RSS ( Real Simple Syndication ) feeds have been in existence for a very long time. Most Content Management systems like WordPress and Joomla come with the ability to deliver RSS feeds, built in. To subscribe to these RSS feed one needs an RSS feed reader. RSS feed reader software, available free via the Internet, empowers a user to view the most recent content from multiple websites all from within one program. It helps keep the user up to date on what’s happening on the websites subscribed to. All RSS readers are really fast and simple to use.

If you own a website or a Blog you need to know about RSS feeds, how they work, what they deliver, and why you should have an RSS feed for your web or Blog site.

Here is an example of how I use RSS feeds.  Opensourcevarsity is a website that delivers a ton of tutorials on various open source tools and technologies. We are constantly looking out for the latest news and information on open source tools and technologies.  There are other websites offering such content but they all do not have RSS feeds.

Those that deliver RSS feeds, I’ve subscribed to. Daily, ( sometimes more than once ) I check what such sites are offering via my RSS feed reader. If there is interesting material available I definitely visit the site read their content and create a synopsis of such material for display on Opensourcevarsity.

Those sites that do not have RSS feeds, I’ve book marked them but I do not visit them as often as I visit websites that I am monitoring via their RSS feeds.

Hence, it’s obvious that those websites which deliver RSS feeds get repeat visitors who spend time reading material on their website.  Any website, that receives visitors that stay a while ( i.e. a low bounce rate ) immediately become interesting to search engines. A large volume of visitors bound to a low bounce rate makes search engines flag that website as a website with authority.

What Are RSS Feeds

An RSS feed is a specially formatted, stripped down version of your website content, which can only be viewed in an RSS feed reader. The content of your website can either be delivered in XML format or RSS format, ( there are multiple other formats as well ) which can be handled by most modern RSS feed readers, which display their output in a Browser OR within a dedicated RSS, feed reader, graphical user interface.

An RSS feed reader can either display an excerpt of content from within the RSS feed or the complete article on demand.  Hence, RSS feed readers offer their users a summary of multiple website content, in chronological order with the most recent content right at the top.  This allows any user to rapidly skim the latest content from multiple websites.  When anything of interest is noticed, the user simply clicks the link and is taken to the website where they can read the whole article.

Using this technique, permits a user to view the latest content of multiple websites, ( i.e. whose RSS feeds have been subscribed to ) very rapidly.

WordPress, Joomla and other modern content management systems come capable of delivering RSS feeds. Configuring such CMS to deliver the RSS feed is usually a simple one or two click process.  Hence if you have a WordPress or Joomla driven Blog / website, there is really no excuse for your site not delivering an RSS feed of its content.

The Benefits Of Delivering An RSS Feed

For the Webmaster:

• Provide fresh and topical information to users, which encourages their return
• Helps ensure that the site owner provides new content, which encourages search engine to visit more frequently
• Replaces email and newsletters alerts to site visitors
• Provides an alternate form of content delivery for the website
• Allows syndication of material from your site to another site

For RSS Feed Reader Users

• Offers fast and easy access to website content
• A user can subscribe to specific RSS feeds of sites of their choice
• The user controls what they want to or don’t want to see
• Users see the most recent website content
• Information can be presented as an excerpt or in full
• Feeds can be limited to the full site or only specific category  of the site
• Access to the website and more information is just a single click away