How to create and optimice your RSS feeds and other syndication
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Let's start for the beginning: What is RSS ?
The easiest way to create a RSS feed for your site is using a program or script that creates them automatically, like Blogger, or a CMS like Drupal.
But if that is not possible I'd recommend using any if the free PHP RSS writers available. Among them, I like RSSWriter, which allows the creation of RSS 1.0 feeds (only text), or my own script playRSSwrite , which allows for the creation of RSS 2.0 feeds with images incorporated and that can accept data from a database or from static data.
Once we have that first basic RSS file, I'd recommend following these steps to optimise it:
This is it, good luck getting subscribers now.
The easiest way to create a RSS feed for your site is using a program or script that creates them automatically, like Blogger, or a CMS like Drupal.
But if that is not possible I'd recommend using any if the free PHP RSS writers available. Among them, I like RSSWriter, which allows the creation of RSS 1.0 feeds (only text), or my own script playRSSwrite , which allows for the creation of RSS 2.0 feeds with images incorporated and that can accept data from a database or from static data.
Once we have that first basic RSS file, I'd recommend following these steps to optimise it:
- Use Feedburner to transform our feed into another feed, but readable by humans and optimiced. It also allows for statistics on the feed.
- Include the autodiscovery tag in the <head> of your pages. This way, some RSS aggregators will find it automatically. The code is as follows (you have to substitute the feed with yours, of course):
- Use rssfwd to put a code in your page for people to subscribe to your feeds via email. Remember that RSS technology is very recent, and most people still don't know what you are talking about. Email remains the communication method for a lot of people.
- Add chiklets, those little subscription buttons. You can use Feedburner for that or create your own chiklets with Buttom Maker.
This is it, good luck getting subscribers now.
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