Why Use RSS Feeds?

For something called "Really Simple Syndication", many people have a hard time getting a grip on what RSS is and why you should use RSS feeds. This post is about the "why".

RSS feeds are almost like magic. Once embedded on a website or blog, they provide a stream of ever-changing content, as the original source of the RSS feed updates content and changes. This means that on the receiving end you can have multiple avenues of fresh content being served up on your website and blogs. (Hint: No reason why these cannot be part of a link wheel)

On the other side of the equation, having links to your RSS feeds across the net, and your RSS feeds placed on other websites and blogs, will result in new and increased sources of traffic that continues to build over time. RSS feeds can be as good, or better, than a boat load of so-so back links that everyone else is using.

RSS for Both Links and Traffic

Links and traffic are the main reasons for our interest in learning how to use RSS effectively. Keep in mind that RSS technology is heavily invested in ways you may not even be aware of when it comes to online search and content distribution. In short, it is here to stay. These are mini content distribution robots, and traffic magnets that work for you on auto-pilot. What could be better than having your content seamlessly distributed across the web, and then also have new visitors and readers attracted to your websites and blogs in the same effortless manner?

Just having your content syndicated in so many countless ways will make you website content spread a great deal broader than you can ever imagine.The number of visitors, and the number of other sites linking back to you are some of the known metrics that will have a positive effect on your search search engine ranking and Page Rank.

Now that you know the "why", in the next post we are going to look at the history and some of the "hows" for using RSS. You can subscribe to this blog by pressing the big RSS button in the top right side bar for a demonstration of how RSS works.