By now I’m sure you’ve seen a gazillion times the little RSS reader icon (image on left) on blogs and websites. Do you know what that little icon does for one of the visitors to your fitness blog?  Are you properly optimizing your RSS feed?

Let’s start with what in the world RSS is?  And also what it does?

The definition from Wikipedia says, “RSS (most commonly expanded as “Really Simple Syndication”) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.  An RSS document (which is called a “feed”, “web feed”, or “channel”) includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

RSS provides your website visitor a quick way to read your newest information without actually visiting your site. Yes I said without visiting your site.  “Well I want them to come to my site,” you say.  “True,” I respond “but a reader via RSS feed is better than no reader at all.”

There are numerous “feed” readers that an internet user can use to read your newest updates.  Personally I use Google Reader to manage feeds of sites I want to read regularly.  This way I can leave comments on any new posts.

So lets talk customizing and enhancing your fitness website feed for your readers.

Customize Your Feed