Long live RSS!

RSS is a method for automatically syndicating content. RSS feeds allow anyone interested in a site's content to easily collect the latest updates without needing to revisit the website. It is a page specifically created to be read by computers rather than people, and it gathers the headlines, audio, video and links from the page into a tool called an RSS Reader.
RSS offers an easy means of getting up to date information in front of those who have already expressed an interest in your products, services, content, bringing return visitors to your site, as well as reaching a wider audience through third party websites. It can reduce administration, in that a job only need be done once – updating the website with new content - and that content is then distributed automatically to interested parties. It also reduces spend on methods such as email marketing, customer retention, and search engine optimisation.
There are several different ways in which it can work for a website owner.
· You can add an RSS Feed to your website. This allows people to subscribe to be kept informed of your updates, news, product announcements, special offers etc.
· You can add an RSS Feed from a third party. This allows you to show automatically generated content from other sources, such as industry news or commentary.
· You can permit your RSS Feed to be included in third party sites. This allows you to syndicate your information to high traffic websites with minimum effort.
From an SEO and internet marketing point of view, all of these methods generate new traffic and encourage return visitors; increase the speed at which your pages get indexed by the search engines because of new, fresh content; increase the number of keywords and terms for which your site is shown in the search engine rankings; and can increase the number of backlinks to your site.
Many browsers, such as Firefox, Opera and Safari, will indicate whether an RSS feed is available on a website, and make subscribing easy. Adding an RSS Feed to your own website is not a difficult task, and there are many RSS tools and tutorials to help you.
RSS Feed aggregators are now in use by many sites to gather content from different sources, so it is a great method for syndicating your content and information on to high traffic websites with minimum work.
The real beauty of RSS is the automation, and the fact it is a high value free Internet marketing tool which should be an integral part of your marketing toolbox.

Phil Robinson is an experienced online marketing consultant and Founder of ClickThrough Marketing – an international Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing agency.