Update: We no longer recommend using FeedBurner because it’s a dying product full of bugs. Please read this article to see why you shouldn’t use FeedBurner and find out about the alternatives.
Every major blog is using FeedBurner to burn their RSS feeds because it is a free feature rich system that you cannot turn down. FeedBurner provides statistics, feed optimization option, feed publication option and much more. Integrating FeedBurner and Google Analytics is a must for every WordPress blog. In this article, we will show you how you can setup your WordPress blog feeds with FeedBurner and use it to help take your blog to the next level.
Why FeedBurner is Important for Bloggers?
FeedBurner is a free service that is loaded with options that you do not get with the default WordPress feed. Some of the features include:
- Statistics about your RSS Subscribers so you can analyze and optimize your blog posts.
- Give your users multiple options to subscribe such as Email, and other feed-readers (Netvibes, Google etc).
- Social Proof (Subscriber count)
- Option to customize your feeds such as modify post headings, branding and more.
- Option to ping various feed-reading services once you publish your posts.
- Integrate Google Adsense to monetize your RSS feeds.
- And more…
Just with the short list of features, you can see that it is a must have for all blogs. Now we can move onto setting up the FeedBurner Account.
Setting up Your FeedBurner for WordPress feeds
First you will need to have a Google account (any gmail account will work). Visit the feedburner service page to begin this process.
In the first step, you will type the link to your WordPress Blog Feed. If you have SEO Friendly WordPress URL Structure, then your feed link should be like yourdomain.com/feed/
In step 2, you will choose the title of your Feed and the address of your feed. It is advised to keep the title of your feed the same as your blog. It is best to keep your feed address short and memorable.
Technically your feeds are created, so you don’t need to follow the steps any more. Click on the Skip directly to Feed Management.
You will see a page with a link to tons of blogging platforms. Ignore all that as we will revisit them later in this article. Just cilck on the optimize tab that you see in the image below.
In step 5, we will work on optimizing your WordPress Blog Feed. You need to make sure that you haev Browser Friendly option activated, Smart Feed activated, and FeedFlare activated. You can activate other services if you want, but these 3 services are a must have. BrowserFriendly makes subscribing much simpler. SmartFeed ensures maximum compatibility with all feed reader applications. FeedFlare builds interactivity into posts by adding email this and other sharing options.
In step 6, we will take a look at all the publicize options for the feed. You need to allow Email Subscriptions on your site because there are users who prefer to get email updates rather than using Google reader. Pingshot must be activated because it notifies services when you post. Feedcount widget lets you show off your subscriber count. It is one of the best social proof methods. Awareness API comes handy if you are trying to list yourself on sites like BuySellAds because they can extract your subscriber count easily. There other snazzy options like Headline Animator, BuzzBoost that you can activate if you like.
Monetizing your feed is another good features of FeedBurner except it only allows you to use Google Adsense. So sign up with Google Adsense and follow their direction.
Once you have done all the above steps, you can click on the Analyze tab. Most likely you will see a screen like the one below because the stats are not recorded. Give it up to 24 hours and you will start seeing numbers there. Use the subscriber count, clicks and other useful data to improve your blog. See what your users like and don’t like with this stas, and then focus on the type of posts that your users like and enjoy.
Integrate FeedBurner into WordPress
Even though you have setup your feed with FeedBurner in the steps above, but you have not yet really integrated it with WordPress yet. First thing you want to do is stop diluting your feed and make it one. You need to create a redirect, so when users try to visit yourdomain.com/feed/ they are redirected to your feedburner feed page. This way you can keep track of the subscribers on your blog.
There is a plugin called FD FeedBurner which lets you create this redirect easily. You can also redirect your feeds using .htaccess file, but we will not be sharing that method because it is not something we recommend for beginners.
Most WordPress Themes are now coming with FeedBurner integration such as Headway Theme, Standard Theme, and others. If your theme is not compatible, then use the plugin above.
Add the Email Subscribe Box on your site
First visit Publicize » Email Subscriptions then copy and paste the code they give you in the template file that you like (mostly sidebar.php). Remember to customize the look of your email form, you would need to have prior knowledge of HTML and CSS.
If your blog does not have FeedBurner feeds, then get it right now.
subbareddy
Nice info almost spended 30 minutes here by configuring my feed Burner
Thanks
Aakash
I tried to burn the feeds. However I am getting an error.
When I burn the feed I get this error –
The URL does not appear to reference a valid XML file. We encountered the following problem: Error on line 97: The markup in the document following the root element must be well-formed.
What seems to be the problem ? I can’t figure it out.
Roee
Thank you very much.
