Have you ever noticed how the most successful content websites consistently feature fresh and relevant material? Here’s a little secret: they don’t create every piece of content from scratch.
Through assisting hundreds of WordPress bloggers, we’ve discovered that effective content curation is often the secret ingredient to maintaining a steady flow of content.
Additionally, we have tested various content curation tools and guided many users in implementing them successfully.
In this article, we will reveal the precise methods and tools you need to automate content curation in WordPress.
What Is Content Curation and How to Execute It Effectively?
Content curation is an intelligent approach to keep your website filled with valuable insights without having to create all the content yourself.
It involves collecting and sharing selected content from multiple sources, offering users a centralized location for high-quality information.
For example, if you operate a membership site, you can create a section where users can access industry news from external sources.
Alternatively, you might want to display the best sports highlights from various sources on your website.
Another example could be a WordPress multisite where you aim to curate content from all the different sites within the network.
For instance, Awesome Motive, the parent company of CanadaCreate and several other brands, showcases news from its various brands on its official website.
In addition to authentic use cases, there are also websites dedicated to sharing content from external sources using automated blogging tools.
How to Curate Content While Avoiding Copyright Issues and SEO Penalties
While content curation can significantly enhance your website by introducing new insights, it’s crucial to do so responsibly. Here are some important considerations for effective content curation.
First, provide appropriate attribution. Always acknowledge the original source when sharing content. This includes linking back to the source, including a brief excerpt, and using images with the necessary permissions.
Using content without proper attribution or permission can result in copyright infringement claims.
Second, steer clear of plagiarism. Avoid copying entire articles without authorization. Instead, create a summary and link to the complete article.
Search engines may penalize websites that engage in plagiarism, marking them as low quality. Recovering from a Google search penalty can be quite challenging.
This could also lead to significant legal issues, potentially resulting in financial consequences.
Many websites are cluttered with spammy blogs that exploit content curation tools to create auto-blogs and generate revenue through advertisements. This approach is risky due to potential financial and legal repercussions, and it is not sustainable over time.
However, let’s explore how to effectively implement automatic content curation in WordPress while steering clear of copyright and SEO pitfalls.
Effective Implementation of Automatic Content Curation in WordPress
The simplest way to curate content on your WordPress site is by utilizing the RSS feeds block.
To get started, edit the post or page where you want to showcase curated content and add the RSS block to your content area.
In the block settings, input the RSS feed URL from the content source you wish to display.
WordPress will then retrieve the feed and present it on your site. You can customize its appearance, including excerpts, author names, and publication dates, using the block settings.
A drawback of this method is that you’ll need to add an RSS feed for each source individually.
This process can be time-consuming and may not provide an appealing experience for users.
What if you could automate the entire process, integrate various sources, and even categorize the content?
Let’s explore how to effectively automate the entire content curation process.
Automatically Curating Content in WordPress Using RSS Feeds
Begin by installing and activating the Feedzy plugin.
This plugin, developed by ThemeIsle, simplifies the process of automatically fetching fresh content from external websites, ensuring your site remains updated without any manual work.
Feedzy also offers a premium version with additional features, but for this tutorial, we will focus on the free version.
To get started with Feedzy, install and activate the plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.
After activating the plugin, navigate to the Feedzy » Feed Categories page and click the ‘Add Feed Category’ button located at the top.
On the following screen, enter a title for your new category.
Below the title, input the URLs of the RSS feeds you wish to include, separating each URL with a comma.
Once done, click the ‘Publish’ button to save your feed category.
If you need to create additional categories, repeat this process.
Importing Curated Content from Feeds into Your WordPress Site
Feedzy allows you to import blog posts directly from RSS feeds into your WordPress blog.
This means they will be saved in your WordPress database just like standard posts, giving you the flexibility to manage the curated content in various ways.
You can skip this step if you prefer not to import them to your WordPress site.
To start importing blog posts, simply navigate to the Feedzy » Import Posts page and click the ‘New Import’ button located at the top.
First, you need to enter a name for this import. Choose a name that helps you easily identify it.
Below that, you can add specific RSS feeds or select from the feed categories you created previously.
Next, scroll down to the ‘Map Content’ section.
Here, you can map items from the RSS feed to the settings for your WordPress blog posts.
