How to Syndicate WordPress Content

About a decade ago, before Twitter and Facebook were the behemoths they are today, I launched, owned, and operated an emergency and disaster communications website aiming to help displaced folks reconnect to their friends and family during natural or man-made disasters.

Back in those days, I was a one-man shop doing everything from graphic design, web design, coding and programming, database management, SEO, sale and marketing, and everything else under the sun.

One of the many things I learned and perfected was the art of writing customer-centric content that engaged, educated, and entertained the customer while also commanding search ranking results with the help of syndicated content.

The now-defunct project did okay until technology got in a big hurry. Folks migrated to using the ever-advancing check-in features of Facebook and tweets to contact loved ones harmed by a disaster.

Since I built and developed the platform using WordPress, I was afforded quite a bit more extensive capability.

And although short-lived and lasting 18 months or so, one of the capability bright spots of the project was learning to syndicate content as a supplement to the content I was producing.

If you’re launching or have launched a blog, and desire to grow your blog’s reach, then syndicating content, also known as guest blogging or guest posting, might just be what the doctor ordered for your success.

Even back then, I was fortunate to have used a plugin to syndicate content from some of the best survival and preparedness blogs worldwide (of course, I had their permission to do this!).

In fact, syndicating content gave me more time to create focused content to drive greater awareness and education as it pertains to my platform’s overall experience, which led to greater subscriptions and conversions.

Today WordPress has a number of viable options for syndicating content to and from your website.

I have taken quite a bit of time to explore each option I’m presenting to you today in hopes that it helps to shorten your review cycle in finding the best-fit plugin to achieve your content syndication needs.

And although not an exhaustive list of syndication plugin options, you’ll likely discover and encounter the following options when searching for WordPress syndication plugins (enjoy!):

RSS Post Importer (recommended)

The RSS Post Importer plugin was by far the easiest to use of all the plugins I’ll share with you today. I liked that its interface was intuitive and fairly easy to set up and use shortly after installing and activating the plugin.

And although it is a FREE plugin, there are additional options to unlock. However, you must pay a nominal fee for an API key that allows for greater functionality to be accessed.

If you’re looking for an easy and quick method to syndicate content to your system without the cost and all the bells and whistles, then this is a plugin for you.

In fact, I created a tutorial video that displays just how easy it is to use the RSS Post Importer plugin.

Syndicate Press

Another plugin syndication option you may or may not find useful is the simplicity of the user experience of Syndicate Press. It’s free and simple, but its outdated user interface doesn’t always work.

Now it could be a user error on my part, but that’s highly unlikely, seeing it’s been nearly 2 years since this plugin was last updated.

But give’er a spin and see if you encounter a glitchy user interface and experience as I did. If not, then you’ll enjoy the simplicity of syndicating content.

CyberSyn

CyberSyn is a plugin that’s a step higher in terms of user experience. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this plugin for or to basic WordPress users lacking technical experience.

Although I felt the user experience was a bit more difficult than the aforementioned options, one bright spot for CyberSyn is that it allows for the syndication of YouTube feeds in addition to RSS/ATOM feeds.

So, if you want to syndicate video content, I highly recommend CyberSyn. But be ready for more advanced setup and management effort than previous syndication plugins.

FeedWordPress

Another syndication plugin option is using FeedWordPress. With it as a free plugin, it’s garnered a growing number of downloads compared to the previous syndication plugins mentioned.

Personally, I liked this plugin, but the number of settings it offers can be a bit overwhelming for a non-technical user or basic user.

When choosing this plugin to syndicate content to or from your website, I deem it a MUST-HAVE technical chops.

WP RSS Aggregator

Last but not least, a formidable competitor to FeedWordPress, WP RSS Aggregator is yet another popular plugin chosen to syndicate website content.

Although a good user experience, I don’t recommend technically-challenged folk to use this plugin as your first, middle, and last name MUST be TECH to make sense of various settings, capabilities
and add-ons.

Another downside to this plugin is that they’ve chosen to nickel-and-dime you to death to use add-on capabilities that some, if not all, have freely included (even if only for basic use).

I’m not a big fan of plugins using premium add-ons because that adds up and quite quickly!