July 30th, 2010 by Susie

RSS (often given different terms such as Rich Site Syndication or Really Simple Syndication) is used to deliver updated web content, mostly by sites connected with news or weblogs. They will typically syndicate their content as an RSS feed (which contains full or summarised text as well as any relevant metadata), and make it available to anyone who wants access. For people who use the internet on a regular basis, RSS feeds allow them to conveniently retrieve information from sites they are interested in (provided they have an RSS reader installed), without having to directly access the sites or sign up to their newsletters.

This is a benefit to site users, as they can get fresh content with less searching.  RSS feeds can also aid SEO, as if a site has an RSS feed, then these same users are more likely to think highly of the site above similar ones without it. To keep your users reminded of, and therefore visiting, your site, all you need to is update some content. As most search engines have their own RSS feeds (such as Google Reader), users can subscribe to these and receive updates on the latest content which is related to their specified search terms. Also, on a further SEO basis, if a site’s RSS feeds utilise keyword-rich titles, then these feeds could then be seen by a user who may never have come across your site otherwise. In SEO terms, it can help engine crawlers recognize your relevant keywords more easily, therefore potentially contributing to boosting your ranking. Also, your RSS feed may appear on another site. When this happens, a link to your site is also displayed, which can increase your link popularity and page rank.

Signing up to RSS feeds is relatively easy. All a user needs to do is access sites they are interested in and search for the RSS icon (if available). This should then direct them to the sign-up page, and follow the instructions. As long as a reader is installed, the user will be ready to receive updates automatically.

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