Contents
If you’ve spent any length of time using content management platforms, you’ve seen RSS feed, the characteristic orange icon. Many bloggers wonder what it is and how it can be used. The good news is that you can use it to grow your WordPress site! This article explains what it is, its benefits, and how to use it to make your site more popular.
Defining RSS
Let’s start with a simple answer to the question, “what is RSS.” It is a sort of web feed that lets users and apps get regular updates from a blog or website of their choice. The acronym stands for Rich Site Summary and Really Simple Syndication but is more commonly referred to as the RSS feed.
Back in the day, you had to bookmark any sites you wanted to keep track of for updates, promotions, etc. Then, you had to visit them manually to check. With RSS feeds, you can keep track of any website without having to visit it manually.
RSS enables publishers and bloggers to syndicate their content automatically so that people can read it in their feed reader, email, etc.
What do RSS feeds do?
RSS feeds publish the most recent content in an organized XML document. The feed contains metadata for each item, like the author and the date, as well as the full article or an overview. You can use an RSS feed reader to fetch and read the XML document. A lot of RSS feed reader software is available for mobile devices, desktops, and all operating systems.
There is integrated support for RSS feeds for all blogs on WordPress. Each page has a meta tag by default, which directs to the feed location.
Advantages of RSS feeds
RSS feeds make it easy to subscribe to content. Your readers will get updates from your site or blog right on their devices or desktop applications. People won’t need to remember your URL because all of the content is brought into a central location, where they can read all the latest from their favorite websites. They can even access your content offline because it becomes portable.
RSS feeds help you grow and sustain a loyal following around your blog. Your content is more likely to be shared on social networks. Many people use RSS feeds to tweet new WPBeginner articles automatically.
Users appreciate RSS feeds for allowing them to scan through their favorite blogs and news sites quickly. They can visit individual posts and leave comments. The majority of modern feed readers make it possible to sort reading lists into groups and categories. You can make the most of your reading by using RSS efficiently.
You can use an app called a feed reader to subscribe to RSS feeds. There are free readers on the market for all popular devices and operating systems.
Promoting an RSS feed
If you’re on WordPress, an RSS feed is published automatically. You can find it by adding /feed/ at the end of your URL, for example, nicheproduct.com/feed.
Visitors to your site can subscribe to your feed by adding the RSS icon to a visible area, like your sidebar. It’s also possible to link the feed to an email marketing service and let users get your blog posts right in their email.
Use feeds to cross-promote blogs
RSS feeds are very powerful marketing tools. They can be used to grow a loyal following with minimal effort. WordPress features a default RSS widget, which can be added to the sidebar. From here, your latest posts will be shown. The widget is often used to cross-promote blogs.