Trusted WordPress tutorials, when you need them most.
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
WPB Cup
25 Million+
Websites using our plugins
16+
Years of WordPress experience
3000+
WordPress tutorials
by experts

Step by Step Guide to Setup FeedBurner for WordPress

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

Update: We no longer recommend using FeedBurner because it’s a dying product full of bugs. Please read this article to see why you shouldn’t use FeedBurner and find out about the alternatives.

Every major blog is using FeedBurner to burn their RSS feeds because it is a free feature rich system that you cannot turn down. FeedBurner provides statistics, feed optimization option, feed publication option and much more. Integrating FeedBurner and Google Analytics is a must for every WordPress blog. In this article, we will show you how you can setup your WordPress blog feeds with FeedBurner and use it to help take your blog to the next level.

Why FeedBurner is Important for Bloggers?

FeedBurner is a free service that is loaded with options that you do not get with the default WordPress feed. Some of the features include:

  • Statistics about your RSS Subscribers so you can analyze and optimize your blog posts.
  • Give your users multiple options to subscribe such as Email, and other feed-readers (Netvibes, Google etc).
  • Social Proof (Subscriber count)
  • Option to customize your feeds such as modify post headings, branding and more.
  • Option to ping various feed-reading services once you publish your posts.
  • Integrate Google Adsense to monetize your RSS feeds.
  • And more…

Just with the short list of features, you can see that it is a must have for all blogs. Now we can move onto setting up the FeedBurner Account.

Setting up Your FeedBurner for WordPress feeds

First you will need to have a Google account (any gmail account will work). Visit the feedburner service page to begin this process.

In the first step, you will type the link to your WordPress Blog Feed. If you have SEO Friendly WordPress URL Structure, then your feed link should be like yourdomain.com/feed/

Step 1 - Claim Your Feeds on Feedburner

In step 2, you will choose the title of your Feed and the address of your feed. It is advised to keep the title of your feed the same as your blog. It is best to keep your feed address short and memorable.

Step 2 - Select Title and Feed Address

Technically your feeds are created, so you don’t need to follow the steps any more. Click on the Skip directly to Feed Management.

Step 3 - Go to Feed Management

You will see a page with a link to tons of blogging platforms. Ignore all that as we will revisit them later in this article. Just cilck on the optimize tab that you see in the image below.

Step 4 - Click on Optimize

In step 5, we will work on optimizing your WordPress Blog Feed. You need to make sure that you haev Browser Friendly option activated, Smart Feed activated, and FeedFlare activated. You can activate other services if you want, but these 3 services are a must have. BrowserFriendly makes subscribing much simpler. SmartFeed ensures maximum compatibility with all feed reader applications. FeedFlare builds interactivity into posts by adding email this and other sharing options.

Step 5 - Optimize your Feeds

In step 6, we will take a look at all the publicize options for the feed. You need to allow Email Subscriptions on your site because there are users who prefer to get email updates rather than using Google reader. Pingshot must be activated because it notifies services when you post. Feedcount widget lets you show off your subscriber count. It is one of the best social proof methods. Awareness API comes handy if you are trying to list yourself on sites like BuySellAds because they can extract your subscriber count easily. There other snazzy options like Headline Animator, BuzzBoost that you can activate if you like.

Step 6 - Publicize your feed

Monetizing your feed is another good features of FeedBurner except it only allows you to use Google Adsense. So sign up with Google Adsense and follow their direction.

Step 7 - Monetize your feed

Once you have done all the above steps, you can click on the Analyze tab. Most likely you will see a screen like the one below because the stats are not recorded. Give it up to 24 hours and you will start seeing numbers there. Use the subscriber count, clicks and other useful data to improve your blog. See what your users like and don’t like with this stas, and then focus on the type of posts that your users like and enjoy.

Step 8 - Analyze your Feed and Improve

Integrate FeedBurner into WordPress

Even though you have setup your feed with FeedBurner in the steps above, but you have not yet really integrated it with WordPress yet. First thing you want to do is stop diluting your feed and make it one. You need to create a redirect, so when users try to visit yourdomain.com/feed/ they are redirected to your feedburner feed page. This way you can keep track of the subscribers on your blog.

There is a plugin called FD FeedBurner which lets you create this redirect easily. You can also redirect your feeds using .htaccess file, but we will not be sharing that method because it is not something we recommend for beginners.

Most WordPress Themes are now coming with FeedBurner integration such as Headway Theme, Standard Theme, and others. If your theme is not compatible, then use the plugin above.

Add the Email Subscribe Box on your site

First visit Publicize » Email Subscriptions then copy and paste the code they give you in the template file that you like (mostly sidebar.php). Remember to customize the look of your email form, you would need to have prior knowledge of HTML and CSS.

If your blog does not have FeedBurner feeds, then get it right now.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

Get FREE access to our toolkit - a collection of WordPress related products and resources that every professional should have!

Reader Interactions

227 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
    Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!

