How to Add Featured Image to WordPress RSS Feed (Step-by-Step)

Wordpress rss feed featured image

If you use the RSS feed on your WordPress blog you may have realized the featured image isn’t included in your feed’s posts by default.

Having an RSS feed with images will improve your syndication and may come in handy later since marketing tools like Mailchimp use RSS feeds to build newsletters.

In this quick tutorial, I’ll show you how to add featured image to your WordPress RSS feed using a plugin or with a functions.php code snippet.

Add Featured Image to WordPress RSS Feed Code Snippet

If you’re familiar with editing your functions.php file you can use the code snippet below to display the featured thumbnail in your RSS feed.

There is also a plugin you can use called Code Snippets which can come in handy if you want to add code to your site instead of constantly adding new plugins.

Add Featured Image to WordPress RSS Feed using a Plugin

If coding isn’t your thing and you’re looking for a WordPress RSS feed plugin with image there are a few options. For this guide we will be using the Featured Images in RSS plugin from the WordPress.org repository.

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All you need to do is install and activate this plugin and your WordPress RSS feed will have images embedded.

The plugin also offers a few options depending if you want the featured image above the content or floating to the left/right.

Featured Images in RSS plugin options

This is perfect if you want a simple way to include images in your WordPress site’s RSS feed.