This was easy and quick to follow.
No way I could make this by myself
Have a good day.
Farah
Hi! So I’m a total newbie at this, and I’m being driven crazy! My website is a food blog composed of mainly two parts: restaurant reviews (written as posts) and recipe (Written as recipes in my premium food and cook theme). My posts have all of jetpack/feedburner options applied to them, as in the comment box under posts, and email notification when I update posts (Restaurant reviews). However, if I add a new recipe, no email notification goes out, and my rss feed doesn’t show recipes at all it only shows restaurant reviews. I tried to add a seperate rss feed for the recipe category and it didn’t work. I know this is confusing but I’d greatly appreciate any help!!
website: http://www.everylittlecrumb.com
rss feed: http://everylittlecrumb.com/feed/
WPBeginner Support
Farah it seems like recipes on your site are a custom post type and are not part of you main feed. See how to add custom post types to your site’s main rss feed. https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-custom-post-types-to-your-main-wordpress-rss-feed/
Admin
martin
Hey:)
First of all, no need to say but great tutorial like always:) It is all working just that I don’t have the monetize tab to integrate google adsense. Do I have to sign up with adsense first in order for it to appear or what should I do?
Thanks in advance:)
Martin
shah
Hi everybody please help me , i have WordPress site and i have used custom post ( plugin ) so when i create feeds it takes my posts from Word press default posts while i want to see my custom plugin posts in feeds , can you help me ?? please ???
Thanks
WPBeginner Support
You can try this code in your theme’s functions.php file:
function wpb_custom_rss_feed( $output, $feed ) { if ( strpos( $output, 'comments' ) ) return $output; return esc_url( 'http://www.yoursite.com/feed/?post_type=your_custom_post_type' ); } add_action( 'feed_link', 'wpb_custom_rss_feed', 10, 2 );1-click Use in WordPress
Don’t forget to replace the URL with the URL of your custom post type feed URL.
Admin
Patrick M
NoIndex or Index? Which is the best practice for Search engines when dealing with feedburner
Anil
I have been trying to burn my feed, but its not working… after providing my blog address its saying
FeedBurner discovered more than one feed at that address. Please select one to use as your source:
***** » Feed: http://www.*****.com/feed/
***** » Comments Feed: http://www.*****.com/comments/feed/
Looking forward for your help….
WPBeginner Support
Select
http://example.com/feed/
and then repeat the process to burn your comments feed
Admin
Angie
That was really useful, thanks a lot!
Iana
Thanks for this tutorial!! Really well done! I was just wondering if you could answer this. My post images aren’t showing up. Instead its a little grey box. Any idea’s on how to show the post image? Is it necessary to have it other then for aesthetics??
Leo
Thanks! Finally got feedburner up and running on my site! =)
Rick
How do you separate feeds by different category posts?
For example, if I have 2 categories: one titled “dogs” and one titled “cats”.
Currently, when a reader subscribes to my feed, it will email them whenever a story is written about a “dog” or a “cat” (the feed includes all category types and all posts on the entire site).
I’d like for the subscribers to only receive (via email) the stories about “dogs” (or a specific category)….how do I set it up this way?
Thanks for the advice, Rick
WPBeginner Support
Check out our guide on how to allow users to subscribe to categories in WordPress.
Admin
Manas
Hey thanks a lot… this was quite a lot informative. No wonder i had to scroll so much to post my comment.
Paige
I am switching from Blogger to Wordpress and I’m getting the message “URI is already taken” and it if from my Blogger page, which I didn’t know I had set up. Can you help?
WPBeginner Support
We think you are talking about WordPress.com ? Well this is one of the limitations of a free WordPress.com account. See our guide on WordPress.com vs Self Hosted WordPress sites. As for your problem, you can contact WordPress.com support.
Admin
Daniel
Hi, wpbeginner. I have a problem trying to sign up for feedburner using my url. I have tried many different url links to sign up but it still says that the url is wrong. I have installed wordpress and i am using Duena template. Can you please help me out to try to figure out what is the problem.
WPBeginner Support
Try temporarily switching to a default theme like Twenty Twelve and then submit your feed. If it works, then there is something wrong with your theme and you should contact the Theme Author for support.
Admin
Kristin Gordley
Thank you for this wonderful information. I successfully signed up with feedburner for my RSS feed and email signup link. Then it occurred to me…will I lose the email subscribers that I had on my old wordpress email sign up link?
somesh
thanks a million …i’ll recommend this post to everyone because it elaborate How to enable feeds for Wordpress website very easily . But, now there is no tab available for monetization
Mike
Appreciate the learning tools you offered. I am on a learning path with WordPress.
