What's All the Fuss About Feeds - 3 Reasons We Should All Feed the Reader

I simply cannot believe the amount of news websites out there that do not have an RSS feed, or that have one but do not make a big deal about promoting it -- don't even bother having the rss icon showing in the address bar.

When I browse for news, if I find an article that is really useful to me the first thing I do is look at the address bar for the RSS icon so that I can subscribe to the feed.

This is because I use Google reader, and the more sites I have subscribed into their relevant categories the better it is for me. Now, when I want to write about a particular subject I simply type that subject into reader's search bar, select the relevant category (SEO, Social Media, InternationalProperty) from the drop-down menu and hit search -- very rarely does it let me down, but when it does I go searching and subscribing to even more content.

Since I started doing this I have come across dozens of sites with no RSS icon in the address bar. Sometimes I look and find a link to the RSS feed somewhere on the page, no harm done. But other times I don't find any links to any feeds, which leaves me to assume the site doesn't have a feed, and therefore it will likely miss out on potentially loads of repeat visits from me.

I want to try and rectify this situation. So, first, in case the address bar icon is missing because site owners or developers don't know how to put it there, I will explain that. Then I will list three reasons why every site that publishes new content on a regular basis should have some kind of feed of their content.

Here is the snippet of code you need to add to the head section of your web pages to link the RSS feed from the address bar:

<link rel="alternate" href="[Your Feed Url]" />

If you don't have a feed to link to, because you create each article page manually in html, then you really need to invest in some sort of content management system, most of which create the feed automatically, and link to it in the address bar. Wordpress is my personal fave, it is easy to install and is packed with useful features and plugins. I will be writing a post in the next couple of days on how to incorporate a Wordpress CMS into an existing site on my web development company's blog, subscribe here so you don't miss it.

Now, here are five reasons why you should have a feed

1: Get Repeat Visitors More Easily and More Regularly

RSS and Atom Feeds are really taking off. At this time I would estimate that (outside of tech related sites which will be much higher) about 20% of people who like your content will subscribe to it in a reader or by email. They will then be updated when you post and clickthrough if it is of interest to them.

It is a good idea to burn your feed through Feedburner, because then when people click to visit your feed they are presented with all the different subscribe options, including subscribe by email (has to be enabled). Feedburner also gives you handy snipets of code to allow 1 click subscribe by email etc. But the best thing about Feedburner is that it tells you how many subscribers you have, what they subscribed in (by email or which reader) and how your content is republished.

2: Widen Your Audience

RSS stands for really simple syndication, because it allows people to republish your content on their own sites very easily, either in full or as a headline with a brief summary. There are dozens of programs out there that allow people to grab feeds and display static or animated headlines in their sidebars and footers. Thus, everyone who reads their content has a good chance of starting to read yours aswell.

On top of that there are dozens of new Blog search engines that crawl feeds instead of sites, therefore you are missing out on getting even more traffic and widening your audience even further. The main blog site Technorati recently started paying far more attention to your feed content than your site proper.

3: Ease of Sharing

Ever heard of Twitterfeed? It allows you to feed your feed straight into Twitter and Facebook and there are dozens of similar free apps out there. But more than that, it allows other people to stream your content straight into their Twitter and Facebook streams. I know dozens of Twitter accounts which have feeds from several sites unrelated to them running through their streams using Twitterfeed et al. This also fits in with widening your audience.

I'm sure there are many more that you can all leave in the comments.

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