An Overview of RSS

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and in some circles Rich Site Summary, and is the method used by site owners to publish a list of new articles and information available on their site. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus identifying meta data such as publishing dates and author information.

Site visitors have to subscribe to RSS feeds, which can then be viewed using an RSS reader, or displayed in raw form through a browser. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based , desktop-based , or mobile-device-based.

RSS text formats are created using the XML language, which was designed to describe data formats. An XML file format allows the information to be published once and processed by many different programs.

Typically an RSS feed, in its simplest form, consists of re-occurring blocks of a Headline, a small paragraph, and a link that when followed takes the reader to the full article on a web site.

The title and description of your item doesn't need to match exactly the HTML title tag of the web page or the meta description tag. You can write any title and description that you think will describe the page, which gives you a second chance for each page to rank with a different set of keywords and phrases than those used in the actual file. Often it is recommended to provide keywords and phrases that are synonyms of the actual keywords and phrases for which you are trying to rank a page.

The following is an example of what an RSS file looks like in its raw form.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<channel>
<title>Orangetree Internet Service Site Feed</title>
<description>Latest updates to the Orangetree Internet website.</description>
<link>http://www.orangetreeweb.com/feeds/site-update.xml</link>
<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
<lastBuildDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:13:49 -0700</lastBuildDate>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:13:49 -0700</pubDate>
<generator>Orangetree Publisher v1.0 (1.0.3.2)</generator>
<atom:link href="http://www.orangetreeweb.com/feeds/site-update.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<item>
<title>Paint Shop Pro Training Courses</title>
<description>Getting Started with Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 shows beginners how to use Paint Shop X2 to organize, edit, and share photos.</description>
<link>http://www.orangetreeweb.com/it-training/paint-shop-pro-training-course.html</link>
<guid>http://www.orangetreeweb.com/it-training/paint-shop-pro-training-course.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:12:01 -0700</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Microsoft Project Training Courses</title>
<description>Project 2007 Essential Training covers everything from the basics of project management to the ins and outs of integrating Project 2007 with other Office applications.</description>
<link>http://www.orangetreeweb.com/it-training/microsoft-project-training-course.html</link>
<guid>http://www.orangetreeweb.com/it-training/microsoft-project-training-course.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:52:06 -0700</pubDate>
</item>
</channel></rss>

Each <item> is a separate update to the site, with a link to the original article.

There are benefits to a feed subscriber if a site publishes updates to an RSS feed. Most importantly, it gives a subscriber an easy way to stay informed of content that changes on a site without having to subscribe to newsletters, or saving a site URL and then having to visit each site separately to find out if an update has been made. Feed subscribers are automatically notified as new items are published.

There are also benefits to systems that process RSS feeds because the feeds can be easily validated using an RSS feed validator such as the W3C Feed Validator. Validating a feed before it is processed through a system insures that all the required information is present in the file.

Site owners make RSS feeds available by placing an RSS feed icon on their site. The RSS feed icon links directly to the RSS file which when followed will be recognized by an RSS feed reader. Some web site owners will opt to use a third party feed manager such as FeedBurner, which when setup will access the feed at regular intervals. Subscribers can then signup for feeds directly through FeedBurner, or the site owner can generate code that can be placed in their pages to provide a feed signup box directly on their own pages.