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Last Checked: 2008-07-22 at 13:05:00
Search Engine Optimisation4
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September 12, 2008

RSS Vs. ATOM

Filed under: External Feeds — Josh @ 8:27 am

In Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) having fresh content uploaded to a website regularly is very important. SEO usually does this in the form of blogs, the most common ways to do this is by using and RSS feed or and ATOM feed. RSS and ATOM are used when a webmaster is frequently updating information to a website. They are used for uploading regular files, such as blogs, news headlines, and audio and video (in standardised format). They are often called feeds, web feeds or channels and include some META data in the coding. In this section of the ‘How to SEO’ manual, we will be comparing RSS feeds to ATOM feeds.

RSS

The RSS feed came before the ATOM feed and really paved the way forward for fast and easy uploads. The RSS feed allows authors to quickly upload content and it also automatically syndicates content. Users can also subscribe to the feeds and the RSS updates the user of any changes automatically.

RSS does have its problems however, it is ‘frozen’, meaning that it must always remain backwards compatible. It is also restricted, as it only supports plain text or escaped HTML (this is very technical)- it essentially means that it is hard to work with in some areas.

ATOM

The ATOM feed is a much more robust way of uploading data to a web page. It also boasts many more features than RSS. ATOM also uses ‘last update’ notifications called Timestamps, this is a really good way of keeping up to date with recent changes.

ATOM can be very complex and complicated regarding the audience of your feed. You must use two different types of data; one for human or one for computer aggregator, this does confuse issues within ATOM.

Between RSS and ATOM, there is no real winner, it is just a matter of personal preference. Both have their ups, and both have their downs.If you want to have a fast, simple and widely used feed, RSS is the one for you. If you prefer a hardier and more feature supporting feed, go for ATOM.

Related posts:

  1. External Feeds- Introduction
  2. External Feeds - What are they?
  3. Great Web tools for SEO, Blogger and Internet users

1 Comment »

  1. [...] advice and further information on External feeds. In this chapter we will cover aspects such as RSS feeds vs ATOM feeds. We will also explain fully, what external feeds are. Here at Position Gold, we aim to make Search [...]

    Pingback by External Feeds- Introduction | Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Feed from Position Gold Ltd — September 23, 2008 @ 11:59 am

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