Understanding how tools like Feedburner work elude me and hoping you can clarify one particular point.
My beginner site (on a topic I know very little about – but one assigned to me) has several pages with ‘feeds’ related to the site. These change automatically on a regular basis. I believe I have ‘RSS’ feeds setup correctly. However, as those change I am left with ‘dead’ links on the site. The feeds also take a user to an external site without a return to my site.
My thought is using a tool like Feedburner might allow for the updating and keeping visitors on my site.
If it helps, the site is
Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Thank you again for the link to the WP tools. Those are next on my list to check out.
Best regards,
Mike
Explorista
Hi! Thanks for all of your great content. I’ve found it very helpful so far. I do have a problem with setting up a feed in Feedburner. When in step 1 I type my URL into the box, it simply won’t accept it. I’ve tried all sorts of variations, with /feed/ behind it and so on. Could this be due to the fact that there are no blogposts on my site yet? I wanted to set everything up first, before I started posting blogs…
WPBeginner Support
you can add a hello world or coming soon post and then test.
Admin
Explorista
Thanks, I tried it with a test post, but still doesn’t work unfortunately
it says: the URL does not seem to reference a valid XML file. Or it simple says it ‘not found’ ‘while fetching source feed.
Didi
Hi Syed,
Please, I need your help because nobody know why not register correctly the count I installed on my culinary blog (http://dulceiutesarat.wordpress.com).
The problem is it still register just one subscribe for a long time and I checked registering myself with 3 different gmail addreses but display just one and I think I get from a visitor this one. Don’t work properly.
Have you a suggestion what I have to do?
Maybe a alternative for free count, not from FeedBurner?
Thank you so much for the answer.
WPBeginner Support
your blog is hosted on WordPress.com please see the difference between Self Hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com. However, we think you can still display your feedburner count in a WordPress.com site please contact WordPress.com support.
Admin
didi
Thank you for the answer! … I deleted FeedBurner because I find …finally …in widget count hits. Is my first blog, I didn’t know how is working, settings ….I learn step by step and every day I find something new
Best regards!
Beth
I used feedburner to customize my Google Calendar feed. The only issue I can’t seem to get rid of is the line that says: ‘status event confirmed’. I was hoping you might have an answer that would help. Thanks!
http://feeds.feedburner.com/davisms
Stuart Mackey
I didn’t understand why I needed feedburner instead of the plain wordpress rss until I read this. The clincher for me is “Statistics about your RSS Subscribers so you can analyze and optimize your blog posts.”
Reyansh
great article.thank u.
Don Hutchinson
Do I need feedburner on each page or post of my site or does cover all changes o in my entire site
If so jow do I arrange it to cover all postings
Muhammad saleem
Hi
A validate error is occuring for my blog. what to do?
heather
I’ve read that “feed burner is dying”. Does that imply that Google will no longer be supporting it? What is going on with feedburner and should I be concerned?
Christian
Just implemented this on my new wordpress blog. Thank you so much for the info.
Rajdeep Mukherjee
Thanks a ton…your article was extremely helpful for our blog…As a beginner we had no idea about this, but now we have managed it by the help of your article…..Thanks again..
Tamara
Thank you very much! I am hoping you can assist me with a problem I have run across with my moms blog. We set up her feed, her website is deliciouslyinspired.com, and it looks like it is working but we can never see her images on bloglovin. We have tried everything. Any ideas?
Thank you.
Editorial Staff
Not sure. Never used bloglovin.
Admin
Vivian
You always have very clear and easy to follow tutorials! I did able to set up a feedburner, but I would like to set up a second one w/ same google account but different feedburner url (for different website). How do I do this? I have looked everywhere, but can’t find a solution. Thank you.
Editorial Staff
When you login to your Feedburner, there is a field that says Burn a feed right this instant. Enter your new feed there and follow the process.
Admin
rolanstein
Hi. I wonder if you would mind explaining something about Feedburner that has been puzzling me. I’ve spent hours googling for answers and found none.
I used to have my WP blog hosted as a subdomain of one of my other websites, before migrating it to its own dedicated domain. When I log into Feedburner, it seems I still have feeds and subscribers connected to the old sub-domain URL. In fact, in all, I have 3 listed Feedburner feeds showing, all under the title of my blog, and each with different numbers of subscribers.
For each of the 3 listings, the blog title is the same (ie: my blog title), but the ‘original feed’ and ‘feed address’ are different in each case.
Should I should delete the two Feedburner feeds that relate to the old subdomain address, do you think? Would I lose subscribers if I did?
