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RSS Newsfeed

RSS stands for Really Simple Sindication. It is both a concept and a file format which allows a stream of headlines or snippets of articles to be “published” as a file on a web site and for people with programs that can read RSS files to automatically gather the information from the RSS files.

Many modern web browsers have facilities to read and display the information from RSS files and there are also dedicated programs which allow you to view the new entries from dozens of different web sites at the same time. The key point is the information travels to the user automatically and when something looks interesting it entices them to go back to the web site.

RSS “feeds” as they are known are commonly associated with blog web sites but are also provided on sites with regularly changing content such as news sites like Yahoo, BBC News, The New York Times, CNET and others.

Your website could use RSS feeds in two main ways. First, you can publish a feed which visitors can subscribe to so they are notified when you update your site (usually through an integrated blog).

The second use is to publish information from other RSS feeds on your site. This gives your web site constantly changing content which may help to bring visitors to your site more regularly. It is possible to search and aggregate RSS feeds so the selection of information that you display would be unique to your site even thought the pieces of information come from other sources.

There are lots of exciting possabilities with RSS feeds and we can discuss ways that you can increase your web traffic by using them.

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