RSS Feeds on Your Blog – A Goldmine!

When I create a website or blog, it’s second nature to me to add an RSS feed, as with most people. But often I do get the question asked why should I do this?

What ends up happening is some short education for the client. What is a RSS feed? Who uses them? Why should it be on there?

In one of my beginning blogging classes I first tell everyone that they need to make it easy for a visitor to sign up for their feed. Then I ask how many people understand RSS feeds. Normally only one or two raise their hands. This is followed by a short introduction to RSS readers, etc. But in the end my comment is, “You may never choose to sign up for feeds yourself, or implement a reader, or really understand them, but there are a lot of people out there that do.” And that’s why you need it on your blog!

Note on the top of my homepage, and on this blog page in the sidebar is the option to sign up to receive my RSS via email, as well as the RSS icon to sign up in a reader. Give them both options. A lot of people still want to be notified when you publish a post via email.

There are several options for creating a feed, from the free WordPress default feed to paid services like Feedblitz. You just need to look at the options and find what best fits you needs.

As SEO expert Barry Hurd of 123 Social Media once said to me, “Every time someone signs up for your feed, that is worth it’s weight in gold”. Just think, the person who does sign up for you feed wants to be contacted whenever you do a new post. It doesn’t get better than that!