Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds

Structure of the Atom Feed

Here is how the XML of a good Atom feed should look:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<feed xmlns:g="http://base.google.com/ns/1.0" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xml:lang="en-us">
  <id>http://viatropos.com/blog/</id>
  <uri>http://viatropos.com</uri>
  <title><![CDATA[Viatropos' Feed]]></title>
  <subtitle type="xhtml">
    <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      <p class="vcard">
        Thoughts and musings of <a href="http://viatropos.com/"
        class="url fn">Lance Pollard</a>, a <span
        class="title">programmer</span> living in <span class="adr"><span
        class="locality">Berkeley</span>, <abbr class="region"
        title="California">CA</abbr></span>.
      </p>
    </div>
  </subtitle>
  <link href="http://viatropos.com/" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml"/>
  <link href="http://viatropos.com/blog/" rel="alternate" type="text/html"/>
  <icon>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-favicon.png</icon>
  <logo>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-site-icon.png</logo>
  <author>
    <name>Lance Pollard</name>
    <email>me@viatropos.com</email>
    <uri>http://viatropos.com/</uri>
  </author>
  <rights type="xhtml">
    <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
      Copyright &#169; 2010
      <a href="http://viatropos.com/">Lance Pollard</a>.
      <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/" rel="license">Some rights reserved (CC BY-SA 3.0).</a>
    </div>
  </rights>
  <entry>
    <id>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</id>
    <title type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</div>
    </title>
    <link href="http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds" rel="alternate"/>
    <published>2010-07-30T00:00:00Z</published>
    <updated>2010-07-30T00:00:00Z</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Lance Pollard</name>
    </author>
    <category label="Feed" term="feed" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Rss" term="rss" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Atom" term="atom" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Syndication" term="syndication" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <category label="Xml" term="xml" scheme="http://viatropos.com/tags/"/>
    <summary type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you’re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...</div>
    </summary>
    <content type="xhtml">
      <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
        <h1>Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</h1>
        ...
      </div>
    </content>
  </entry>
</feed>

Key Parts of the Atom Feed

Atom Feed Head Elements

title
subtitle
author
rights
icon
logo
link to self
link to html version

Atom Feed Entry Elements

title
summary
link to html version
content
categories

Structure of the RSS Feed

Here is how the XML of a solid RSS feed should look:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Viatropos' Feed</title>
    <link>http://viatropos.com</link>
    <description>Creativity and Emergence</description>
    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:04:07 -0700</lastBuildDate>
    <image>
      <url>http://viatropos.com/images/icons/viatropos-site-icon.png</url>
      <title>Viatropos' Feed</title>
      <link>http://viatropos.com/</link>
      <description>Creativity and Emergence</description>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Optimizing Your Blog's RSS and Atom Feeds</title>
      <link>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you&#8217;re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...]]></description>
      <content:encoded>Feeds are one of the most important parts of publicizing and marketing your site. But if you&amp;#8217;re building a site from scratch, knowing everything a feed should include is a lot to grasp. This outl...</content:encoded>
      <guid>http://viatropos.com/blog/optimizing-your-blogs-rss-and-atom-feeds</guid>
      <author>Lance Pollard</author>
      <category><![CDATA[feed]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[rss]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[atom]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[syndication]]></category>
      <category><![CDATA[xml]]></category>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

Resources

http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2006/11/feed-publishing-best-practices.html http://www.bloglines.com/login?r=/profile http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/development/how-to-attract-rss-subscribers/ http://stevebragg.libsyn.com/rss http://www.powerhomebiz.com/onlinemarketing/blogs.htm view-source:http://feeds.feedburner.com/ZendeskBlog?format=xml http://edward.oconnor.cx/2007/02/representing-tags-in-atom http://edward.oconnor.cx/2010/04/html-to-atom http://edward.oconnor.cx/feed