Free Website Content
Display RSS Feeds on Websites
Displaying RSS
RSS offers webmasters a unique opportunity to display
fresh content on websites. While publishing an RSS feed
is a great way to generate site interest and increase
communication, syndicating and displaying feeds from
related relevant sources can also generate interest,
increase traffic and improve search engine ranking.
RSS Radars
Webmasters with limited time or capacity can
syndicate related content. In a nut shell, webmasters
can create RSS radars by combining a mix of content
from related sources by grouping similarly-themed feeds.
RSS feeds are updated at different intervals, providing
an ever-changing collection of related information.
RSS is a form of eXtensible Markup Language
or XML. Viewing an RSS feed in a web browser generally
produces code that is not easy for website visitors
to decipher. As a result, webmasters use tools to display
the content contained in an RSS feed.
Content contained in RSS feeds can be
added to websites a number of different ways. Each method
for displaying the RSS feed has pros and cons associated
with it. Webmasters will need to determine which option
will best meet their hosting and technology needs.
Using Javascript to Display RSS
Javascript is the easiest way to display RSS
feeds on a website. There are a number of sites that
will allow you to generate code that can be inserted
into a website. The javascript will auto-update, showing
the latest headlines as the feed is updated. Each time
a visitor visits the website the javascript pulls the
data from the feed. Often, the various scripts can be
customized so that the look of the feed can be made
to match a specific websiteeeds with hopes that the
search engines will devour and spider the contents,
you will be disappointed. When javascript is used to
display RSS feeds, search engines do not actually "see"
the contents of the feed, meaning that the search engines
will not index the contents of the feed within the website.
Feedroll - Feedroll is a free service for syndicating
RSS and ATOM news feeds on your website. Simply select
a feed, customize the design, then copy and paste the
code provided onto your page.
http://www.feedroll.com
Using PHP to Display RSS
PHP is a slightly more complex solution for
displaying RSS. Like javascript, as the contents of
the feed updates, the web page contents will update
as the page is refreshed. The benefit of using PHP to
display RSS is that the contents of the feed displayed
with the webpage can be spidered and indexed by search
engines. The result is a feed that always displays the
most current information from the RSS feed and the web
page content is considered search engine spider and
robot-friendly.
rss2html.php - The rss2html.php
script allows users to create web pages that will always
display the most current information from the RSS feed,
and because the resulting page is pure HTML, it will
be in a format friendly to search engine robots. Using
rss2html.php, webmasters can customize the format and
look of the web page created from the feed. The RSS
feed's contents can easily be integrated into an existing
website's theme. The rss2html.php script parses the
RSS file, extracts the pertinent information, formats
it, and serves it up as regular HTML.
http://www.feedforall.com/free-php-script.htm
FeedRoll Pro - FeedRollPro was
really designed to enable publishers to syndicate their
own content on other sites. But it can be used to syndicate
news feeds from other sites on your own pages. http://www.feedrollpro.com
Using ASP to Display RSS
ASP is similar to PHP. The free ASP/ASP.NET scripts
can be used to convert RSS feeds into HTML and display
on ASP/ASP.NET web-server.
rss2html.asp - ByteScout has implemented
a guide for displaying of RSS/XML feed using free RSS2HTML.ASP
script in ASP or ASP.NET environment. This script can
be used free of charge on any ASP or ASP.NET web-server
and generate HTML from RSS feed. This free ASP script
uses MSXML to load RSS feed from URL and display it.
You can use it as a standalone or call from script on
HTML page to generate HTML content from RSS feed and
then display on your HTML page.
http://bytescout.com/how_to_display_rss_using_asp.html
RssFeed - RssFeed is an open-source custom ASP.NET
server control that displays the contents of a specified
RSS feed in an ASP.NET web page.
http://www.scottonwriting.com/sowBlog/RssFeed.htm
If PHP or ASP is used to update feeds,
the website will have free fresh, relevant content each
time the feeds referenced are updated.
Export RSS to HTML
If you wish to dress up the feed's appearance
you can use a template exporting the feed as HTML or
an HTML table. Publishers can incorporate exported tables
into an HTML template using a server-side include. Each
time the feed is updated, the feed will need to be exported
to HTML and uploaded along with the feed. Though this
only takes a few moments, exporting RSS to HTML does
require webmaster intervention to update the content.
The end result, though, is a complete web page with
an RSS feed in it that will be search engine-friendly.
FeedForAll - FeedForAll allows
users to export RSS feeds from RSS to HTML. The look
of the HTML can be modified to match an existing website's
design.
http://www.feedforall.com
Using Services
There are a number of services available that
host and display RSS feeds, in many cases free of charge.
Because these services operate on a different domain
server there is little benefit to end-users displaying
their feeds in this fashion. That said, the services
are generally free of charge, so you get what you pay
for.
RSS2HTML.com - Select a layout,
color scheme and enter the URL of the feed. A web page
URL will be generated that will display the feed in
the selected scheme.
http://www.rss2html.com
FeedBurner - FeedBurner provides
a number of online services. Among them is a service
that displays RSS feeds on a website.
http://www.feedburner.com
Using XSL to Display RSS
Although using XSL and CSS stylesheets to display
XML directly is easy to understand in theory, it is
rather tricky to implement in the real world and is
very tough for novices to use successfully. Webmasters
must be fairly familiar with CSS and XSL to have the
formatting work well, and webmasters then have to address
browser incompatibilities and exceptions. As a result,
not a lot of resources or services yet exist to display
RSS using XSL.
Using highly targeted feeds, webmasters
can enhance their websites with themed content. Ultimately,
providing relevant, educational or newsworthy information
from reputable related sources will establish expertise
in a specific area.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com
software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds
and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for
NotePage http://www.notepage.net
a wireless text messaging software company.
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be greatly appreciated send an email to sharon@notepage.net
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