For example, you can select which category to assign to all imported posts.
You can click the ‘Insert Tag’ button to link a Feed element to a post element. For instance, you can designate the Item Description as the Post content.
Next, scroll down to the General Settings section.
From here, you can decide how many posts you wish to import.
Finally, click the ‘Save & Activate Importing’ button to apply your changes.
You will be redirected to the imports page, where you can view the import you just created. Click the ‘Run Now’ button to begin importing posts.
The plugin will now retrieve and import posts, adding them to your WordPress website in the background.
Once the import is complete, refresh the page to view the import statistics.
Feedzy will automatically gather new posts from your content sources and import them to your WordPress site.
How to Display Curated Content in WordPress
Now that you have established an automated import system for your curated content, the next step is to showcase it on your website.
There are various methods to display curated content in WordPress using Feedzy feeds. Let’s explore them one by one.
Method 1: Display Content Using Feedzy RSS Feeds Block
This method is ideal if you choose not to import content directly to your WordPress site.
Simply edit the post or page where you want to showcase the curated content and add the Feedzy RSS Feeds block to your content area.
You can enter a feed URL to display or select one of the feed categories you created earlier.
Next, use the block settings panel to customize the number of items, style, and other settings for the feed.
After completing your edits, remember to save or publish your post and page.
You can now preview your curated content to see how it looks.
Method 2: Display Imported Content in WordPress
This approach offers greater flexibility, but it requires you to import content directly into your WordPress site.
Simply edit the post or page where you want to showcase the curated content. In the post edit screen, add the Latest Posts block to your content area.
By default, this block will show your latest articles in a simple list format. You can modify this in the block settings.
From this menu, you can select options to display an excerpt, featured image, number of items, and more.
You can also change the view from list to gallery, adjust the number of columns, or filter to show only posts from a specific category.
For example, if you categorized all imported content under ‘Industry News,’ you can easily display that category as your curated content.
Once you’re done, save or publish your post/page and preview it in a new browser tab.
Here’s how it appeared on our demo website.
Using either of these methods will automatically showcase the latest posts from your content sources.
Bonus Tip: Curating Social Media Content in WordPress
Have you ever considered curating content from social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook?
The simplest method to curate social media content in WordPress is by utilizing the Smash Balloon plugin.
Smash Balloon is the top-rated social media plugin for WordPress, enabling you to elegantly showcase social media feeds on your website. Explore our comprehensive review of Smash Balloon to understand its full capabilities.
To get started, install and activate the Smash Balloon plugin. For detailed instructions, refer to our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.
Smash Balloon offers individual plugins tailored for various social media feeds.
You can also purchase the ‘All Access Bundle,’ which includes all of their plugins along with social wall plugins that merge multiple social feeds into one.
Once activated, you can begin linking your social media accounts and configuring the feeds you wish to display.
Follow the on-screen prompts to set up each feed.
You can connect to your social media profiles, third-party sources, search terms, hashtags, playlists, and more.
To retrieve the desired content, you may need to connect your social media account and grant Smash Balloon access to your information.
Repeat this process to link all your social media accounts.
After setting up your social media feed, you can copy the shortcode from the feeds page.
Next, insert the shortcode into a post, page, or sidebar widget.
Now, visit your website to see your social feed in action.
You can also create a social wall to merge different feeds and display them together.
Simply navigate to the Smash Balloon » Create a Social Wall page and copy the shortcode displayed on the screen.
You can then add this shortcode to any WordPress post, page, or sidebar widget where you wish to showcase your curated social feed.
Here’s how it appeared on our test website.
For further information, check out our tutorial on adding social media feeds in WordPress.
Bonus: Expert Tips for Effective Automatic Content Curation
We hope this article has helped you understand how to curate content in WordPress. If you’re interested, explore these resources to boost your content strategy:
- How to Implement Content Upgrades in WordPress to Grow Your Email List
- Ultimate Guide to Safeguarding Your Content in WordPress
- Top News Aggregator Websites and How to Create Your Own
- Beginner’s Guide to Preventing Content Scraping on Your WordPress Blog
- Expert Recommendations for the Best Content Protection Plugins for WordPress
- Top Dynamic Content Plugins for WordPress: Expert Recommendations
Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress tutorials, and connect with us on Twitter and Facebook!
