WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT: GET A FEED
One of the keys to getting people returning to your site is having fresh content. Something new to look at every time they come to you, so they don’t just click away. That’s not a problem if you update and change things around a lot, but what if you have a fairly static site? What if the nature of your site means it looks pretty much the same, day after day?
You feed it.
Specifically, you put in a bit of code that allows the site to get content from other sites. Got a blog? Then put the content from your blog on your main site as a feed. Or if there are other, relevant sites that post up new content on subjects that would interest your website readers, put them up as well.
How do you do it?
It’s all to do with getting RSS feed content. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated content - like blog entries or news headlines - in a standardised way. RSS feeds update themselves automatically whenever they have new content, so they’re perfect for this function. And it’s all free.
So every time you upload another article to your blog, the RSS feed that the blog automatically creates goes and updates what appears on my main website, thanks to the code I get from the syndication site. So I get fresh content without having to lift a finger.
This is how you can do it for yourself:
You feed it.
Specifically, you put in a bit of code that allows the site to get content from other sites. Got a blog? Then put the content from your blog on your main site as a feed. Or if there are other, relevant sites that post up new content on subjects that would interest your website readers, put them up as well.
How do you do it?
It’s all to do with getting RSS feed content. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated content - like blog entries or news headlines - in a standardised way. RSS feeds update themselves automatically whenever they have new content, so they’re perfect for this function. And it’s all free.
So every time you upload another article to your blog, the RSS feed that the blog automatically creates goes and updates what appears on my main website, thanks to the code I get from the syndication site. So I get fresh content without having to lift a finger.
This is how you can do it for yourself:
- Find an RSS feed you like.
- Don’t know what an RSS feed is? Go to your favourite sites and look for this symbol:
- Click on the symbol and get the feed’s address.
- Look for "RSS website feed" on the search engines.
- Pick one of the results you get and use the code they give you - the feed syndication websites that will help you do this are all pretty much the same. They’ll do it for free in return for advertising their name at the bottom of the feed and putting a link to their website, or in return for a one-off fee (and no advertising).
- Set up the feed details you want, then copy the code it gives you.
- Put the code in the part of your website you want the feed to appear.
You’re very welcome to reprint any of these articles on your website and/or newsletters free of charge, provided:
- you don’t change the article in any way
- you include the writing credit below (including all website links)
Daniel O'Connor is a website, SEO and marketing copywriter using the name Daniboy. He can be contacted here. Visit http://www.daniboy.com for further details of his services.
