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How To Insert RSS Feed Into A Web Page

From: Ed Zivkovic

What Does RSS Stand For ?

Some say that RSS is Really Simple Stupid, but the main terms that I hear getting around are Really Simple Syndication and Rich Site Summary.

This article does not attempt to explain RSS in it's entirety, but rather, focuses on how to display a Feed on a web page in order to create fresh daily content for the purpose of getting more search engine traffic.

What Is RSS Feed ?

An RSS Feed is a stream of information which can be displayed on your web site or can be displayed on your desktop with RSS and News Readers.

The Feed contains a headline link and a short description of the actual article.

Who Uses It?

  • Webmasters who want to increase web site traffic
    1. Allow other webmasters to display your content on their site.
    2. Display other people s content on your site.

  • People who want to subscribe to specific RSS Feeds
To display RSS feeds in order to increase your own web site traffic, it is important to use a tool which will actually display real content on your site.

If the tool requires you to paste a JavaScript on your web page, this will result in a visual display of an RSS Feed but will not provide "real" content which can be spidered by a search engine.

For example, if you paste the code from our own web feed generator, it will display our latest headlines. But if you check the source code of your web page, you will still only see the JavaScript.

Using JavaScript to display RSS is good if all you want to do is provide headlines and news descriptions to your existing readers, but, it is not good if your purpose is to create "real" fresh daily content on your site. Overall conclusion about this method? - Bad.

Generate Real Content

To display other people s RSS Feeds on your web site and generate "real" content that can be spidered by search engines, it is necessary to have the tool generate real HTML into your web pages.

Furthermore, it is also an advantage if the tool can generate real HTML content based on keywords that you select. This will cause the RSS Feeds to be related to your existing content.

In many cases, if the keywords you have selected cause the software to generate fresh content, this method will cause the spiders to visit your site daily.

Tip: The more generic the keyword, the easier it is to generate New Feeds. The more obscure the keywords, the harder it will be to find new Feeds. Somewhere in between generic and obscure, most people find a happy balance which will achieve desireable results.

RSS Tool Types For This Job

The tool I use is RSS Equalizer. To display the RSS Feed with this tool, it is a simple matter of buying the tool, installing it onto your web site and inserting the code into your web page/s.

This particular tool will generate real HTML into your pages. What this means is that you will have real content on your site. Check the source code of the pages where you have pasted the code and you will not see the code, instead, you will see real content.

RSS Equalizer Targets Feeds by Keyword/s

Check the sample code below to see how simple it is to target specific Feeds based on keywords. Simply insert ANY KEYWORD/S to target a particular niche of Feeds.

    Sample PHP Code

    <? $keyword="ANY KEYWORD/S"; include("/home/yoursite/public_html/rss/rss.php"); ?>

    The above sample code is if your web pages have a .php extention.

    Sample SSI Code

    <!--#include virtual="/rss/rss.php?keyword=ANY KEYWORD/S" -->

    The above sample code is if your web pages have a .shtml extention.

This method of targeting Feeds with keywords can also be used with a content management system. Simply insert the code into your CMS template/s and replace ANY KEYWORD/S with a command to target say for example the Title or the Meta Keywords of the document.

Each particular CMS has it's own specific commands. People who already own a Content Management System will already know how to apply this method.

Creating Your Own RSS News Feeds

If you already have a web site where you add content regularly, you might like to create your own feeds. Our previous article will reveals the code that is required to create rss from your own content. This can then be displayed by other webmasters on their sites.

Jonathan Eisenzopf has also written an excellent article about how webmasters can create RSS Feeds from their own content. Creating RSS Feeds from your own content will allow other webmasters to display your headlines on their site.