The RSS Feed is an almost forgotten solution today. But it is always helpful to remember that this technology allows you to update blog readers constantly to get new updates on your work. Do you want to deepen the topic?
The RSS Feed is a decisive element for your blog, even if everyone focuses on other channels to retain your audience.
It would help if you had a united audience to follow your ideas over time. The difference between a successful blog and a simple appearance is the audience. The RSS Feed helps you keep the community together.
How to attract people? There are several loyalty channels, and among these, I mention the social networks. Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and LinkedIn can become the tools to read everything you post on the blog.
But in this stream, you can find other information that doesn’t necessarily concern the blog. The RSS Feed is different; it sends dedicated, specific updates.
Many bloggers are unaware of the power of the RSS Feed, but longtime authors know the usefulness of this tool. Both to disseminate their content and to organize the sources. Here is a guide that will be useful (at least, I hope) to get the most out of RSS Feeds.
The Topic Of This Post
- 1 What is an RSS Feed: definition
- 2 Why still use the RSS Feed
- 3 What RSS Reader Feeds Are For
- 4 Sending full RSS feed or preview?
- 5 How to Create RSS Feeds in WordPress
- 6 3 tools to improve the flow
- 7. Why do you have to follow other people’s feeds?
- 8 Your opinion on this topic
What is an RSS Feed: definition
The RSS Feed (Simple Syndication) is an XML-based content distribution system. Its task is to send a report every time a platform – a blog, a magazine, or a social network – is updated with a publication. The RSS Feed icon is a dot with waves on an orange background.
The RSS Feed icon.
For this reason, RSS is a perfect format in the news and blog sector because it frees the reader from checking for new publications. In the past, it was also prevalent in the forums.
Why still use the RSS Feed
The RSS Feed is a signal that updates the user concerning online content publication. You can grab feeds from different platforms, but blogging is what we’re interested in today. That is one of the main tools for your SEO, content, and inbound marketing activities.
True, users find you through search engines and follow you thanks to your social media marketing activity. However, a good percentage of the public is fond of your work, follows you with passion, and who do not want to miss your updates. It’s the people who read you.
For this, you have to focus on the RSS Feed. This is its usefulness: you can receive the content at home without bothering to check if something has been posted. Following ten blogs is impossible without a feed reader.
What is RSS Reader Feeds for?
RSS feeds need a reader to be followed. I’m talking about programs to sort the different signals sent by blogs. There are dozens of alternatives, and many email clients allow you to organize feeds. But I always choose Feedly, a specific reader.
Why is Feedly the best signal reader? You can organize feeds into folders, add tags, share content on social media without leaving the platform. There are several alternatives to archive, highlight, sort articles. And then Feedly suggests new sources to follow, based on your tastes. Isn’t it the best feed reader?
Are they sending a full RSS feed or preview?
This is one of the historical questions. If you leave the entire text in the RSS Feed, you lose a part of the visits because the subscribers do not reach the website. They remain on their program. Furthermore, those who steal content through the RSS Feed bring the entire WordPress post to their content farm.
Choose how to manage the Feed-in WordPress.
My idea is evident on the subject: it is better to publish only the preview. WordPress allows you to leave a preview of the RSS Feed, go to the reading section of the setting, and check the relevant box.
How to create RSS feeds in WordPress
You do not need to generate it: the RSS Feed is activated with the publication of the articles. Put a post online and start the signal that updates the Feed. To reach it, you have to type in the address www.nomedominio.it/feed/. It creates more or less like this.
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?><rss version=”2.0″
xmlns:content=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/”
xmlns:wfw=”http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/”
xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”
xmlns:atom=”http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom”
xmlns:sy=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/”
xmlns:slash=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/”
>
In reality, the universe in question is articulated, WordPress generates several signals. You can have the RSS Feed of comments from a single post and that of all blog comments. For what reason? I use this function in the blogger outreach phase when I evaluate the blogs to be included in a campaign. Or when I study the target of a specific sector. Here are the addresses:
www.example.com/comments/feed/
www.example.com/post-name/feed/
Different situation. You like a blog, but you don’t want to follow all the sections, only those dedicated to specific topics. Thanks to the function to extract the RSS Feed of single tags and specific categories, you can do it. You have so many possibilities; you have to choose. The permalinks of these RSS feeds:
www.example.com/category/categoryname/feed
www.example.com/tag/tagname/feed
To help users follow the best Feed, you can use a plugin like Category Specific RSS feed Subscription, which allows you to create a well-organized widget with its orange icons clearly visible.
Three tools to improve the flow
Many see the RSS Feed as a static resource. Not so; there are several solutions to improve the user experience. First, you can add an icon in the sidebar: here is the RSS Feed, just one click to find it. But how to facilitate registration and use by users?
Feedburner
The RSS Feed is an incomprehensible page, not very user-friendly, but to make everything more human, you can subscribe to Feedburner. This service belongs to Google, it is in a semi-abandoned state, but it is the best resource available to optimize the RSS Feed interface.
Your Feed after the Feedburner treatment.
Instead of the code, in fact, you have a page with the preview of the posts and a series of buttons to add the signal to the feed readers. You could also join the aforementioned Feedburner and use RSS via email.
That’s right, with Feedburner, you could generate a form and ask to leave the email contact.
In this way, the Feed is sent via email: many readers are tied to this solution and prefer to browse your content from the client.
Unfortunately, the update of Feedburner will pause several functions of this tool, such as sending the RSS Feed via email. You can replace this service after downloading the contacts with a plugin like Mailpoet.
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Another way to improve your RSS Feed? You need to install WordPress SEO by Yoast, one of the must-have plugins. And not just because it allows you to improve the SEO optimization of your blog or website.
You will find the RSS item in the menu to add a link to the post footer. Or a text string. This solution is perfect for inserting a signature and boycotting the stealth work of RSS Feed aggregators (a plague).
IFTTT
This tool is a gold mine, an endless resource for turning your RSS Feed into something completely different. IFTTT recipes are at your disposal, and you can bend the updates to your will.
For example, you can suggest Feedly post any content that goes into favorites on Twitter. Or that they have a particular tag. Here you will find a list of all the combinations that involve the Feed.
Why do you have to follow other people’s feeds?
Prominent bloggers obsessively optimize their feed readers. The reason is clear: this is the main route to identifying valuable sources.
To write great articles, I have to know I have to be updated and deepen topics related to my work. Knowledge does not come from scratch but is inspired and nourished by sources. This is why the Feed is valuable.
If you deal with a single project, you can divide the feed reader into different directories that investigate individual aspects. Otherwise, each folder is dedicated to a project. Official industry sources track them on Twitter through lists and tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.
Your opinion on this topic
The RSS Feed is one of the essential resources for a blogger. Today there are those who prefer to focus on Facebook Twitter. Or maybe on the newsletter. Okay, they are indispensable channels. But the Feed is a point of reference for building customer loyalty. Especially those who work in the technical and IT sectors. Are you taking advantage of all this on your great lakes loan blog? How?
