Why You Should Use RSS Feeds for Your Site?

13 April 2011

If you have an online business and you like to send email and newsletters to your customers, you will benefit from having RSS feeds on your website. RSS feeds act much like an email newsletter, actually much better than that, providing you an alternative route of communication with your customers.

It allows the website owners to send their updated content to the subscribers almost instantaneously as they submit the feeds to several RSS directories.

The primary reasons why you should use RSS feeds is convenience for your users and increased page views for your website. You should use these feeds for your site, if you are regularly updating with dynamic content. It will allow your viewers to be updated on your website without having to visit it every day. While it may seem obsolete at first glance, in reality, you will get more page views and the visibility of your site will substantially improve. Your users will find it more convenient as they can know immediately when something interesting for them will be available on your site. They do not need to peep on your website routinely for that.

Suppose that your company regularly have some new products or have some improvements on an existing product. You announce them frequently on your website. If you do not have an RSS feed on your website, your viewers or customers need to remember to visit your site to check whether any new item is added. However, if you use RSS feeds on your website, you will allow them to subscribe to it so that they can use their feed reader to remain updated on any new developments at your website shortly after you post them.

Likewise, if you have a news site, majority of your viewers are most unlikely to visit your site every day, because there is no lack of news sites on the web. If you add RSS feeds on your site, your viewers will be constantly updated of the new headlines that you post, and chances are they will feel curious to click on a title that catches their interest.

It is also interesting to note that as a website owner, you have the freedom to control the information you syndicate in the feed. You may opt for sending the full article or just the summary with an eye-catching headline. If your website contains articles targeting a niche market, RSS feeds will increase your exposure in that market.

Your users will get timely information on products, conferences and seminars as you release the information without having to send out emails. Some of the reasons why your users may be interested to subscribe to the RSS feeds in your website are, it is free of spam, it does not need any personal information to subscribe and it gives them the freedom to unsubscribe anytime they wish.

Since RSS provides you with the opportunity to expand your audience through syndication, you will get an opportunity to connect to your potential customers. Traffic to your website increases, as a result.

The widespread syndication by RSS feeds can strengthen the brand name of your company, and at the same time, it can increase the number of back links to your website, improving your rank in the search engines.

Ultimately, you are going to be the gainer by including RSS feed on your website.