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What is an RSS feed?

If you have a website where you write blog posts or articles, RSS feeds are a great way for you to share your content with your readers and to make sure they are aware of your latest news.

If you're not familiar with how RSS feeds work and how you can share yours with your readers using our RSS Campaign template and integration, we recommend you check our series of 3 articles:

Introduction to RSS feeds

What is an RSS feed?

Fundamentally, an RSS feed is simply an XML text file that contains details about the latest updates on a website, like an article's title, description, and link to the content. 

Using an RSS feed, websites can share their content with people who want to read it and stay up-to-date. It's like a news bulletin that websites create for their readers to follow, and it contains a summary of new articles, blog posts, or other content that the website publishes. By subscribing to an RSS feed, users can receive notifications about new content without having to visit the website directly. It's a convenient way to stay up-to-date on the latest news and information from their favorite websites.

💡 Good to know
Instead of checking Brevo Blog every week for updates, you could subscribe to our RSS feed to be notified whenever we publish a new article.

How to read an RSS feed?

Because an RSS feed is a text file that contains a stream of article descriptions and links, it is not designed to be read in its original format. That's why, to read the content of an RSS feed, users need to use an RSS reader, which is a website or program that reads the RSS feed and displays the list of articles in a way that makes them easy to browse. But using an RSS reader can be quite technical for some users, and it means that they have to use an external tool to be able to read your latest updates.

This is when Brevo's RSS Campaign integration comes in handy! Using our RSS integration, you can easily retrieve your RSS feed and automatically send an email with your latest blog posts to your readers. And all they have to do on their side is to subscribe to your blog updates beforehand. This way, they can't forget to read your latest news, and they don't have to subscribe to your RSS feed and use an RSS reader.

Retrieve your RSS feed URL

If you don't know where to find your RSS feed URL, simply go to your website, right-click an empty space, and select View Page Source (the exact wording may vary depending on your browser). Then, press ⌘ or Ctrl + F and type "rss" in the search box to find your RSS feed URL.

💡 Good to know
If searching for "rss" doesn't work, try "atom" instead.

Understanding the format of an RSS feed

An RSS feed is formatted with RSS tags. They contain details like the article's <title>, <description>, and <link> to the content. 

Here's an example of an RSS feed from Brevo Blog with 2 articles:

<channel>

     <title> Brevo Blog </title>
     <link> https://www.brevo.com/blog/ </link>
     <description> Brevo Blog Email & Marketing </description> 


  <item>

     <title> 11 Easy Ways to Decrease Your Email Bounce Rate </title>
     <link> https://www.brevo.com/blog/email-bounce-rate </link>
     <description> Learn how to decrease your email bounce rate </description>
     <publication_date> 10.06.2020 </publication_date>

  </item>

  <item>

     <title> MY SECOND ARTICLE </title>
     <link> https://www.brevo.com/blog/XXXXX </link>
     <description> DESCRIPTION OF MY SECOND ARTICLE </description>
     <publication_date> 10.06.2020 </publication_date>

  </item>


</channel>

<channel> = the RSS feed

The first line contains the <channel> element. This element is used to describe the RSS feed itself. So in our case, it describes Brevo Blog.

Here are the three required elements of your blog:

<title>

Defines the title of the blog.

In our example: Brevo Blog.

<link>

Defines the hyperlink to the blog.

In our example:  https://www.brevo.com/blog/

<description>

Describes the blog.

In our example: Brevo Blog Email & Marketing

<item> = the articles

Each <channel> element can have one or more <item> elements gathered in the <items> section. Each <item> element is an article from your blog.

Each article from your blog will follow this structure:

<title>

Defines the title of the article.

In our example: 11 Easy Ways to Decrease Your Email Bounce Rate

<link>

Defines the hyperlink to the article.

In our example: https://www.brevo.com/blog/email-bounce-rate

<description>

Describes the content of the article.

In our example: Learn how to decrease your email bounce rate

You can also find additional information about the publication date or image used in your article, for example.

Using the RSS tags in an email template

In the RSS template sent through the RSS Campaign integration, the tags in your RSS feed are translated into key names. These key names allow us to automatically retrieve the information stored in the RSS tags as soon as you publish a new post and then display this information in your RSS campaign when you send it to your subscribers.

Here are a few examples of key names you can use in your RSS template:

  • {{ item.TITLE }}
  • {{ item.DESCRIPTION }}
  • {{ item.LINK }}
  • etc.

Learn more about key names in our dedicated article Understanding the format of the default RSS template.

⏩ What's next?

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.

If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo expert partner.

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