What is an RSS feed?

Many website operators use RSS to enhance their online offers with content from professional providers. But what about the feed technology? We look at the issue in the context of content syndication and give you an overview of the functions and usage possibilities of RSS.

RSS is web feed technology that allows online content providers to publish new content on their website in a standardized form. Web feeds can be found on news portals, blogs, forums, or wikis – essentially any dynamic web offerings that are often subject to constant updates. The goal is to keep internet users informed of new content continuously, as with a news ticker. The flow of information starts as a pull medium from the recipient, who subscribes to the web feeds that they’re interested in. Feed reader software (usually an app or a web app) is used. Users subscribe to channels to automatically receive content and up-to-date news from providers. The URLs for these feeds can be obtained from the web browser.

You can use RSS feeds for content syndication methods, or for the multiple use of content. The RSS content of a website, once it’s structured, can easily be integrated into other pages. Operators of online platforms sometimes use this option to supplement their own page with foreign content, to give their homepage the character of a portal, or to establish themselves as news aggregators.

But the use of foreign web content for content syndication is subject to copyright risks. In addition, syndicated content often provides duplicate content, which may lead to loss of search engine ranking.

RSS was developed in 1999 by Netscape Communications. At that time, it was the abbreviation for RDF Site Summary, a technology used as part of the individualized messages that could be sent on the My Netscape network. One year later, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) was replaced by the simpler XML format, resulting in the reinterpretation of the abbreviation from RSS (Rich Site Summary) to then mean Really Simple Syndication. The successor to RSS is the Atom format, which is based on RSS.

Currently, RSS represents a collection of XML file formats with which structured web feeds are offered under specially designed URLs. The different RSS channels are often subdivided thematically. For example, the New York Times provides separate feeds for different topics of news, such as business, arts, or real estate.

All RSS file formats have the fact that they are pure content elements in common. The technology uses the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to mark information semantically. Information on the presentation of the content isn’t included in RSS documents. This allows web feeds based on RSS to be combined with a wide range of technologies, and present content over the internet across all types of media. Before presentation, though, RSS documents have to first be converted to HTML. The RSS parsers contained in feed readers are able to interpret the XML markup and process the information as an HTML document.

If you want to manage RSS feeds with Chrome, the browser needs to be upgraded with optional extensions. Free add-ons can be found in the Chrome Web Store.

RSS documents feature a very manageable structure. The basic elements are the XML tags <rss>, <channel>, and <item>.

Every XML document starts with a tag that declares the correspondent XML version as well as the character set in use – in this example, XML 1.0 and UTF-8.

After the initial XML declaration comes the rss tag. This indicates the respective RSS version and, in the current example, contains references to additional specifications that can be included in the form of XML namespaces. In the following example, the semantic characters are Dublin Core (dc) and Atom (atom).

The actual content of the RSS document is nested in the channel tag. This contains the overall description of the newsfeed (title, description), included metadata (language, copyright, docs, generator, managingEditor, webMaster), logos, and links. 

The child elements used with the channel tag are divided into mandatory and optional elements.

The channel tag also contains the individual item blocks that serve to display the article preview. Every item block represents an article and, in the current example, contains the tags <title>, <link>, <description>, <category>, <dc:creator>, <pubDate>, and <guid>.

Other than the category tag, each child element can only be used once per item.

In addition to the function that allows you to save an RSS feed as a dynamic bookmark, Firefox also offers the option of managing the subscription using an external application.

For website operators, RSS feeds are a good way to inform subscribers of new features at regular intervals and to encourage them to visit the website again. When it comes to online marketing, RSS feeds are discussed as a tool for customer loyalty.

To process the contents of a website as a feed, operators have three options available to them.

• Manual creation of an RSS document by means of XML

• File integration through external programs and web services

• Automated output of RSS documents using a content management system (CMS)    

In principle, RSS feeds can be created without too much effort. The underlying XML file is created in a classic text editor and the basic RSS schema discussed earlier serves as a template.

1. Create text files: In the first step, the RSS basic schema is filled with the contents of the respective website. Generally, these RSS feeds contain anywhere from 10 to 15 items.

1. Save text files in XML format: The second step involves saving the just-created text document as a XML file.

2. Publish the RSS document: For website visitors to subscribe to the created feed, the underlying XML file is loaded onto the server and linked to from within the website.

A manually created RSS feed has the advantage that website operators can choose exactly which articles are to be syndicated via this medium. The drawback is that updates on the feed also have to happen manually. Bloggers and other website operators who want to regularly inform their readers about new content have to create a corresponding entry in the XML document for each new article on the website. To prevent the document from getting out of hand, it’s recommendable that you delete the oldest entry as each new entry is added.

Due to the high workload required for updating RSS feeds, they’re rarely created manually in practice.

If you don’t want to write XML documents yourself, then you can rely on programs and web services that help web site operators create, publish, and maintain RSS feeds.

• RSS Builder: The freeware RSS Builder offers you the possibility to insert RSS entries via a well-structured user interface and get a XML document in return. In addition, the software provides an integrated FTP client so that the file can be uploaded using the tool as well. Previously created XML documents can be opened and updated with RSS Builder, too. The disadvantage: The program is only available for Windows 7, and requires the .NET framework 1.1. RSS Builder is, furthermore, not currently being developed.

• Feedity Feed Builder: The web app Feedity Feed Builder provides functions for reading and automatically structuring dynamic websites. To automatically create RSS feeds, users just need to have one web page of their project as an example. The semantic markup is done with the help of the visual selector in the frontend view. The auto-selection function automatically transfers markups to similar items. RSS feeds created with Feedity are automatically updated when new content is added. The disadvantage: The tool can only be used effectively if all functions have been activated by subscribing to a paid upgrade.

As a rule, dynamic websites are created with a CMS or blog software. These systems offer the benefit that all content is already semantically structured in the databases, ready to be separated from the presentation layer, and is generated dynamically only at the moment of access. To publish an RSS feed instead of a website, you just need a different template that contains the appropriate presentation specifications. RSS functions are included in all popular content management systems. If the content on the website is revised, then the XML document will also be automatically updated.

Depending on the software you use, third-party software such as Google FeedBurner can be helpful for expanding a CMS or blog software to include RSS functionalities, as well as analytics and advertising.

7. Integrate the website source HTML code: To publish the RSS widget created via FeedWind, website operators need simply to paste the widget code into the HTML source of their website.

Instead of including external RSS feeds, FeedWind can also be used to provide an overview of a website’s own content on the home page.

In the past, RSS feeds were sometimes misused as a backlink source for search engine optimization (SEO). For this, website operators would contribute the feeds of their own page to a variety of different RSS directories. This approach is not recommended anymore from today’s perspective, however. Similar to extra entries in web directories, search engines can correctly recognize and identify this practice as a form of spam. Because of this, RSS feeds are no longer regarded as a tool for link building. The potential for a positive influence on SEO is there, however, due to the opportunity to generate traffic via feeds.

News aggregators like Yahoo News, Google News, and Feedly play a central role: They are all based on RSS feeds. Website operators who are able to insert their own feed into these services can expect continuous traffic streams.

Caution is advised if you want to integrate almost exclusively foreign content into your website via RSS. While it’s a great asset in moderation, it can be harmful to your search engine rankings if it’s too large. Google and other search engines sometimes classify the short descriptions contained in the feed as duplicate content. This applies in particular to websites that provide little or none of their own content. You should always ask yourself whether or not the feed really represents an enrichment for your website’s visitors.