pf » How to add RSS Autodiscovery to your site

June 15, 2005

How to add RSS Autodiscovery to your site

I sometimes see web sites or blogs that have RSS feeds, but fail to include the one line of HTML that enables RSS autodiscovery. Even some well known blogs such as 37 Signals - Signal Vs Noise omit the feature. Jason Kottke's blog has autodiscovery support on the main page, but not on his entry pages.

Adding that one line of code to your template will make it easier for people to subscribe to your RSS feed. Here's how:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"
title="RSS Feed for petefreitag.com"
href="/rss/" />

The above link tag should be added inside the head tag of your HTML document.

You will of course need to change the value of the title and href attributes to fit your needs.

If your feed is an ATOM feed you will want to change the type to application/atom+xml.

If you have multiple feeds for the url you can just specify multiple link tags.

When you enable autodiscovery for your rss feed it allows browsers and aggregators to automatically detect the RSS feed when your browsing, and it makes it easy for the user to subscribe to it. Both FireFox, and Safari 2.0 support autodiscovery of RSS feeds out of the box, here's what it looks like when you find one:

Permalink | Add Comment |

add to del.icio.us | Tags: rss, autodiscovery, html, atom, blogs

Related Entries

Foundeo's 2007 End of the Year Sale - December 21, 2007
Yahoo Pipes Generates Invalid RSS Feeds - February 22, 2007
SoloSub is for button addicts - October 6, 2005
Google Sitemaps Accepts RSS and Atom Feeds - September 12, 2005
The Proper Content Type for XML Feeds - June 13, 2005

41 people found this page useful, what do you think?

Trackbacks

Trackback Address: 384/C04401E490763EEC0B244399A528C385

RSS Autodiscovery Blogantics
RSS and Atom feeds autodiscovery code RichardByrom.com

Comments

On 06/15/2005 at 7:30:12 PM MDT freaksauce wrote:

That's awesome I wondered why mine wasn't working, thanks Pete!

On 06/15/2005 at 10:12:58 PM MDT Michael Dinowitz wrote:

The trailing slash is illegal according to the w3 validator.

On 06/16/2005 at 10:27:21 AM MDT Pete Freitag wrote:

Michael - The trailing slash on the link tag is required if your document type is XHTML, if your doctype is HTML 4.0 then you should not have the closing slash on the tag.

On 06/27/2005 at 6:41:15 AM MDT Jonson wrote:

Dear sirs, Please tell me what is required to implement RSS feeds in Online Traffic School Educational site. Send me the reply as soon as you can. Thankyou, Jonson.

On 10/07/2005 at 9:18:48 PM MDT M. Mortazavi wrote:

I do not see the RSS icon on Firefox, when I go here, for example:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/rss/front.htm

i.e., I don't see any autodiscovery for it.

On your website, and on the WSJ feed website, I do see the auto-discovery icon on Firefox. I know how to subscribe when the icon is there but how does one subscribe when the icon is not present.

On 10/21/2005 at 12:53:56 AM MDT Reddick wrote:

ParentGames.com offers free online games for parents.Play games online free

On 10/21/2005 at 12:55:58 AM MDT Reddick wrote:

Evogear.com provides Skiing, wakeboarding, snowboarding equipment,Skis,Ski Boots,Ski Bindings,Ski Poles,Protective Gear,Snowboard Boots,Wake and apparel. Your ultimate source for the best discount sports equipment in the world

On 11/17/2005 at 9:12:05 AM MST Mathew wrote:

Submit the links for your RSS feeds to www.rsspool.com/rsspool/addrss.asp and get your rssfeed listed in google.com and other search engines.

On 11/19/2005 at 11:03:21 AM MST naser wrote:

yeah, I use the same trick too :)

On 03/10/2006 at 8:35:33 PM MST Ikey wrote:

Hello:

I was at your blog a month ago, and read about adding autodiscovery tags at blogs. I did it.

I have not seen any sign of improvement in traffic since then.

Unless there is an error that I made which I am unaware of.

Ikey Benney http://maychic.com/clickbankbuddy/index.cgi

On 04/04/2006 at 11:30:55 AM MDT Ray Corbett wrote:

Hi,

I inserted the above code in the index.html of my site http://www.search-wiz.info but nothing happened. If you have time look at the site and click on view source and you'll see the code, but nothing is appearing on the page.

I'm new at this, but isn't the graphic above supposed to show up on the page somewhere? And, if so, how do you control where it is going to show up on your page, by just pasting the code between the head tags? Obviously I'm confused.

