What is RSS?
Have you ever seen the following logo from any website before? What is it? What does it stand for?
RSS Logo
The image above is called an RSS logo. It tells you that the content of a website that you are reading is already available for syndication– meaning all of the articles, images, video and audio featured on that website can be shared to multiple other websites on the internet.
RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication. It is an array of standardized “news feeds” that webmasters use to automatically publish the latest articles from their website. Syndication, being a free form of website promotion, is beneficial to the site providing the information as it is to the site acquiring the information. It readily generates new traffic and added exposure for both parties.
An RSS feed is similar to a monthly magazine subscription. Immediately after printing, the magazines most recent issue will be automatically delivered to the subscriber’s doorstep.
Most websites offer RSS Feed Readers and RSS e-mails to eliminate the need for subscribers to constantly check for new content. As see on the image below, a premier news and lifestyle website in St. Louis also uses Rss Feeds to reach out to many of its readers.
stltoday.com Rss Feeds
Subscribers who use feed readers or feed aggregators like Google Reader, Pageflakes, iTunes and Netvibes are redirected to a link where they can click on the feed reader of their choice. This automatically enables them receive updates from the website they subscribed to. RSS Mails, on the other hand, allow subscribers submit an e-mail address where they want the updates to be forwarded to. Subscribers can easily unsubscribe if they don’t like receiving more news from that website.
Feedburner is a good website to go to for all of your RSS needs. A lot of webmasters and bloggers prefer it because it is free and easy to use.
Feedburner Logo
The internet is a constantly growing market where websites aiming to be the best are created on a daily basis. An RSS feed helps a lot in attracting a massive audience and gaining momentum over the competition but it takes more than just that to maintain a position on top. It is a webmasters main duty to continue feeding their websites with fresh, informative and entertaining content to keep their readers interested.
Tags: rss
