The Importance of the RSS Feed

You've likely seen the orange and white icon near the top of any web page with content on it. It looks similar to the Wi-Fi connectivity icon on a computer dock, but it serves a much different purpose. Yes, that orange and white icon is what's called the "RSS Feed" and, simply put, it's an easy way for customers to subscribe to content so that it's delivered straight to them.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication." And if a user gives a simple click to that orange and white RSS icon, they can subscribe to the content that said particular medium publishes, essentially allowing them to view any new videos, blog posts, articles, etc. from one centralized location instead of searching for it themselves on the Internet. You may have already gathered that arguably the biggest benefit to subscribing to an RSS Feed is user convenience. RSS FeedInstead of a user seeking out the content that's relevant to their business or personal life, it's delivered to them - typically via a daily e-mail or through a feed reader - saving them time in a world when it's more of the essence than ever. Additionally, if the RSS Feed that someone subscribes to isn't cutting it anymore, all it takes is one click of the mouse to unsubscribe.

RSS Feed Benefits

But aside from user convenience, there's also big benefits from a business perspective. Yes, from a website owner, blogger or business' perspective, RSS Feeds can be a viable marketing tool. Aside from growing a solid following of users, an RSS Feed can also be spread to other popular websites to give your particular website even more publicity. It can help boost an SEO strategy and compliment any existing content marketing plans. And best of all, RSS Feeds are easy to set up, easy to customize and should allow a website to see a significant boost in traffic if everything is done correctly fairly quickly.

The best way to think of an RSS Feed is to compare it to the components under the hood of your car which operate to drive your automobile. You know there's the engine, transmission, battery, radiator and all sorts of hoses, valves and wires to connect all the various elements. RSS is like these components that work under the hood to make content more portable, only it is much easier and more convenient than a car engine to maintain.

In a nutshell, RSS matters. It makes it easier for readers to get the information they're seeking without wasting time browsing the World Wide Web for it. And it helps bloggers, website owners, etc. build a content marketing strategy, while increasing web traffic in the process. And right now, there's nothing out there than can quite compete with an RSS Feed. Google Reader attempted to do so, but Google put the ax to that recently. There have also been rumors swirling lately about the death of RSS. But RSS is alive, well and valuable.

So do you have an RSS Feed set up? If you don't, you should. It's rather important.