RSS - Really Simple Syndication
Put simply, RSS is a format for easily sharing content on the web.
What type of content?
Commonly things such as news items, job adverts, or marketing communications are ideal candidates for RSS although almost any list orientated information is suitable.
The beauty of RSS is that it allows you to see some of a site's 'headlines' or 'press releases' without actually having to visit the site directly on a regular basis. Although at first glance this might not seem like the ideal way to encourage site traffic, from a webmaster's point of view, it can actually vastly improve a site's visibility, and reach, by making content available in a more convenient manner.
For example, an organisation might want to announce a new product or feature every week or so. Without an RSS feed, the site's potential audience would have to remember to re-visit the site to see if they could find anything new - if they have time. If a site provides a feed for for its visitors, they can point their RSS software (usually called an 'aggregator') at it, and they will have a link and a description of a given 'press release' almost as soon as it is published!
Another factor is the amount of web sites 'out there'. Sheer numbers mean that even regular visitors are unlikely to re-visit their favourite sites every day. By providing an RSS feed, a site is far more likely to be in front of them constantly, improving the chances that they'll click through to an item that catches their eye.
From a web surfer's point of view, it takes the hassle out of staying up-to-date, by allowing him, or her, to access the very latest information that interests them.
But there's more...
It isn't only individual site visitors who may make use of an RSS feed - other web sites can also re-use this content.
The BBC offers a good example of RSS in practice. The BBC site offers a number of different news feeds (e.g. World News, UK News, Science & Technology etc.) which are, in turn, picked up, re-used and displayed, by 3rd party web sites. This has the net effect of vastly multiplying the number of end users who may come into contact with the BBC's headlines. Anyone following one of these 3rd party links is taken straight back to the BBC site for the full story.
- If it's all about sharing content why can't sites just provide a link to their most recent news, jobs, events information?
- Simply providing a link to new content does not allow it to be shared and repurposed easily and in a standard way. The beauty of RSS is that very little effort is required for third parties to reuse content and, in turn, make it available to their visitors. Individual users can put all of their favourite newsfeeds into the one 'place' (hence 'aggregate') rather than trying to run around a dozen or so separate sites.
- Won't there be a loss of traffic to such a site?
- No, the beauty of RSS is that it can actually drive traffic to a site. Users see the headlines describing the new content via the feed but actually visit to the site to read the full content.
- What about branding of a site's content?
- Every RSS channel can include the name, logo, description and search URL of the service that made the channel available. Services that use RSS channels will usually display this information.
- How will I know which web sites offer RSS?
- Sites that offer RSS usually display a small badge or logo that acts as a link directly to their news feed such as:
Summary
- RSS is the dominant format for distributing headline content or 'press releases' on the Web.
- RSS is an excellent and cost-effective way of driving traffic to, and increasing brand awareness of, any website that publishes content regularly.
- RSS allows people access to a site's latest news as soon as it is published rather than hours, or even days, later.
- Once an RSS feed is produced, others can syndicate the headlines and promote the original site without very little effort.
- RSS content can be added to personal desktop news reading applications like Feedreader or AmphetaDesk which means that you can stay in touch with all of your favourite web sites without having to visit each one on a daily basis.
- You may be able to configure your desktop news reader so that news is displayed according to your own personal preferences.
Sage Newsreader