RSS Feed Best Practices (2022)
This article provides technical guidance on the best practices for implementing RSS and Atom feeds for websites. It recommends using the Atom format due to its clearer specifications and broad compatibility.
Why it matters
Standardized feed formats are essential for the interoperability of content distribution across the web, impacting how search engines and readers consume information.
People generally call feeds “RSS Feeds” but usually they aren’t specifically talking about RSS. RSS isn’t the only, or even the best format. Using a standardized format is critical to your feed being understood by the widest variety of readers and search engines.
You should use RSS 2 or Atom . These formats are very widely supported. Other common formats are earlier RSS standards and JSON Feed or Microformats h-feed . I would avoid using these—or even less common formats—as they are less widely supported.
If you don’t have a feed yet I would highly recommend Atom. The specification has much less ambiguity, so you are less likely to have compatibility issues with the wide variety of clients in use. The specification is also simpler and more clear overall. If you already have an RSS 2 feed there is little reason to upgrade.
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