(old) What good feed reader (RSS) support looks like on a website
I've been advocating for RSS support, with some success, and I've been thinking about how websites can best support feed readers.
Also see: My Subscribe Page for an example.
Also see: Getting Started With RSS Feed Readers - You can link to this post, or you can outright copy it and claim the content as your own (though I prefer attribution)
Here's my pitch
Bare Minimum: Provide RSS support, even if it's bad. Start by making one feed for one page. Then add markup to your site so feed readers can auto-detect it. Then add a link to your site's footer. After those basics are done, see below.
- Have an 'RSS' or 'Feed' link in the nav menu and/or footer that links to an ARTICLE, not directly to a .rss or .atom URL. This is for the uninitiated, but also communicating what kind of feed support you have. (sample below)
- The Home Page should have HTML Markup for feeds, so feed readers can auto-detect them. (Home Pages often should have multiple feeds)
- Any page having its own feed should have markup indicating it. (And perhaps should also provide the main feed for the site.)
- Anywhere social media accounts are recommended OR email newsletter signups are recommended, feed readers should also be recommended (and that should link to the aforementioned article)
- Search Results should have RSS feeds.
- Categories & Tags should have RSS feeds.
- Feeds should provide at least 50 articles, if that many exist.
- Where a page doesn't have its own feed, the markup should indicate the most closely related feeds.
- Ex: Steam Store pages don't have feeds, but their linked 'Related News' and 'Updates' pages do. The store page should list those feeds. (We'll see if they add it!)
- Ex: This Political NPR Article doesn't have it's own feed, but it has markup for the 'Politics' feed.
- Ex: LinuxMint.com does not have a Feed, but blog.LinuxMint.com does. LinuxMint.com should have markup pointing to the feed on the blog. (I asked them to do this, and we will see!)
(aforementioned is a fun word. Say it. SAY IT!)
On this Page
Sample RSS/Feed Article (NPR.org Example)
Subscribe to NPR.org with a Feed Reader app or follow us on [social media links].
'Share' this page with your Feed Reader app or use 'NPR.org' for the feed URL.
Pro Tip: NPR in your state, the Whitehouse, BlueSky, YouTube, and many others support feeds! Your state politicians might, too.
Available Feeds
We have a few feeds available on our site. Subscribe to any or all of them!
- Home Page - Lots of available feeds! (Top stories, All News, NPR Music, Morning Edition, etc)
- National News
- Business News
- and more! Just visit any category page.
App Recommendations
Feed Markup
You can add multiple tags to any page on your site in order to list multiple feeds. Use the atom or RSS tag. (I prefer only providing one because it will cause less confusion).
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" href="/feed/" title="ReedyBear's Blog">
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="/feed/?type=rss" title="ReedyBear's Blog">
Notes
- Recommending a Windows desktop client or Linux desktop client would also be cool, but I want to appeal to the majority without causing overwhelm.
- I think it is typically best to discuss "Feeds" and "Feed Readers", not RSS. We don't tell people to "visit my HTML page delivered over HTTPS", we say "Visit my website".