Some people may think RSS feeds are dead, but they are still used by a lot of different services. Though slightly diminished in popularity, RSS feeds are used by many to track their favourite websites or to send the latest post as the newsletter to their users. Unfortunately, WordPress does not include featured image in RSS feeds even after you enable the post thumbnails support. Now we will share with you 2 ways to add featured image in RSS feed.
Method -1: Add Featured Image in RSS Feed With Free Plugin
This method is helpful to those who are not comfortable with coding. So as usual with WordPress, you have a plugin for this task. In this article, we will use the plugin Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More.
Step 1
Install the Featured Images in RSS plugin from WordPress repository
Step 2
Click “Settings” in the WordPress dashboard and then “Featured Images in RSS Feeds.” Choose the size of your featured image and the alignment. The default sizes are thumbnail, medium and large.
That’s it! Your WordPress RSS feed will now have images embedded. You can also use plugins like WP RSS Aggregator or RSS Aggregator by Feedzy.
Also read: Fix for WordPress Not Sending Emails Issue
Method 2: Add Featured Image in RSS Feed Without Plugin
You can choose this method if you are comfortable editing your theme files. Please make a backup of your files before you make any edits.
Step 1
Go to theme editor (Dashboard > Appearance > Editor)
Step 2
Select and open the “functions.php” of your WordPress theme
Step 3
Go to the “functions.php” file and paste the following code and save it.
Your feeds will now include images.
If you are using a plugin such as Code Snippets to manage your site’s codes, you can add the above code without editing the functions.php file.
Confirming Images in RSS Feeds
After you have tried either of the above two methods, don’t forget to test to see if it works. You can visit any RSS Preview websites to test it or preview your RSS feed in Firefox or IE to view them.
But if you test it in Google Chrome, you won’t see any images making it difficult for you to verify if you have successfully added images to your feeds. If you are using Google Chrome, you can install the RSS Subscription Extension (by Google) extension to view the feeds visually.
Conclusion
We hope we have helped you to add featured images to your WordPress feeds. Do let us know if you are successful and which method you used. If you like more such WordPress tips, please subscribe to our Newsletter. We promise to keep you abreast of all things WordPress!