Help...Ray

On 07/22/2006 at 10:47:41 AM MDT Shivangi Garg wrote:

Site is very comprehensive and informative. I enjoyed the visit. Comments from http://www.giftwithlove.com

On 03/05/2007 at 3:52:19 AM MST Arvind Kumar wrote:

Womenbrands.com deals with daily issues related with women in the age group of 16 to 50 years.for more on women issues log on to www.womenbrands.com

On 03/10/2007 at 1:26:21 PM MST vikas wrote:

Thanks for sharing.

On 04/20/2007 at 9:35:55 PM MDT narendra wrote:

thanks man its great

On 06/14/2007 at 9:11:55 PM MDT Tecnometro wrote:

Hello which feeds can you recommend me?

I read that feeds are the future in the information and I wanna know which feeds service you use?.

http://tecnometro.blogspot.com/

On 06/20/2007 at 8:07:55 PM MDT Runstream wrote:

We need more people like you educating - Great article!

http://runstream.com

On 06/24/2007 at 7:34:28 PM MDT suray wrote:

Great! Remarkable, I've implemented it and it works.

On 06/25/2007 at 3:02:42 AM MDT LeoTheMaster wrote:

Is it working for Windows Live Spaces !

On 06/29/2007 at 7:57:57 PM MDT celexa wrote:

I want to say - thank you for this!

On 07/05/2007 at 3:48:44 PM MDT cosanostradamus wrote:

. OK. So how do we then check to see if it's working, hm?

http://blog-me-no-blogs.blogspot.com/ BLOG ME NO BLOGS .

On 07/11/2007 at 11:16:05 AM MDT Feedst wrote:

Guys, Here's an easy way to generate your own autodiscovery tags:

http://www.feedest.com/toolAutodiscovery.cfm

Hope this helps.

On 08/15/2007 at 9:23:16 AM MDT Roman wrote:

This works on Netscape and fire fox but not on internet explorer

On 08/24/2007 at 2:48:48 PM MDT Debi Winters wrote:

Thank you.

On 09/14/2007 at 6:27:28 AM MDT Mike wrote:

There are a lot of things that we do not do

On 09/22/2007 at 5:37:54 PM MDT Joe Smith wrote:

Hey whats up, check this out: http://www.holyvideogames.com/

On 09/23/2007 at 4:59:44 PM MDT cosanostradamus wrote:

. On 07/05/2007 at 3:48:44 PM MDT cosanostradamus wrote:

>> "OK. So how do we then check to see if it's working, hm?" <<

Anybody ever answer any questions here?

http://blog-me-no-blogs.blogspot.com/ BLOG ME NO BLOGS .

On 09/29/2007 at 12:52:30 AM MDT speedyeoh wrote:

That owesome....I will use it in my blog

On 09/30/2007 at 4:54:03 AM MDT mark wrote:

add this to my site to link to picasso gallery and ebay and works just great thanks for sharing Comments from http://www.collieryroad.com.com

On 10/08/2007 at 10:33:02 AM MDT Alex R. wrote:

So how do we know which format of feeds were currently using? On Wordpress I'm running 2.3 'dexter' what feed is this?

www.blogindiversity.com

On 10/08/2007 at 11:03:18 PM MDT cams4life wrote:

very nice guys i will post this on my site too sound good, oh take a look at this horny chicks on their web cams, it's free ! www.cams4life.com thanks.. ps: have fun

On 10/11/2007 at 3:25:25 PM MDT RT wrote:

This is all very interesting. My question. I use Word Press 2.3 which is .PHP format.

Where do I use this piece of script?

On 10/17/2007 at 2:49:23 PM MDT Carla Backmon wrote:

Hello Pete, I really appreciate the information. I working with the DotNetNuke module and I am hoping that this option is available within the module. They have not got back to me yet about that but if not I put in a request to see if it could be added to the module it would definitely be an asset. New on the Blog Scene, Carla Backmon http://www.savvmari.com

On 10/21/2007 at 4:32:29 AM MDT flashyshades wrote:

thanks for the tips, hopefully they will work like a charm. like all bloggers, i certainly want my lovingly crafted site to get the most traffic possible

(ahem)

http://www.flashyshades.com

On 11/10/2007 at 2:58:11 AM MST Masturi wrote:

I see. Okey guys I will try this tip. Thanks Masturi http://refleksie.blogspot.com

On 11/11/2007 at 4:54:40 PM MST MemoTrek Blogger wrote:

Thanks a lot for this tip! Been looking for this for quite some time. As we use Joomla! - and this doesn't seem to be enabled by default this hint was really useful! Cheers!

www.memotrek.com/blog/

On 11/19/2007 at 1:06:41 AM MST victor wrote:

Send Gifts for Guaranteed and Same Day delivery. http://www.bangaloreonlinemall.com

On 11/25/2007 at 7:43:08 AM MST Girl-Woman wrote:

How do you know what your feed is? I tried to implant but it didn't work. I am on blogspot and it says Atom at the end of the post. My feed is feedburner.

