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RSS Feed Basics
Getting started with RSS feeds can be a little
bit confusing. But few people doubt or dispute
the fact that RSS feeds are a necessity for websites.
Webmasters who have not stayed up with the newest
technologies may struggle at first with the RSS
protocol. Follow these steps to deploy an effective
RSS feed...
1. Decide What Content To Package
An RSS feed can contain any type of content.
The first thing to decide is: want type of content
do you want to include in your RSS feed? RSS feeds
can contain program release notes, press releases,
blog posts, frequently asked questions, software
tips, examples of how software can be used, software
demos, or a wide variety of other information.
Decide on the theme and format for the content
in your RSS feed. Additionally, RSS feeds are
generally topical, so you will need to make decisions
about whether your RSS feed will be product specific,
company specific, contain information about product
families, etc.
2. Create An RSS Feed
RSS feeds are constructed using a "markup" language,
very similar to HTML. The fields for the markup
language are defined by tags. There are a number
of different ways to create an RSS feed. If the
content is in a database, consider using a script
to dynamically extract the content and create
feeds on the "fly". If the content is static,
you can manually create feeds, or use software
to encode the feed.
The trickiest part of RSS feed creation relates
to special characters and date formats. There
are a number of special characters that need to
be properly encoded, and using software will make
the encoding and feed formatting much easier.
There are a number of software solutions that
can assist you in creating an RSS feed. One of
the more popular applications on the market for
creating RSS feeds is "FeedForAll",
which can be found at http://www.feedforall.com
.
If you prefer to create an RSS feed manually,
there is a tutorial available at the "Make
RSS Feed" website: http://www.make-rss-feeds.com
.
3. Publish The RSS Feed
The next step in the process is to transfer the
feed to a web host. If you are using software
to create the feed, it likely contains a built-in
FTP client that will handle the transfer process.
If not, simply use a third-party FTP client to
post the feed to your web host, just as you would
post a website page.
4. Promote The RSS Feed
Like any web content, RSS feeds need to be promoted
in order to attract attention. The RSS feed should
be promoted on your website, in your newsletters,
and in other traditional communication channels.
Add an RSS icon to all pages in a website, so
your website visitors will know that an RSS feed
is available. For the content, link the RSS icon
to the URL of the RSS feed, so the feed can easily
be added to RSS feed readers. RSS feed promotion
is very similar to webpage/website promotion.
The feed's "Titles" can be optimized with keywords,
and important phrases should be incorporated into
the feeds items. If customers do not know about
your RSS feed, they won't be able to subscribe
to it.
RSS feed auto-discovery code should be added
to the website's HTML header. Auto-discovery allows
people with certain RSS readers to automatically
detect that an RSS feed exists for the content
contained on the webpage. Enter the information
into the following auto-discovery tool, and it
will generate the auto-discovery code for you:
http://www.feedforall.com/autodiscovery.htm
.
The feed should be submitted to the RSS feed
directories at http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm
.
An RSS feed will allow your customers and potential
customers to monitor your website and content,
without actually having to visit your site on
a daily basis. You can use RSS feeds for any type
of content -- it is simply another way to communicate
with customers and potential customers.
Related Articles:
RSS Feed SEO
How
to Locate Good Keywords?
The Keyword Search
Blog Post Ideas
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Developer
101
How to Start With RSS Feeds