RSS Basics You Need to Know

Have you noticed RSS links on your favorite sites? Do you know what it is and how it can help market your site? RSS means Really simple Syndication. To syndicate your website is to have it republished somewhere else.

An RSS feed is a way to publicize updates to your website. It could be the entire update including photos, or just a summary of the latest update. A RSS with a summary would allow users to skim through the update, and visit the website for full details. An RSS feed will typically include the title of the update and a link to the site originating the feed.

Why should you learn the basics of RSS? Because, RSS has benefits to both the readers and the publishers

An RSS feed keeps your readers informed. Whatever your update is, a blog post, a new sale price on an item, new music, whatever it is subscribers are immediately updated. Many internet users look for the RSS feed to save time.

RSS can save valuable time and deliver a loyal following from busy internet users who receive the updates. By reading your RSS summary, the user can determine if the update is important to them without having to search your site to find the update.

If you are marketing online, you will reach a wider audience because people are more likely to subscribe to an RSS feed than they are to an email list. Users who utilize a RSS aggregator will be able to read your updates without their inbox overflowing.

While it may seem that the benefit of RSS is all on the user, your RSS feed can be used as a marketing tool. Users of your RSS feed will receive the latest news about your product or service. This will focus your marketing to those who want to receive your message, and actually want your product. It also totally eliminates the possibility of your being accused of spamming.

Because RSS is still relatively new, there may be some drawbacks to trying to use it exclusively. Some customers may still prefer to receive email updates, or may not yet understand RSS. Also, some graphics and photos may not appear, but if this is how your customer wants to hear from you it is a good idea you make the option available to them.

Even taking the perceived drawbacks into account, a RSS feed will create more traffic. Many of your RSS subscribers will want the entire story and will click to visit your site.

How to use RSS for Internet Marketing.

The original intent for RSS was to allow users to customize their homepage to have links to their favorite sites, similar to the way bookmarking sites work. Applying internet marketing to the feed was an afterthought. Using a free service like FeedBurner, you can reach a much broader audience with your RSS feed than what you would have originally found.

The popularity of RSS is on the rise. This innovation to the worldwide web and online marketing is becoming more widely used every day. If you are promoting a website, Blog, Forum, etc. incorporating an RSS feed is crucial to the success of your efforts. Once you get the basics down you will be able to benefit from publicizing your site through RSS.

Article Source: http://www.allwebcontent.com/articles

Rob Emmerson is recognized as an expert in SEO. He has helped countless people learn SEO using his free SEO course . He also writes a daily SEO Blog.

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