Content Syndication Through RSS Feeds

By John Doetsch

Delivering regularly updated content to website visitors is easier through RSS resources.

RSS, also known as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, has been used for years by online visitors. However, it has only recently begun to gain popularity among webmasters as a means of providing visitors with constantly refreshed content. These feeds were originally developed to deliver updated news more quickly, but they have since evolved to allow for nearly instantaneous updates of many types of information.

Growing websites can benefit from RSS feeds since they allow for fresh copy to be updated regularly online. Once the RSS feeds are inserted into the web pages, they provide a steady stream of syndicated content updated continuously. Most RSS feeds consist of a headline, content summary, and a link to the actual online article. They are typically composed in XML, a markup language similar to HTML, to allow webmasters to manipulate and integrate new copy into their existing site pages.

The increased popularity of these RSS feeds have benefited online sites as they the have helped to drive increased traffic and search engine ranking results. The fact that the syndicated content is changing constantly in RSS feeds means that search engine spiders are likely to visit and index your website pages more often. RSS feeds also keep webmasters from having to worry about updating their content, and visitors can rely on fresh articles being available to read whenever they want. Articles are also easy to locate on RSS feeds, as they can be categorized for easy navigation. This increases the chances of receiving visitors from other sites.

While modern technology has made integrating RSS feeds into one's website easier, contributing content to RSS feeds remains a bit more complex. To effectively post copy onto RSS feeds, you first need an RSS program that will allow you to format your content for syndication. If you are a professional web developer, for example, you might be interested in creating your own XML files to display content. This option will allow for more flexibility in the way content is displayed. If you lack the online knowledge to understand how to use XML, you might want to invest in one of the many RSS software programs that allow users to create and publish syndicated content without having to use any XML language at all.

One of the most popular software programs is FeedForAll, which is an inexpensive yet effective tool for developing and maintaining an RSS feed. This program, and others like it, allows users to utilize their own syndicated content, or to download existing feeds from the internet. It also provides users with the ability to manually edit their site to include pictures and colors which may create a more exciting online experience for customers.

As the need for the internet to provide instantaneous access to a wide variety of information continues to grow, RSS feeds have become a critical component of information distribution. It is likely that RSS feeds will serve as an important tool for sharing information on the web for years to come and could, in the not too distant future, even begin to rival e-mails as the preferred method of knowledge sharing. Therefore, understanding how best to utilize RSS feeds into your website may have lasting, positive effects on your business' growth.

© John Doetsch 2005.
John Doetsch is an author and founder of Websition.com where you will find additional articles and web site content written by the Internet's most gifted authors.

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