  2. Vanshita parmar says

    In my wordpress account when I added a feedburner as a widget. It’s not asking for feedburner ID . What should I do for this ? I haven install wp subscribe plug in and it’s showing error when someone subscribe on our website

  3. Bosko says

    Feedburner? This plugin has been closed as of April 12, 2018 and is not available for download. This closure is permanent.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Thank you for your feedback, this article was last updated in 2014 which is why it is recommending Feedburner

      Admin

  4. Gimmy Dagar says

    Hi

    I am using feedburner, The conformation link for all emails are going to the Promotion in Gmail. How can I set to Primary?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      For the moment, Gmail does not have a method for ensuring emails are not sent to the marketing tab.

      Admin

  5. Vinayak Patil says

    Hello, the plugin that you linked in this article for Feedburner is no longer available. Please correct it and provide us an alternative.

  6. Caroline says

    Hi – thank you for the information. Question for you, if you don’t mind. I am trying to edit my email format for my subscribers. I changed my feeds to show only the title of the post and 100 words of content, that’s all (before I was sharing the entire blog post with photos, content, etc). I would like for it to show 1 photo from the blog post as well, but I am having the hardest time trying to figure out how to do this without having to share the entire post in the email. Are you able to help here?

    Thank you so much!
    Caroline

  7. Pratik N Borkar says

    My feeds not update to latest post my feed shows 6 months old post any solution for this

    this my site

    Help is appreciated

  8. Samual Ross says

    Thanks for sharing such great useful info. I have one question my original feed url is which shows some kind of error like “This page contains the following errors:

    error on line 1 at column 37: Unsupported encoding UTF-7
    Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.” but my Google Feed burner works fine which is:

    Can you please tell me what’s wrong with my original feed?
    Thanks again.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It seems like you are using UTF7 as your character encoding. Visit Settings » Reading, if you see Character encoding option on that page, then change it to utf8.

      If you do not see it there, then you need to deactivate all your plugins and switch to a default theme. Check your feed, if this resolves the problem then probably one of the plugin or theme is the culprit.

      If this does not solve it, then you need to change DB_charset in wp-config.php. Edit your wp-config.php file. if you have define( ‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf7’); then change it to define( ‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’); If you have neither of them, then add define( ‘DB_CHARSET’,’utf8′);

      Admin

  9. Naveen says

    Hello,

    I have a job website..I want a plugin like email pop up when the site is opened and once the candidate enters the email id it must automatically open the feed burner link to subscribe..Can any one help me how to set up.

  10. Simone Robinson Ross says

    Greetings,
    I have a website and blog set up and have for two years. Unfortunately, the email used is not recognized. Is there a way to change email address associated with the Blog at this point?

    I want to be able to connect with subscribers, and right now I have no idea who is seeing my Blog.
    I need help fast

    Thank you

  11. M. says

    Hi there,

    I moved my blog from weebly to wordpress and now my feedburner doesn’t work or recognize my RSS Feed address. I’ve been in touch with the WP theme people about the RSS address and my hosting company. No one seems to be helping, so I thought I’d try you.

    I also opened up a Mail Chimp account based on reading your related article. That too does not recognized my RSS.

    I’m starting to panic and my blog is not being sent to my subscribers. Can you help? I’d be forever grateful.

  12. Abhishek says

    thank you very much Syed , this is the perfect post for setting up feed for my blog which was started 3 month ago. Since then i wasn’t able to start my feedburner .

  13. jessica says

    Hello. I am looking for info on what is a better RSS feeder if Feed burner is no longer recommended?
    Thanks so much
    Jess

  14. Mohit says

    Hi, i just transferred my blog from blogger to wordpress. I installed a plugin for feedburner subscription. I gets a mail whenever someone subscribes to my website, but when i checked my feedburner email subscription list it doesn’t show any new subscriber..can anyone help me with it?

  15. Mandy says

    Hi, I just moved a website from Blogger to WordPress.
    Now Feedburner sends out not only the usual daily emails when a new post gets published. It also sends out summary emails every now and then with the last 8 articles in a list.
    Feedburner was used on blogger already, so the feed didn’t change, the links are the same like before.
    I think somehow FB thinks that all these posts are “new”. Any idea how to stop this?

    Thanks!
    Mandy

  16. Yatin says

    I am a complete newbie in this blogging sphere. I need your help
    I have activated the email subscription on feedburner. By mistake I deleted the feed in the beginning. At that time, I was able to see two subscribers. Then I re-activated the feed with the same name. My latest blog post were coming as it is , but no. of email subscriber are zero in feedburner account now. I am using genesis e-news extended plugin for my feedburner.

  17. Aaditya Sharma says

    all steps i followed and active feed, but i can not find the option of monetize and awareness api

  18. WPBeginner Staff says

    Yes, your feed will still be at the same URL. What you are doing, is displaying your blog posts on a custom page. This does not change the chronological order of your posts or feeds.

      • Techmaker says

        You gave me a general answer? I know it. It is in your article too. Thant’s why I sent you my blog URL. You have removed it on my first comment. That is bad. What I really want to know is my site is wordpress. But my blog is a page, but getting all the updates. I can’t even explain it. May be you can. This is where my blog is

  19. Steve says

    I recently changed just my Feedburner Title. Why it doesn’t update also in my Feedburner page but only in management settings?

