Your site’s Jetpack connection makes it possible for your posts to show up in the WordPress.com Reader, expanding your site’s discoverability. Jetpack-connected sites on any plan (including the free plan) can appear in the WordPress.com Reader for a site’s followers. For your content to appear in Reader search results, a paid Jetpack plan is required.
The WordPress.com Reader is a feed aggregator. It brings every WordPress.com site and Jetpack-connected WordPress site together in one easy-to-search place. For sites that you follow, it displays all posts in the order they were published, with the most recent content appearing at the top.
We need at least one Subscriber or Follower on your site before we crawl it to appear in the Reader. This one subscriber can be you, as the site owner.
The Reader relies on your site’s feed in order to fetch your posts. If there’s an issue with your feed, then the Reader won’t be able to display your posts. You can check if your site has a valid feed using the W3C feed validator.
Posts from Jetpack sites don’t appear in the Reader immediately—you may need to wait up to 24 hours before you’ll see your posts there.
Custom Post Types will not appear in the Reader, as the Reader is only compatible with the default post type.
Getting Started with the Reader
To start, log into your WordPress.com account. The credentials you’ll use are the credentials you used when you connected Jetpack.
A link to the Reader is available in the top Admin Bar in your WordPress.com Dashboard. A direct link to the WordPress.com Reader is here.
Discover new content in the WordPress.com Reader
The WordPress.com Reader’s Search functionality can be accessed with the magnifying glass icon near the top left of your screen.
- Search enables you to search for posts and sites about topics of your choice.
- It also suggests great reads based on your activity.
- While all public WordPress.com sites appear in search results, content from self-hosted WordPress sites will only appear if they are:
WordPress sites with a free Jetpack plan will have their posts available to their site’s followers in the Reader. If you’d like your content to be searchable by any WordPress.com Reader user, you will need a paid Jetpack plan.
Find content from all sites you follow in the WordPress.com Reader
When you navigate to the WordPress.com Reader, the default view is the sites you Follow, sorted by most recent to least recent. This is a great way to stay in touch with all the sites you’ve subscribed to, in a single location.
You can interact with posts directly from the Reader:
- Like the post by clicking the star icon
- Comment on the post
- Repost the content on your own site
- Share the content to social media, or by copying the link
Each post in the Reader shows the post title, a brief snippet of content, and a featured image. From the three-dot menu in the top corner of each post, you can click to expand additional options:
- Follow conversation enables you to get notifications when new comments are added
- Visit post will open the post on the site itself
- If the post is your own, you can Edit it from this view
- Unsubscribe will remove you as a subscriber (or follower).
Reader navigation options
In the left sidebar, there are several different options to navigate and customize your Reader experience.
- Recent: Displays the most recent posts from the sites you’re following.
- Discover: Where you can find engaging original content.
- Likes: Revisit the posts and comments you’ve Liked. Liking a post is a great way to save it for later if you want to read the post again or join the conversation later.
- Conversations allow you to read and reply to all of your conversations in one place. WordPress posts you’ve liked or commented on will appear when they have new comments. You can follow or unfollow a conversation using the three-dot menu in the Reader.
- Lists allows you to sort the sites you follow into groups.
- You can create new lists by clicking + Create new list under the Lists dropdown in the Reader menu
- Lists can be shared with others.
- You can learn more about creating and managing lists in our WordPress.com documentation..
- Tags allow you to browse sites by topic.
- To find new posts with a specific tag, type the tag name into the “Add a tag” field under the Tags dropdown in the Reader menu
- Click Add. Your Reader will load the newest posts published with that tag, and it will be added to your Reader so you can conveniently find it later.
- You can follow as many tags as you like. When you’re in the Reader, the tag you’re currently browsing will be highlighted in blue.
- Remove a tag from your list at any time by clicking the “X” to the right of the tag.
Add new sites to your Reader
Follow a site using the Follow button at the bottom of a WordPress.com site
You can add new sites to the Followed Sites section of your Reader by clicking on the Follow button in the bottom right-hand corner of any WordPress.com site. You must be logged in to see the Follow button.
Export or import new sites to the Reader
There are several methods for adding sites to your Reader that we cover in detail on our WordPress.com documentation.
If you have an OPML file, you can use the Import option to add multiple subscriptions to the Reader.
- Navigate to the Manage Subscriptions page
- Click the three-dot menu in the top right corner of the page. It should be next to a blue “New Subscription” button.
- In the dropdown that appears, select Import OPML.
You can also export your blog subscriptions to another service using the Export OPML option.
Add new sites to the Reader using an RSS feed URL
You can add any non-WordPress.com site with an RSS feed to the Reader.
- Click the Discover link in the Reader menu to the left of your screen.
- Click the Add New tab
- Paste the RSS feed URL into the space provided
- Click the Add Site button
View counts on Reader posts
If you have Jetpack Stats enabled, and your posts have more than 10 views, approximate view counts for posts are shown on your posts in your Following feed.
If you do not want view counts to show on your posts in the Reader, you can disable this feature in your Jetpack Stats settings:
- Go to WP Admin and then Jetpack → Settings in the sidebar.
- Click Traffic.
- Scroll down to the Jetpack Stats section and expand it.
- Toggle the WordPress.com Reader “Show post views for this site” setting to the off position.
How to block sites on the Reader
The option to block a site is offered in the three-dot menu on posts in Reader.
You can see a list of your current site blocks (and remove existing blocks) in your WordPress.com settings here.
How to manage the sites that appear in your Reader
To manage the sites that appear in your Reader, you must unsubscribe from them:
- Navigate to your Manage subscribed sites page in your WordPress.com Dashboard
- Click the three-dot menu next to the name of the site you want to unsubscribe from
- Click Unsubscribe
If you unsubscribe here, you will no longer receive updates from the site in your Reader or via email.
The WordPress.com Reader is available on mobile devices
You can also access the Reader using the Jetpack app on an Android or iOS mobile device.
Still need help?
Please contact support. We’re happy to advise.
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