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 Delivering regularly updated content
to website visitors is easier through RSS resources.
RSS, also known as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple
Syndication, has been used for years by online visitors.
However, it has only recently begun to gain popularity
among webmasters as a means of providing visitors with
constantly refreshed content. These feeds were originally
developed to deliver updated news more quickly, but they
have since evolved to allow for nearly instantaneous
updates of many types of information.
Growing websites can benefit from RSS feeds since they
allow for fresh copy to be updated regularly online. Once
the RSS feeds are inserted into the web pages, they
provide a steady stream of syndicated content updated
continuously. Most RSS feeds consist of a headline,
content summary, and a link to the actual online article.
They are typically composed in XML, a markup language
similar to HTML, to allow webmasters to manipulate and
integrate new copy into their existing site pages.
The increased popularity of these RSS feeds have benefited
online sites as they the have helped to drive increased
traffic and search engine ranking results. The fact that
the syndicated content is changing constantly in RSS feeds
means that search engine spiders are likely to visit and
index your website pages more often. RSS feeds also keep
webmasters from having to worry about updating their
content, and visitors can rely on fresh articles being
available to read whenever they want. Articles are also
easy to locate on RSS feeds, as they can be categorized
for easy navigation. This increases the chances of
receiving visitors from other sites.
While modern technology has made integrating RSS feeds
into one's website easier, contributing content to RSS
feeds remains a bit more complex. To effectively post copy
onto RSS feeds, you first need an RSS program that will
allow you to format your content for syndication. If you
are a professional web developer, for example, you might
be interested in creating your own XML files to display
content. This option will allow for more flexibility in
the way content is displayed. If you lack the online
knowledge to understand how to use XML, you might want to
invest in one of the many RSS software programs that allow
users to create and publish syndicated content without
having to use any XML language at all.
 One of the most popular software programs is FeedForAll,
which is an inexpensive yet effective tool for developing
and maintaining an RSS feed. This program, and others like
it, allows users to utilize their own syndicated content,
or to download existing feeds from the internet. It also
provides users with the ability to manually edit their
site to include pictures and colors which may create a
more exciting online experience for customers.
As the need for the internet to provide instantaneous
access to a wide variety of information continues to grow,
RSS feeds have become a critical component of information
distribution. It is likely that RSS feeds will serve as an
important tool for sharing information on the web for
years to come and could, in the not too distant future,
even begin to rival e-mails as the preferred method of
knowledge sharing. Therefore, understanding how best to
utilize RSS feeds into your website may have lasting,
positive effects on your business' growth.
Online reprint rights granted as long as the article is
published in its entirety, including links and resource
box. © John
Doetsch 2005.
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