RSS feeds and why webmasters need them

There still seems to be a lot of confusion among webmasters of how RSS feeds can be of benefit to webmasters. From a users perspective once they have subscribed to an RSS feed then it is pretty clear what the benefits are to them. For a webmaster it is not so clear how they will benefit from offering RSS feeds from there site. So here are a few pointers.

Lets start with what an RSS feed is. In simple terms an RSS feed is like a regularly updating news report, as new items are posted to the feed they are immediately available to the feed subscriber. The RSS feed itself is just a file that is hosted on your server. To be able to read RSS feeds you need an RSS feed reader.

The first benefit a webmaster will see from offering RSS feeds to their users is that of return visitors. That's right, every time you publish a new post to your RSS feed a percentage of those readers will click through to your site. This means that you have a method of communicating to your readers directly and these readers are interested in what you have to say. You know they want to listen to you because they have subscribed to your RSS feed.

Publishing an RSS feed is instant and hassle free. If you have the correct software it is as easy as cutting and pasting. If you are using blogging software then you can cut out the cutting and pasting part, even easier. Once you have posted to your RSS feed then there is nothing else to worry about. It really is easy to publish RSS feeds. I have written my own software that will take the first paragraph of this article and post it to my RSS feed. I know not everyone can code so here are some RSS feed publishing tools you can use.

Your feed is not just for your existing visitors, you can attract more visitors to your site by letting everyone know you have a feed. Like directories for sites there are also directories for RSS. You can submit your feed to RSS feed directories and new users will search and discover your feed the same way they discover your site. Without a feed you would not have access to this audience. Go on publish an RSS feed, your visitors will love you for it.