What is RSS and why you should care?

June 20th, 2008

With its early predecessors dating back to the mid-1990’s RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a fundamental tool in getting your content published to the widest audience possible on the Internet. Simply put, RSS is a web-based format for frequently updated content, such as blogs, news feeds, and podcasts.

Why does this matter to you and your business?
Because publishing content on the web matters if you want to get noticed. Good content helps people and raises your company profile as an authority and expert in your field or industry. Frequent content updates can contribute to better results with search engines when combined with other SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts.

RSS feeds are a simple way to package your content in a format that allows it to be spread to a very wide audience. And it makes it easy and convenient for people to receive what you have to publish. A company called Common Craft has done and excellent job at creating a short video presentation of exactly how RSS works, in plain English.

Here it is for your viewing pleasure and a BIG hat tip to Common Craft who create great explanation videos:

Let us know what you think.