RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. Why RSS?
Benefits and Reasons for using RSS RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site’s email newsletter. This has two aspects.
1. You can have a your website fed with updated information from other websites or
2. You can have a RSS feed in your website through which your target audience can stay connected with you around the clock. Either way it is beneficial for you, as an frequently updated website earns its place quickly in search engines.
Why You Should Use RSS Feeds for Your Site
The most important reason to use RSS feeds is to keep visitors to your site abreast of any changes that may have taken place on your page. If you have the type of site that will be changing frequently, such as a news site or blog (or any sort of personal diary type site), an RSS feed can help keep people in the loop about what is going on with your page. RSS, really simple syndication, is the perfect way to get new information out to your website’s visitors while allowing them the most convenient way possible to read your content.
When a site implements RSS, it is said to be “syndicated”, and that is a good thing. Visitors to your site will know right away that with the click of a button, they can subscribe to the content on your site and view it at their leisure in any one of several RSS readers. Viewers can, and will, still come back to your site to check on its updates and graphics, but for text and news, RSS can get the information out quickly to everyone interested in your site.
If you are afraid that RSS feeds will lessen traffic to your site, don’t be – increasing site traffic is one of the reasons why you should use RSS feeds for your site. A feed does not have to include all of the information or news you’ve posted on your page – it can be a partial feed. This allows subscribers to read a summary, or perhaps just the first paragraph, of your stories or posts as a teaser. If the RSS subscriber is interested enough in what you have written, they can then visit your site – drawing in additional views that might not have occurred otherwise.