Feed (or RSS Feed)

What is an RSS feed, and how does a feed benefit my business?

Feed (or RSS Feed)

Depending on who you ask, RSS is an acronym of Really Simple Syndication or Real Syndication Service, though Really Simple Syndication is a more common expansion. RSS is an XML based syndication technology for internet content.

Why Does This Matter to Me?

Just as various wire services will syndicate news to different newspapers and media outlets, a RSS feed can syndicate your web site content onto other web sites, or into people's feed readers.

Feeds are generally useful when content on your site changes often, or when notifications about changes on your site are important to your customers. People can choose to receive updates by subscribing to your feed in their feed reader. Then, whenever you update your content, those visitors who are subscribed get notified.

Feeds can also be integrated into other web sites, so your content can be automatically published on partner or affiliate sites as soon as it is available. Feed content can also be posted into social networking sites like Facebook so people connecting with you through those outlets can also be notified immediately when content on your site is updated.

RSS feeds can really help drive return visitors to your site, if your site regularly has updated content. Alternately, if your site is more static in nature, having content from another site syndicated onto your site can help encourage visitors to come back in the future for that information.