For a while there using a RSS feed reader for website browsing was dying out. In a lot of ways, popular social media platforms were able to replace the need for RSS news feeds by being a central hub of popular, sometimes important information. However, with the more recent explosion in the popularity of mobile computing devices, tablets and smartphones, making sure your content is visible through a RSS reader for websites is more important than ever. Here’s why.
1. Usable Nearly Everywhere
Kevin O’Keefe writes on his blog, “Real Lawyers Have Blogs”, that due to the rise in tablet technology, smartphones, and the endless list of applications they have available to them that RSS is not only maintaining popularity but actually increasing it. Whereas before RSS feeds were limited to devices with an operating system that could run sites like the recently deceased Google Reader now RSS aggregators are available in high quality, low cost applications you can take anywhere.
2. Centralized Access
RSS news feeds for websites have come a long way. Whereas before they were only displaying textual information, now they are able to provide a content rich experience that oftentimes features photos and videos. Despite the increase in presentation, what a RSS feed reader for websites does best is aggregating content into a central hub. Whether users flock to popular RSS directories or are curating their own list of subscriptions, everything can then appear in one convenient place. According to Sonali Singh of HubPages, this makes it easier for them to get to and, in turn, makes it more likely they will return to individual sites over time. This necessarily improves web traffic for content providers.
3. Syndication
Websites with RSS feeds are a lot easier to syndicate than those without. In fact, the whole point of a RSS feed is to share content, syndicating it across the web automatically. This, of course, is great for the publishers of that content. It also makes the sharing process much easier for users of popular RSS applications like Android’s Feedly. Sharing to social media can be a clumsy endeavor that at best will be seen by a few people before it is drowned out. On the other hand, Feedly and similar applications are able to directly share content with other users. This ensures friends can more effectively enjoy shared content and adds to traffic growth for publishers.
Utilizing a RSS feed reader for websites is advantageous both for publishers of online content and their consumers. If you are a producer or a user not yet utilizing RSS, what exactly are you waiting for?