Feedburner is showing that there are still subscribers on those old feeds. Would this be because they are automatically re-directed to the new URL and therefore continue to be able to receive newly posted blog articles through their Feedburner subscriptions?
I’d be most appreciative if you could help me understand what is going on with these 3 feeds, and what to do to reduce them to one, relating to my current blog address but without losing subscribers.
Cheers!
rolanstein
Ray
How does this all fit in with Google’s RSS reader going away ??
see here >> http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/13/the-google-reader-shutdown-is-yet-another-nail-in-feedburners-coffin/
Editorial Staff
Not sure what you are speculating there. Blogs like TechCrunch make their living by writing catchy headlines
Yes sure FeedBurner might go away, but we will cross that bridge when we get to it.
Admin
Bryan Rainey
Great tutorial. Just to keep things current, your reference to the plugin “FeedBurner FeedSmith” is no longer available.
Keep up the good work.
Bryan
Editorial Staff
Thanks Bryan. Just updated that with a new plugin
Admin
sam
At last, I understand!! Thanks so much ….wish I’d found you sooner!
Kyong
Great post! Thanks!
roopa
i have set up rss for my blog but can i’m not able how to give category so that user can tick mark like you have done for wpbeginner. i dont want every user will get all news.
Editorial Staff
Our newsletter is not handled via feedburner. We wrote a tutorial explaining how to do that here:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-a-daily-and-weekly-email-newsletter-in-wordpress/
Admin
Monica Pruett
I just moved from blogger to WP and am trying to transfer my feed burner subscribers from one blog to the other. I have tried every possible combination and still have not managed to move my subscribers. Please help. I’m at happy and blessed home dot com (no spaces). Thanks!
Tom Kaczocha
Fantastic post. Very informative.
Some feedback: try to separate your text from text screenshots in some way. Bit hard to read.
Heidi
Thanks for this great tutorial. Is there a way to include the featured image from a post in the feed? I get my blog’s feed in my email box, but there is no picture included. I get emails from other sites that do include pictures. Are they using something else?
Editorial Staff
Yes it is possible. Follow this tutorial:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-add-post-thumbnail-to-your-wordpress-rss-feeds/
Admin
Alyce
Thank you so much for this article. This takes some of the mystery (and fear) out of setting up a feed. I just set up my first site so I can use all the help I can get!
Alan Boyd
Excellent Post. This made my feedburner sign up a breeze. I mostly use Genesis and most child themes have the feedburner subscribe widget built in. Thanks again.
Bethany
Wow, thanks so much for this. I’ve been struggling with RSS subscription management for weeks now. I’m so grateful I found your post–I’m all set now! You guys are awesome.
John Lee Dumas
Thank you! It is surprising how few step by step tutorials there are, but this is the only one you’ll need! Do you still recommend Feedburner Feedsmith as the best plugin to use, or has a better one come along recently? Thanks!
Editorial Staff
Most theme frameworks now let you redirect your /feed/ URL. We don’t know if there is a new plugin that has come along.
Admin
Abbi
Please help! if i put the Feedburner details it comes out in the widget perfectly but in the setting of the theme, no luck!
wpbeginner
It could be a theme problem. Which theme are you using?
TVDinner
Thanks for the great article. Question – when does your Readers number adjust? Is it daily? For example I had 60 confirmed people sign up today for my feedburner feed and the reader number on the site has not gone up or changed. When does this typically happen? Thank you in advance.
wpbeginner
@TVDinner I think it updates daily.
SBlasnik
How do I add a second blog that I do not own but that I manage to my existing feedburner account. This blog needs everything setup from scratch including a Subscriber Box Widget in the sidebar. I need to manage 2 blogs independent of each other.
Thanks
wpbeginner
@SBlasnik You just say Burn another feed.
RedFox Magazine
How is your feedburner showing full summary, i tried everything but still not showing, only the title of the post is showing.. please help
wpbeginner
Settings > Reading (there is an option in there)If only your titles are showing, then it could be something wrong with one of the plugins or theme functions.
Silly Mummy
How come i didnt see all these steps when I created my feed?
ClickTom
Many thanks for the article. Now that WP has integrated subscriptions in Jetpack, is Feedburner still better due to its google integration (adwords)? Any advice as to how else they differ?
DiverseBeauty
Thanks a lot for the step by step guide, my feed wasn’t working and I followed your steps, it helped greatly. Thank you
KellyGallagher
Thanks for this tutorial! It definitely made the process easy to do. One quick question though…Everything seems to be working fine but the posts in my feed don’t have any titles at all. Did I miss something about how to title posts? I went back through and did everything again and its still the same. My feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/familytreehelper Thanks in advance, Kelly