostly from your subdomains.

However, if you happen to gather content from third parties and curate the feed, saving for moderation makes sense. Even if you display it automatically, you can always hide unwanted items later.

Moderation options on the Flockler app

2. Select the RSS feed layout

Flockler allows you to display your RSS feed in various layouts, such as a Social Wall, Grid, Carousel, or Slideshow. You can also create an unlimited number of layouts and add RSS feeds to websites, apps, and digital signage.

Choosing the RSS feed layout on the Flockler app

3. Add RSS feed to your website, intranet, and digital screens

The last step is to add your RSS feed to website HTML on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and to any other digital services.

After selecting the layout, you will get an RSS feed embed code. Next, click 'Edit style & settings' to customize the look & feel of the RSS widget to match your brand.

An RSS feed embed code example

For digital signage solutions, you can use the Preview URL provided by Flockler and show the news feed with a browser. For a website, copy the code and embed it on any page. Flockler’s embed codes are responsive and automatically fit the area available.

Here’s an example of Samsung’s RSS feed with the Wall layout:

RSS feed example for Samsung

How to embed an RSS feed in different digital platforms

While it is easy to embed RSS feeds into any Content Management System (CMS), the steps to be followed vary slightly with each platform. In this section, we talk about how to embed RSS feeds to Wordpress, Squarespace, Wix, Shopify and Webflow websites.


How to add an RSS feed to WordPress

Once you generate the embed code for the RSS feed, install Flockler's WordPress plugin. You can embed the code for the Wordpress RSS feed using:

  1. Wordpress Elementor Editor

How to add RSS feed to Squarespace

You need Squarespace's Business plan subscription to add an RSS feed to Squarespace. Here are the steps you should follow after you generate the embed code from Flockler:

How to add RSS feed to Wix

You can add an RSS feed to a Wix website in two ways:

How to add RSS feed to Shopify websites

You can add an RSS feed to your Shopify Homepage, Collection page, or even individual pages. Here’s how:

  • Once you generate the embed code, head to Shopify’s homepage to edit the theme layout.

  • Go to Themes, click Actions, and select Edit code.

  • Go to Sections and click ‘Add a new section’. Give it a name (e.g., flockler), and an editor opens up.

  • In the editor, replace the "Section name" with "flockler". Also, replace everything after {% endschema %} with Flockler’s RSS feed embed code.

  • Save changes, scroll up the list to Templates, and click index.json.

  • When the editor opens, add the following snippet inside sections at the top:

"flockler": {

"type": "flockler"

},

To add RSS feeds to the Collection or Product page, edit the ‘collections.json’ or ‘product.json’ template and repeat the same steps.

To showcase the RSS feed on any individual Shopify page, go to the 'Text Editor' on the respective page, click on Show HTML and add Flockler's RSS feed embed code anywhere in the text.

How to add RSS feed to Webflow

Adding an RSS feed to a Webflow website is easy and can be done in less than a few minutes. Here’s how:

Wrapping Up

Adding an RSS feed to your websites is the easiest way to improve engagement and urge visitors to spend more time on your websites. It is also a great way to give more value to your readers in one place.

So, if you haven’t already embedded an RSS feed on your website, sign up for Flockler’s free trial now and embed RSS feeds on WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, and any other website.

FAQs

  • An RSS feed, short for Really Simple Indication, stores information about every single piece of content a website has published as XML files. By subscribing to RSS feeds, you can access the latest content on any given website without having to visit it manually.
  • How to add an RSS feed to my website?

    Here’s how you can add RSS feeds to websites using Flocker:
    1. Aggregate RSS feeds with Flockler

    2. Select the RSS feed layout

    3. Add RSS feed to your website, intranet, and digital screens

  • What are the benefits of adding an RSS feed to your website?

    Here are some of the benefits of adding an RSS feed to your website: 
    1. Showcase diverse content in one place: By adding RSS feeds to your websites, you can add diverse content from various sources, like your subdomains, in one place.
    2. Updated content every time: Your website's RSS feed is updated every time a new piece of content is added to it. This means you never have to worry about showcasing outdated or stale content on your websites.
    3. More visitors and increased user engagement: Visually appealing and relevant content on your website will encourage visitors to engage and spend more time on your website.

With Flockler, you can gather and display social media feeds from your favourite channels. See the full list of supported content types and sources

Flockler helps marketers like you to create social media feeds and display user-generated content on any digital service. Keep your audience engaged and drive sales.

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