You may see RSS feeds in various places on the web from time to time. RSS stands for “rich site summary.” Few people even know what the acronym stands for because we usually see it in the acronym form. RSS is a format for delivering web content that changes frequently.
Blogger.com is one site on which you’ll find the RSS feed option. When you share your RSS feed, you’ll make your blog available automatically via an RSS feed all over the web that is searchable.
What type of sites should use RSS feeds?
As a blogger, you may wonder if it is beneficial for you to use RSS feeds with your blog or if they are still used by bloggers. If you have a news-related site, a regular publication that has changing content, or other online content that is dynamic in nature, you may want to use RSS.
In addition, you can allow your regular followers and readers to easily find your blog to see the latest content that you have posted without having to go directly to your blog URL and search for the latest content. By advertising the RSS feed URL to your regulars, you may be able to pull in more readers and repeat visitors to your blog or website due to the way that RSS works.
As an Alternative for Newsletters
If you have a regular email newsletter that you send out to your viewers and readers, you can use RSS to replace or supplement your regular email newsletters. If you use the RSS link and promote it to your readers, they will be able to see new content without having to join your mailing list.
Of course, if you want to generate leads and create mailing lists, you will also want to continue getting subscribers to your mailing list. The best idea is to promote your RSS for “changing content” to give your readers updates, while also offering them something more substantial when they subscribe to your blog or website.
RSS is still used by some well-known sites such as Yahoo News and other online sites that have rapidly changing content. Use Feed Reader software if you want to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and have them displayed for easy retrieval.
Using a feed reader gives you a way to keep up with your favorite news sources’ feeds, as well as offering this option to your own readers to keep up with your content. You have to find sites that syndicate their content to see which ones are running an RSS feed. Then you can add these to your feed reader to keep up with all of them at the same time. Some platforms allow you to have an RSS feed automatically.
Should you use RSS on your blog?
If you’re debating with yourself about whether to use RSS for your blog or not, I’d say just do it! It sure can’t hurt anything by allowing your regular readers to view your updates. And it may allow you to reach more people via the search engines than not doing so.
Use every tool that you have in your arsenal to increase your reach, whether it involves old technologies like RSS feeds or one-armed robots that cook your dinner for you. It really doesn’t matter whether the technology is old or new. All that matters is that it works for your goals. So blog away and include an RSS feed in your contact information or on an obvious place on your blog.
Offering a “rich site summary” to your viewers just might be the missing piece in promoting your blog even more!
No matter if you are using a free blogging platform like Blogger.com or WordPress.com, or even have a self-hosted version of WordPress running on your own hosting, setting up an RSS feed for your site is still a great idea.