How do I set up an RSS feed in Webflow?

Turn on RSS 2.0 for one Collection

RSS lets someone subscribe to new Collection items in a reader app, or pull those items into a tool such as MailChimp or Zapier. Webflow can build an RSS 2.0 feed for any CMS Collection, such as blog posts, news, or recipes. The feed is off until you enable it on that Collection's page.

Open the Pages panel. Hover the Collection page you want to share, such as Blog Posts Template. Click the settings icon and scroll to RSS Feed Settings. Turn Enable RSS 2.0 feed on. A second Collection, such as events, stays without a feed until you repeat this on its template.

Map the channel and each item

Reader apps need a channel name and a short description of the whole feed, plus a title, description, and date on every item. Fill these fields, then save:

• Channel Title: the name people see in a reader, usually the site or blog name.
• Channel Description: what this feed covers, for the blog as a whole, not for one article.
• Item Title: bind the Name field, unless every item should share one title. You can instead choose Same as SEO Title Tag.
• Item Description: bind a summary field, such as Post Summary, or choose Same as SEO Meta Description.
• Item Image: choose an image field, such as Main image. If the Collection has no image field, leave this blank. The feed can still be created.
• Item Publication Date: choose Created On, Updated On, or Published On.
• Channel Refresh Time: a fallback, in minutes, for how often a reader should check. Most readers use their own interval, usually around 60 minutes.

The page settings show a preview as you fill the fields. Use it before you save. Example: channel title "Northwind journal," channel description "Project notes from the studio," item title bound to Name, item description bound to Summary, image bound to Main image, and publication date set to Published On. Each new case study then carries its own title and summary instead of one repeated line.

Publish, then copy the real feed URL

The feed URL is not public until you publish the site. After you save the RSS settings, publish. Then copy the URL from Pages panel, Page settings, RSS Feed Settings. That is the address you paste into Feedly, MailChimp, Zapier, or a link on your own site.

If you have not connected a custom domain, the copied URL starts with website.com. Replace website.com with the domain you will publish, or with your staging subdomain such as yoursite.webflow.io. Sharing the placeholder sends people to a domain you do not own.

Open the copied URL in a browser after publish. You should see the feed, with the channel title and the items that are published. If the list is empty, confirm the items are published and that you published the site after turning the feed on.

Know what a later edit does to the feed

Updating an existing Collection item and publishing it again adds that item to the feed just like a newly published item. A small typo fix can make an old post look newly published to subscribers. If that is not what you want, avoid republishing the item only to change a comma, or expect the reader app to show it again.

The feed is the published site. An item you have only saved as a draft is not on that published site yet, so publish the item before you expect it in the feed. Reload the feed URL after the publish and confirm the new title is there.

When you add a new summary field later, open RSS Feed Settings and point Item Description at that field if the old binding is wrong. Save and publish once, then reload the feed URL and confirm the new summary appears on one item before you announce the address.