Is your art website setup with RSS capabilities? Do you know what an RSS feed does? Do you understand the advantages and benefits that an RSS feed can have for your art website? We will briefly explore what an RSS feed can do to increase the impact and the following of your art website.

First, what is RSS? RSS is an abbreviation for the term “Really Simple Syndication”. You may have noticed on websites a small orange icon (See this Article's Post Image as the Standard RSS Avatar). This icon indicates to the website visitor that the site’s content is also available through a subscription feed.

If a website owner has an RSS feature built into their website, it means that the website owner or webmaster has an automatic and simple way to distribute any of their site’s new content to any interested readers, to other websites and finally to distribute any new content to the social media universe.

An RSS feed allows someone who is interested in you, your product or service to follow your website through a feed reader. When someone subscribes to your content through RSS their web browser’s feed reader will accumulate and grab any new content that is posted on your site and then, in turn, this content will be placed on that subscriber's “Reader”. At any time, the subscriber can then check their reader to see if there is any new content posted. This is far easier and more efficient than trying to find that website URL, locating the website and then searching the entire site to see if there is any new content posted.

Feeds can be set up, administered and collected through the “Favorites” section of your web browser and they are a great way to stay on top of your art niche, without wasting a lot of time searching for content or even going through bookmarked favorites. The content is placed in your feed reader automatically after it is set up. To subscribe to someone’s content, It is only a matter of choosing which websites that you find interesting to follow through your reader.

Here are some of the advantages of having RSS on your website;

1. It allows someone who follows a lot of websites to quickly collect, organize and review your new content.

2. This subscribed content is easier to control and to administer, rather than the normal monitoring of a website through a bookmarking feature.

3. An RSS provides a visitor an additional way to follow you, other than the usual email subscription process where there is an exchange of personal information (Nowadays some people are reluctant to sign up with sites due to being spammed) and an RSS is also another way to retain these viewers instead of losing them.

4. The RSS feature increases the number of visitors who will be exposed to your content through your website syndication. Subscribers may also distribute your new content to their website visitors and to their social media followers as well.

5. Through an RSS feed, a website owner can set up to have their website collect and distribute other website’s related content as a means to promote their website and also this will also help to increase their site's exposure and reach.

6. RSS Feeds can be submitted to RSS Directories for further distribution and exposure of your content and your website.

Overall, RSS capabilities create one more tool that an artist can employ to help increase their website’s exposure, expand their followers and ultimately to gain a higher page rank with the major search engines. If you are a WordPress user there are several RSS plugins that you can use and if you are not with WordPress there are many tutorials on the internet that you can follow to install this feature on your website. Search “install RSS feed on the website” in Google or Bing to collect this information. Good luck with your new RSS feature.