RSS Feeds, should we care?

By Lee

RSS Logo

What is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) is a method of delivering updates from a particular website, notifying users about any changes that have taken place, i.e blog posts, news updates etc. RSS feeds are viewable in all of the major web browsers and can be subscribed to at the click of a button without having to divulge personal information such as an email address. By subscribing to many RSS feeds, a user can have all of their favorite websites summarised into one easily viewable stream of updates, changes and new additions. This allows them to keep track of all their favorite sites effortlessly.

Advantages of RSS

Aside from the user side advantages mentioned above, there are also advantages for the website publishing the feed. The main one being that the google spiders(the software robots that index web pages) value sites with RSS feeds higher than ones without, meaning new pages and posts appear much quicker in Google searches.

WordPress and RSS

Websites built using WordPress include an RSS feed as standard. This will notify subscribers of any new services, news, products etc that are on offer. Web Design Wolverhampton even has it’s own RSS feed that shows all new blog posts as well as any new websites and posts added to my portfolio, have a look by clicking the orange RSS logo in the bottom right corner of the homepage.