You are likely looking for any advantage over your competition when it comes to things like SEO, social media, and other exposure for your website. The advantage you have been looking for may well be an RSS feed. Here is how to incorporate one into your website.
What Is an RSS Feed?
An RSS feed is simply a type of program that publishes any updates on your website to a syndication (or distribution) service. The acronym RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a standard type of feed format which distributes your content to others. This make your site content accessible through additional sources rather than just from your pages and posts.
Benefits of an RSS Feed
RSS will instantly notify your customers and prospects whenever new content becomes available. This is the primary benefit of an RSS feed. This allows your site to stay front of mind with your customers. They receive the benefit of having your new information delivered to their email inbox or reader.
Deliver the following information to your subscribers, clients and prospects through RSS:
- Blogs posts
- Published articles and content
- Forum posts and activity
- Scheduled events
- News items and articles
- Special promotions, coupons and offers
A simple RSS feed can help you connect with your customers and prospects on a regular basis. RSS helps you build a community and keep them informed and connected. RSS is transparent and works in the background. It needs little or no maintenance, however, RSS can require some setup on certain website packages.
You can also use an RSS Feed to provide information about your industry from other websites. The focus of your website may, for example, be on the latest financial news. An RSS feed can then provide additional value to your visitors. The information is provided directly to the subscribers resulting in more benefit for all visitors.
Adding an RSS Feed to Your Website
You can add RSS to your website, but the process varies depending on your website platform. For websites built on a WordPress template, you likely already have RSS features and functions built in. You may simply have to activate them and modify the settings to fit your needs. However the RSS feed may already be active by default.
On the other hand, if you have a Joomla or other CMS based website then you may want to register with a feed management service like FeedBurner (FYI – Google now owns FeedBurner). Register, provide the necessary information, and create your code after which you will simply cut and paste the code into your page html. Following this you are good to go.
You should note that some website platforms, like Joomla and WordPress, also have plug-ins that handle this task for you. These plugins create a nice RSS Feed button and place it in an obvious and strategic location. Additionally, you can often choose both the button's appearance and the location of the subscribe option on your website.
Other website design software programs may not accept RSS technology so easily. You will need to investigate your website platform and the possibilities it provides for having an RSS feed. RSS technology delivers a number of benefits to your readers and to your bottom line, thus adding more incentive to investigate the possibilities today.
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