By default, WordPress generates RSS feed URLs to share your content with RSS readers, email services, and social media tools.
While useful for some sites, these feeds can be unnecessary or even problematic—especially if you want to prevent content scraping or reduce server load.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to disable WordPress feed URLs without touching any code, ensuring you have full control over how your content is accessed.
What are WordPress Feed URLs?
A WordPress feed URL is a special link that displays your site’s content in RSS format. It allows RSS readers, email services, and automation tools to fetch your latest posts automatically.
By default, you can access your feed by adding "/feed" to your website’s URL, like this:
📌 www.yoursite.com/feedThese feeds are useful for syndicating content, which basically means they are often used to share content across different platforms.
For example, blogs and news sites use them to send new posts to subscribers, while some websites pull content from multiple sources to display updates in one place.
However, if you're not using RSS-based services, you might not need these feeds enabled.
How to Find WordPress Feed URLs?
If you’re new to this and don’t know how to find your WordPress feed URL, WordPress makes it easy to find different types of feed URLs for your content.
As mentioned before, the most common feed URLs follow a simple pattern and can be accessed by adding "/feed" or "/feed/rss2" to your site's main URL.
Here are the standard WordPress feed URLs:
Main content feeds:
- Posts feed: yoursite.com/feed
- Comments feed: yoursite.com/comments/feed
- Individual post's comments: yoursite.com/post-name/feed
Archive feeds:
- Category feeds: yoursite.com/category/category-name/feed
- Tag feeds: yoursite.com/tag/tag-name/feed
- Author feeds: yoursite.com/author/author-name/feed
These feed URLs automatically update whenever you publish new content in their respective areas.
For example, your category feed will show the latest posts from that specific category, while your main feed displays all recent posts from your site.
How to Disable WordPress Feed URLs?
While WordPress feeds are useful for content distribution, there may be times when you need more control over them.
Whether you want to disable feeds for security reasons or manage them more effectively, here's what you need to know.
By default, WordPress doesn't provide built-in options to manage feed URLs extensively.
However, plugins like WP Adminify offer comprehensive feed management features that give you full control.
Here's what you can do:
Disable Feed Links
WP Adminify provides a disable feed links feature which lets you disable all RSS, Atom and RDF feeds.
Disable all RSS, Atom, and RDF feeds at once
Turn off all types of content feeds on your website with a single click. This stops your site from automatically generating and broadcasting content updates through different feed formats.
Remove feed links for posts, categories, and tags
Remove the automatic feed links that WordPress adds to your website's header. This includes links for your blog posts, category pages, and tag archives that RSS readers use to discover your feeds.
Automatically redirect feed URLs to appropriate pages
When someone tries to access a feed URL (like yoursite.com/feed), they'll be automatically redirected to the corresponding normal webpage instead. For example, a category feed URL will redirect to that category's archive page.
Disable comment, author, and search feeds
Turn off specialized feeds that share updates about new comments, author activities, and search results. This gives you more privacy control while keeping your main content feeds active if needed.
And the best thing about the feed links feature is that you just need to toggle one setting for all this to happen!
If you’re unsure as to if you need to disable your feed links here are typically the type of websites that disable their feed links:
News Organizations
Some news organizations might disable feeds to prevent their content from being easily scraped and republished by aggregators or competitors. They may prefer to control the distribution and monetization of their content through their own platforms.
E-commerce Sites
E-commerce sites may disable feeds to prevent automated bots from scraping product information, prices, and inventory levels. This could be done to protect their competitive advantage and prevent unauthorized use of their data.
Membership Sites
Membership sites may disable feeds to restrict access to their content to paying subscribers. Allowing feeds could enable non-members to access the content without paying.
Sites with Sensitive Content
Sites that deal with sensitive information, such as personal data or confidential information, may disable feeds to protect user privacy and security.
Sites with Limited Resources
Smaller websites or those with limited resources may disable feeds to reduce server load and improve performance. Feeds can generate significant traffic, which can strain server resources.
Some other reasons to disable your WordPress feed URLs:
- To prevent automated scraping for spam: Some websites may disable feeds to deter bots from automatically collecting content for spamming purposes, such as sending unsolicited emails or creating fake accounts.
- To protect copyrighted material: Websites that rely heavily on copyrighted material, such as those in the entertainment or publishing industries, may disable feeds to prevent unauthorized distribution of their content.
- To maintain exclusive access to content: Some websites may offer exclusive content to subscribers or members, and disabling feeds can help ensure that this content remains accessible only to those who have paid for it.
- To improve website performance: In some cases, disabling feeds can improve website performance by reducing server load and bandwidth usage. This can be particularly beneficial for websites with limited resources.
If you qualify for any of the use cases we've discussed above it is worth looking into the WP Adminify plugin.
Especially because the disable feed links feature is available in the free version.
Show/Hide Post Thumbnails in RSS Feeds
Now if you’re going to keep your rss feeds live, then another WP Adminify feature worth looking into is the "Show/Hide Post Thumbnails on RSS excerpt and Content Feed" feature.
As you can see in the rssviewer below, WordPress doesn't include featured images in its standard RSS feed.
But by simple enabling the “Post Thumbnails on RSS” feature, you can include post thumbnails directly within the RSS feed, making it more visually appealing and engaging for subscribers.
This can be particularly beneficial for websites with image-heavy content, such as news sites, blogs, e-commerce stores, and portfolios.
However, it's crucial to consider the potential impact on feed size and loading times. Including large images can significantly increase the size of the RSS feed, which may slow down loading times for some readers.
To mitigate this, carefully select and optimize images for use in RSS feeds. Prioritize high-quality images that are relevant to the post and avoid excessively large file sizes.
Final Thoughts
WordPress feed URLs can be a valuable tool for content distribution, but they’re not always necessary for every website. Disabling feeds can help you to prevent content scraping, reduce server load, or maintain exclusive access to your content, giving you better control over how your website interacts with third-party services.
With WP Adminify, managing your feed URLs is effortless—disable them completely or fine-tune how they appear with just a few clicks. And if you choose to keep your RSS feeds active, the Show/Hide Post Thumbnails feature ensures your content looks its best in feed readers.
Full Control of Your WordPress Dashboard
WP Adminify goes beyond feed management—organize content with Folders, speed up tasks with Quick Actions, and customize your admin panel effortlessly.
