Is RSS Still Relevant?

Digital technology and trends change so rapidly, it seems that by the time we get around to adopting the latest gadget, we’re on to the next bright, shiny new thing.

RSS was one of these popular developments, coming into widespread use around 2004. So what’s the status and relevance of RSS as we enter the middle of 2016, 12 years later? Opinions around this question are all over the place, without a clear consensus.

Where RSS Started

RSS, an acronym for either Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication, is basically a content feed service that people can subscribe to in order to receive updates from individual web entities. It was created by developers at the old Netscape portal. The concept is similar to newspaper syndication: a quick method to deliver the latest information. When you subscribe to an RSS feed, your web browser will automatically send the new data to you, or you will receive the information using an RSS reader. You’ll most often find links to RSS feeds on content-rich and content-driven sites such as news agencies, media outlets, and blogs, as well as sites rich in audio and video. The RSS feed usually contains a snippet of the new text with links to the complete text on your site, but occasionally will contain the entire text.

Where is RSS Today?

With the prevalence of social media platforms, the role of RSS has changed since it was first introduced into the digital world. And that’s part of the “RSS is dead” argument: who needs RSS feeds when the likes of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook basically push out constant status updates? Many publishing houses and news organizations have stopped running RSS feeds, and many major tech players have retracted their endorsements. Over the last few years, Twitter, Apple, Google, and others have ceased supporting the functionality. 

And yet there is data suggesting continued strong usage in RSS readers (the software that delivers the content to subscribers). Some of this solid adoption and retention has come from people receiving feeds on their mobile devices.

Advantages of RSS Feeds

If you manage a website and have an RSS feed, or are considering adding one, there are several pros and cons to weigh when deciding how to move forward.

• RSS is pretty much free to use.
• It’s a great way to automatically send updated information for b2b and ecommerce sites (such as updated prices or inventory levels). RSS is also useful industries with frequently changing listings, such as auction houses and employment agencies.
• RSS feeds can help with SEO because the links in the feed bring users back to your site, driving traffic.
• Since subscribing to RSS is user-initiated (users must opt-in), your subscribers will feel in control and not as if they are being forced fed content.
• Readers will always have the very latest news and information from your site.

Disadvantages of RSS Feeds

There are a few downsides to adding RSS to your site, although none of them are earth-shattering.

• RSS content is not very visually pleasing. It doesn’t use a designed format that can include graphics, so it can be rather dull.
• Anonymity: there isn’t any way to learn who your subscribers are, or even how many you might have, so it’s difficult to build any user data into a marketing strategy.
• RSS can come across as old school. Newer platforms like StumbledUpon, Reddit, Feedly, Twitter, and Digg allows the user to really specify the categories of content they want to read, which is delivered in an engaging visual format. Plus, these tools offer interactive capabilities so it’s not just a one-way communication channel. 
• If you aren’t regularly publishing new content-, then it probably doesn’t make sense to add RSS to your site.

Where to Turn for RSS Advice

If you’re struggling with the decision to maintain an RSS feed or add one to your site, talk with the marketing pros at Efelle Creative in Seattle. Give us a call today at 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form to reach an online marketing and website design specialist.