How do I Create an RSS Feed From a Website?

An RSS feed allows your audience to receive updates of new content.

Creating a RSS feed for a website requires only a few simple steps. RSS feeds, also referred to as "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary" allow you to syndicate website updates or blog postings to people who have signed up for your RSS feed. Several free and paid services provide a RSS generator, with Feedburner leading the industry with free RSS generation and a multitude of analytics, subscription and promotional options.

Things You'll Need

• RSS generator

Instructions

1. Create a user account with a service that provides an RSS generator for its clients. Feedburner is the industry standard for creating an RSS feed. Purchased by Google in 2007, Feedburner provides a wide array of syndication and data options for your RSS feed for free and requires no HTML or programming knowledge to use.

2. Enter your website's URL in the RSS generator box, usually located on the first page after you sign up for your account.

3. Follow the dialogue boxes for setting up your feed. For example, if using Feedburner, you will be asked if you have a feed title you'd like to add. Once you finish that step, the next window will provide a URL address for your feed that looks like the following: "http://feed.feedburner.com/yourfeedtitle.

4. Copy this link and paste it in any website customization that calls for your RSS feed address.

5. Log in to your RSS account and check the additional settings and data analysis the service provides, such as free email subscriptions, site analytics and promotional tools for your RSS feed.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to place your RSS feed subscription icon, usually an orange square with white radio waves, in a prominent position on your site so people can easily subscribe to your information and receive new content as you post it.

• If you are creating a feed for a blog, you can adjust the feed settings within the blogging platform's administration panel under general settings. This will tell the blog what to include in the feed, such as images, headlines or full text.

• If you wish to subscribe to other website RSS feeds, simply look for the orange RSS icon or a link to an RSS feed and select the tool you wish to send the feed to. Many people use third party RSS readers as information aggregates so they can read their RSS feeds at a glance. Google, Yahoo and other major service providers offer RSS readers as do a number of smaller companies with excellent products.

References

• Smashing Magazine: Best Design Practices and Icons for RSS