Many WordPress blog owners do not use RSS feeds themselves and are not aware that the RSS feeds in WordPress are enabled by default. While an RSS feed can be a good way to allow loyal followers to monitor new posts in your blog, an RSS feed can also be a double-edged sword.
Sometimes there are valid reasons for disabling an RSS feed. You may not want competitors to be aware of every new post that you make or you may not want unauthorized autoblogs or content thieves to easily steal your content. Whatever the reason, disabling the RSS feed for a WordPress site is fairly easy.
To view the RSS feed for a WordPress site, simply add the page name ‘feed’ to the right of the domain name as in http://www.tech-evangelist.com/feed/
The quick and easy route to disabling the RSS feeds is to find a free plugin that works. We recommend that you only use plugins found in the WordPress plugin directory. Read user’s comments and make sure that the author is keeping the plugin updated before you install it.
If you want a more permanent solution that you will not have to periodically update, the RSS feed can be disabled by adding the following to the functions.php file found in your WordPress theme.
function fb_disable_feed() {
wp_die( __('No feed available,please visit our <a href="'. get_bloginfo('url') .'">homepage</a>!') );
}
add_action('do_feed', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rdf', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_rss2', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
add_action('do_feed_atom', 'fb_disable_feed', 1);
If you are concerned about content theft but do want to keep the RSS feed enabled, we recommend that you only display summary excerpts in your feed. By default, WordPress displays the full text of your posts, which makes it very easy for someone to steal your content and automatically publish it on their site. Disabling the full text is easy. Just go to Settings > Reading and make sure that the Summary radio button is checked and save the settings.
Disabling of the RSS feeds should be an option in the WordPress administration area and is a feature that has been requested for quite some time. At the time of this writing, WordPress 3.0 does not yet offer this feature, so if you need to disable the RSS feeds for your WordPress site, follow the simple instructions found above and chose the method that works best for you.