Why the RSS Feed Widget Keeps Your Website Fresh Without Extra Work

A website that never changes gives visitors no reason to come back. The RSS Feed Widget in the Website Builder automatically pulls the latest posts, news, or articles from any external source and displays them directly on your website. Every time the source publishes something new, your website updates automatically — no manual edits required. This keeps your site looking active and authoritative without adding to your workload.

Use the RSS Feed Widget to display industry news, blog posts from thought leaders in your field, or any other content your customers find valuable. You can choose the layout that fits your page design and control how many posts or lines of text appear at once. This article covers how to add the RSS Feed Widget to your website, connect a feed URL, and customize the display settings.

How to Add the RSS Feed Widget to Your Website

To add the RSS Feed Widget to your website, open the Website Builder and add the RSS Feed Widget to the page you want to edit. For step-by-step instructions on adding any widget to a page, see How to Add Widgets to Your Thryv Website.

The screenshot below shows the RSS Feed Widget being placed onto a website page inside the Website Builder. The widget appears as a placeholder block on the page canvas until a feed URL is entered in the Content Editor.

How to Connect an RSS Feed URL to the Widget

After placing the RSS Feed Widget on the page, the Content Editor opens automatically. Inside the Content Editor, enter the URL of the RSS feed you want to display in the feed URL field. The URL must be a valid RSS feed address from an external website or news source. Once the URL is entered, the widget will begin pulling content from that feed and displaying it on your page.

The screenshot below shows the Content Editor panel open after placing the RSS Feed Widget. The panel displays the feed URL input field where you enter the address of the RSS feed you want to connect. The Content Editor does not include layout or style options — those are available in the Design Editor.

How to Customize the Layout and Display Settings of Your RSS Feed

To control how the RSS feed looks on your page, click the Design tab at the top of the editor panel to open the Design Editor. Inside the Design Editor, select a layout for how feed posts are arranged on the page. The available layouts control the visual structure of the feed, such as whether posts appear as a list or a grid.

The screenshot below shows the Design Editor panel open for the RSS Feed Widget with the layout selection options visible. The layout options appear at the top of the Design Editor and determine the overall visual structure of the feed on the page.

The Design Editor also lets you adjust additional style options, including how many posts appear at once and how many lines of text are shown per post. When a visitor clicks a Read More link on any post in the feed, the link opens the full post on the original source website — not on your website. The RSS Feed Widget displays content from external feeds only and cannot be used to create or publish new posts directly on your website.

The screenshot below shows the style options section inside the Design Editor for the RSS Feed Widget. The section displays controls for the number of posts to show, the number of lines of text per post, and other visual style settings. The Read More link behavior and post count controls are both visible in this section of the Design Editor.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this article cover?

This article covers how to add the RSS Feed Widget to a page in the Website Builder, how to connect an RSS feed URL using the Content Editor, and how to customize the layout and display settings using the Design Editor. This article does not cover how to add other widget types to your website. For instructions on adding any widget to a page, see How to Add Widgets to Your Thryv Website.

Can I use the RSS Feed Widget to create or publish new posts on my website?

No. The RSS Feed Widget can only display posts pulled from an external RSS feed. The widget cannot be used to create, write, or publish new posts directly on your website. To add original written content to your website, use a text or blog widget instead.

Where do Read More links take visitors when they click them?

When a visitor clicks a Read More link on a post displayed by the RSS Feed Widget, the link opens the full post on the original source website. The visitor is taken away from your website to the external site where the post was published. The RSS Feed Widget does not display full post content on your website — only the preview as configured in the Design Editor.

How often does the RSS Feed Widget update with new content?

The RSS Feed Widget automatically pulls new content from the connected feed whenever the external source publishes new posts. The update frequency depends on how often the source RSS feed is updated — the widget does not control the publishing schedule of the external source.