RSS is a specially formatted file that lists a summary of items like articles, blog posts, products, announcements, etc. which can be found on a website. These specially formatted files, usually called feeds are designed to be read in a “Feed Reader” and you can place links to your feeds on your website.
These feeds first became popular when most folks connected to the Internet with relatively slow dial-up connections. It allowed you to get a small, fast downloading summary of the latest items on a website without having to visit the website and wait for the entire webpage to download.
The feed reader application is still popular today, but more sophisticated ways of using these feeds have evolved over the years. Aggregators will take feeds from multiple sources and combine them into the single customizable feeds. You can also use RSS feeds as a source of fresh content for your own website.
As a feed syndicator, you allow your visitors to subscribe to your feed and they can read a summary of new items you place on your website. Your feed will link back to the appropriate web page for full information on the summarized items in your feeds. When this feed is included as content on another website it becomes a source of traffic through the backlinks to your website.
By promoting your feed on your website, and elsewhere, you can drive traffic to your website and develop readership loyalty. There are many clever ways you can use RSS feeds in your website marketing and promotional strategies.
You will find many posts on this forum where folks share some of their RSS feed marketing tactics.