On 11/26/2007 at 2:53:49 AM MST K.S. balamurugan wrote:

Sodaltech is the leading manufacturer and exporter of egg tray machinery for 15.5 lbs egg trays,

On 11/27/2007 at 12:25:25 PM MST Software Dungeon wrote:

This is the coolest tip. Tell me does it create much more traffic?

On 11/27/2007 at 3:27:07 PM MST musa wrote:

learning Internet Programming and tips expert with java, Json, or Rubby on rails http://elokcomputer.web.id

On 11/27/2007 at 3:32:10 PM MST musa wrote:

http://elokcomputer.web.id Hello Pete, I really appreciate the information. I working with the DotNetNuke module and I am hoping that this option is available within the module. They have not got back to me yet about that but if not I put in a request to see if it could be added to the module it would definitely be an asset. New on the Blog Scene, Carla Backmon

On 12/02/2007 at 9:08:00 PM MST wmwebtr ödüllü seo yar??mas? wrote:

Send Gifts for Guaranteed and Same Day delivery.

On 12/02/2007 at 9:08:48 PM MST wmwebtr ödüllü seo yar??mas? wrote:

Send Gifts for Guaranteed and Same Day delivery. www.wmwebtrodulluseoyaris.blogcu.com

On 01/10/2008 at 3:34:41 AM MST nitin wrote:

Hi, I inserted the above code in the index.html of my site http://ideas1000.blogspot.com but nothing happened.

On 02/02/2008 at 4:14:45 AM MST Jamie wrote:

I'm having trouble with my blog. I tried to add an RSS feed link (on the right) but I don't think I did it right.

http://big-brother-9-blog.blogspot.com

On 02/08/2008 at 12:09:57 AM MST Anju Jindal wrote:

Site has very useful content and articles. Will recommend this to others. http://www.hyderabadonnet.com

On 02/13/2008 at 4:36:16 AM MST K.S.Bala Murugan wrote:

SODALTECH - Manufacturers and Exporters of Paper Conversion Machinery for Cones,Tubes,Cores,Composite Cans,Fibre Drums,Edgeboard Protectors,Pulp Moulded Products, Paper recycling Hydraulic baling press

On 02/15/2008 at 4:24:21 AM MST Oil and Gas Jobs - Oilcareers wrote:

Very interesting and also very nice! Thanks to the developers!

On 03/10/2008 at 4:22:53 AM MST Ajit wrote:

sir, I'm trying to develope an RSS aggregator in c# .net. i want to add Autodiscovery feature to it.

I'll tell u the requirement,

if i give the site link then it shud display rss feeds present in it.

so can u please guide me.

On 03/22/2008 at 6:48:09 AM MST Martin wrote:

http://www.medpillshop.com - Med-Pills-Shop - approved high quality pills and lowest price - your trusted source drugs without a prescription.

On 03/24/2008 at 1:44:51 AM MST iwan wrote:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Gudang-kl Can I increase my google adsense with RSS Autodiscovery?

On 03/27/2008 at 12:13:38 AM MST Anju Mittal wrote:

We liked the information available here. http://www.keralaflowerplaza.com

On 04/04/2008 at 1:45:20 PM MST Debi Winters wrote:

Thank you.

On 04/05/2008 at 3:35:26 PM MST Debi Winters wrote:

Thank you.

On 04/10/2008 at 9:16:23 PM MDT David Hepworth wrote:

Thank you for the useful advice!

On 04/12/2008 at 11:59:24 PM MDT kursat wrote:

thanks mean

http://www.kursatsenturk.com

On 04/14/2008 at 12:54:27 PM MDT Muhabbet wrote:

thank you mean

http://www.muhabbetx.org

On 04/18/2008 at 2:47:27 AM MDT juler wrote:

Hi there, am behind http://lessonko.com website, thanks for this post.... it help me alot...

On 04/18/2008 at 10:31:05 PM MDT daps wrote:

I used it for my blog

http://slsecurity.blogspot.com

it works fine. If any one have a time please visit my blog. you will find very useful info. there.

On 04/21/2008 at 7:41:29 AM MDT Kim wrote:

Thank you for the info on autodiscovery... it took me a bit to get it to work but I did... http://www.cabinfevergifts.com

On 04/25/2008 at 1:55:57 AM MDT ingiborishka wrote:

http://dealjoin.blogetery.com/2008/04/22/hello-world/ this is my first post on blog

On 04/27/2008 at 3:48:00 AM MDT Kunal wrote:

Hi,

Can any one help me with making RSS autodiscoverable when rss is present in iframe of the page????