How To Solve Common Blog Or RSS Import Issues

Importing from RSS feeds lets you regularly bring in great content directly into SmarterQueue, to schedule to your social media profiles! That said, sometimes you need to slightly tweak the blog address or RSS feed in order for SmarterQueue to be able to import its posts.

Here’s how importing from RSS feeds works and what you need to do in order to troubleshoot common issues that can come up with RSS. 🛠

How Does the "Import From RSS" Feature Work?

Importing from an RSS feed normally requires that you know the exact RSS URL and that you specifically enter it to set up the automated import.

At SmarterQueue, we wanted to go a step further in helping our customers work out how to retrieve their desired content. To do so, we've made the 'Import from RSS' feature look into the entered page's metatags, to detect the RSS feed from the blog or news site URL that you enter.

This can sometimes be tricky, as the feature won't find anything if you enter a general website URL instead of the one for the blog, or if the blog's RSS feed isn't included in its metatags.

How To Add An RSS Feed To Your Website

If you're trying to import content from your own website/blog, which you host and can edit yourself, you can make sure to add an RSS feed to it by adding the appropriate metatags to its header (between the <head> and </head> tags).

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Subscribe to What's New" href="http://your-site.com/your-feed.rss" />

Note: If your blog is using ATOM instead of RSS, use this version instead:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Subscribe to What's New" href="http://www.your-site.com/blog/wp-atom.php" />

How To Troubleshoot Common Issues With RSS

Issues With The URL You Are Entering

If you’re entering the URL of your blog’s main web page, and are getting an error that we couldn’t find an RSS feed at that URL, it means that the blog isn’t configured correctly.

If you manage the blog yourself, you should make sure that the correct metatag is added to the HTML/template, which links to the RSS feed for the blog. We will then be able to auto-detect this metatag, and find the RSS feed for the blog.

If the blog is not one you manage, you may try these tips to find the RSS feed. If there is still no RSS feed for the blog, then, unfortunately, you will not be able to import content automatically, and should use our Chrome Extension or browser Bookmarklet to share each page individually.

Issues With The URL Of An RSS Feed

You may find that some RSS feeds don’t work when you try to import them.

Usually, this is because the feeds contain invalid formatting, which doesn’t conform to the RSS standard.

Currently, SmarterQueue can only process valid RSS feeds.

If you’re having problems with one of your own blog feeds, you may wish to check if it’s valid using the W3C Feed Validator – you may be able to fix the feed content, so that your posts can be imported.

Note: Not all feeds are RSS! If your feed doesn’t seem to work, check whether your site is using an ATOM feed by adding ".atom" to the end of your blog link. SmarterQueue will work with ATOM feeds once identified by adding ".atom" to the end. You can also consult your website's documentation or support for more details.

If your RSS feed is valid, please contact us with details of the feed URL.

Issues With Multiple Feeds

If your website has multiple feeds, then you'll need to provide the specific feed URL for SmarterQueue to import the content you're looking for.

This is common if you use a WordPress site and take advantage of their category functionality, as each category will have a different RSS feed.

To find the right RSS feed for the category you want to import from:

Navigate to your category page: Go to the specific category page on your WordPress site. This can usually be done by clicking on a category link from a post or looking it up from the category list.
Find the link for the category: Once you are on the specific category page, copy the link for it.
Use the link with an added Feed suffix: Add the specific link in Find Content followed by /feed (simply add the suffix to the end of the URL in the).

This way you can use each specific feed link to import the content of that Category.

Don't forget to save each feed as an Auto Importer so that you don't have to search for them each time you publish a new entry that needs to become amazing social media posts 💪