  20. Sofie Couwenbergh says

    I don’t use feedburner for email signups, but I still have some people who are subscribed to my rss feed through feedburner.
    I use the feedburner feedsmith extend plugin for that.
    If I delete that plugin, will those people still get my updates, or not?
    Thanks

  21. Lietissimo says

    I am confused. You start your article with “We no longer recommend using FeedBurner because it’s a dying product full of bugs.” Then you finish with saying”If your blog does not have FeedBurner feeds, then get it right now.”
    Which one?

  22. Fleur Glansbeek says

    Hi,

    Tried to setup a feedburner link for my WordPress website (http://gripopgewicht.com), but the following error appears (over and over again):

    “Feed filesize is too large, you need to reduce its size in order for Feedburner to process it.”

    But i can’t find out how to solve this problem, could you maybe help?

    Best,
    Fleur

  23. Rafael Perez says

    My feedburner feed only publishes my podcasts posts but not my blog posts. What will happen if I change my original feed to allow both to be published? Remove the /category/podcast from original feed? Thanks

    • WPBeginner Staff says

      Then your users will get all your posts. However, you should consider that many of them may have signed up just for your podcast and they may not like receiving posts they didn’t sign up for.,

  24. Troy Vayanos says

    Hello,

    I have an existing feed set up and am trying to set up a second one for a new website. In ‘my feeds’ when I type in the new domain name in ‘burn a feed right this instant’ I get the following message. The URL does not appear to reference a valid XML file. We encountered the following problem: Error on line 153: The string “–” is not permitted within comments.

    Is this because I have a new website where the wordpress theme is not set up yet and I only purchased the domain 24hrs ago?

    Your help is appreciated.

    Thanks

  25. Pat says

    I can’t find a solution to my problem anywhere so I am trying here. My blog has around 8 thousand subscribers and as of April 4th subscribers are saying they are not recieving emails from feedburnner any more. I haven’t changed anything and I still get the email. Does anyone know what the problem could be?
    Thank you
    Pat

  26. Eavan says

    Thanks! Very useful. I have one question. I’ve installed the plugin to redirect my feeds, but I’m not sure what to put in under “Redirect my feeds here:” form. What link goes there?

    I’m very new to this. Thanks for your help!

  27. Sengerson says

    Is it possible to create a feed from a multisite? I’ve tried to search for plugins that would be able to do this pretty easily, and I’ve found it impossible.

    Thanks!

  28. Barry Friedman says

    Is it possible to publish a page on my WordPress site and have it *not* go out to my Feedburner? These are just some internal landing pages and I just discovered they are going to my RSS Subscribers. Thanks for any tips you have on this.

    Thanks.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Barry, Pages in WordPress do not appear in RSS feeds. Are you sure your pages are appearing in the feed? Are you using some plugin that adds pages or other custom post types into your main feed?

      Admin

  29. Rick Olsen says

    When I try to enter a new email on the Follow Button I get this error message. What do I do?
    The feed does not have subscriptions by email enabled

  30. Mark says

    Post images show as absolute links in my feedburner feed.

    How to fix that? I have add feedburner feed to hotlink exception too.

  31. Val Frania says

    I already have Feedburner set up on one of my blogs, but want to use it on another one. Do I start a new account for my new website? How does this work? When I go to Feedburner, it goes to my current account.

  32. Mohammad Fazle Rabbi says

    Hi there thanks for fantastic tutorial. I am running a WordPress (woocomerce) based ecommerce site . but whenever I try to activate my feed by then it is showing below message

    Received HTTP error: “Not Found” while fetching source feed.

    I have also tried feed validator but not validating my feed. As well as I have tried with FD Feedburner and some other Feedburner plugins but not working. Is there any problem that my main page displaying as a static page with products. Because I don’t publish any post just adding product on static (front) page of my site. please tell me How to solve it? Kindly reply me soon.

    Regards

    Mohammad Fazle Rabbi

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Open the main page of your website and view its source. You will find your rss feed url on a line like this:

      <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Your Website Title &raquo; Feed" href="http://www.example.com/feed/" />
      

      Note that this link could be different, or may not be there. For example, people using WordPress SEO plugin sometimes accidentally turn off their RSS feeds. Try deactivating all your plugins and then reactivate them one by one, check your feed each time.

      Admin

      • Mohammad Fazle Rabbi says

        I have found the feed according to your example but nothing is happening. Getting same message in feedburner.

        “Received HTTP error: “Not Found” while fetching source feed.”

        When I click on my fee from view source code then it is displaying a line at the top-

        “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.”

  33. Mac says

    I have followed all the steps to set up my email subscription in feedburner for my website. But my subscribers are not getting any updates.please help..

  34. Shoaib says

    Thank you so much for the article, I have completely configure the feed-burner on my site but subscriber list is not increasing on feedburner even after receiving confirmation email of new subscription, please advice

Leave A Reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.