Digging Deeper To Get The Most From RSS Technology: How RSS Feeds Are Structured #1

RSS marketing is not only about the strategies and tactics you use, but also about taking advantage of the little technical details that make RSS what it is.

Today we're taking you one step further and taking a more detailed look at how RSS feeds are structured and how you can use that to your advantage.

A) How RSS Feeds Are Structured

RSS feeds contain the basic information about the RSS feed itself and the individual RSS feed content items that actually carry the content you want to deliver to your target audiences or syndicate to other websites.

All of this information is carried within different perscribed RSS feed elements that are used for different purposes.

But how you use these elements may actually define whether you are getting the most from RSS or not.

Now you don't actually need to know how to create an RSS feed, since your RSS publishing software will do that for you, but you need to know what to put in these elements to make the most from them.

B) RSS Feed Elements

RSS feed elements describe the RSS feed.

Each element encloses the actual descriptionary information, just like an HTML tag.

The most important elements you need to pay attention to for increasing marketing results are:

1. RSS Feed Title

The name of the RSS feed, which will be displayed in the RSS Reader when someone accesses your feed, as well as the search engines and so on.

You need to craft your title so that it stands out among other feeds in your subscribers' RSS Readers and attracts them, and is at the same time rich with your most important keywords to assure you achieve better search engine placement for your feeds.

2. RSS Feed Description

A short sentence that describes the RSS feed. Just as with the title element, the description needs to attract your target audiences (in many RSS Readers the description is displayed just below the feed title) and at the same time assure better placement within the search engines.

So keep it user-attractive, conveying the main content points covered in your feed and the key benefits for your readers, as well as search-engine-friendly, with your most important keywords.

3. RSS Feed Image

The image element is used to display your logo on the RSS feed presentation in RSS Readers. The default width for the logo is 88 px and the maximum width is 144 px. Default image height is 31 px and the maximum height is 400 px.

Including your logo in your feed will make your feed more memorable for your subscribers, thus helping you increase actual readership, as well as provide additional branding for your business.