Reading Rob’s post about one’s tendency to self-identify (or not) on a website, I’m reminded why RSS appeals to me and also how complex the existence of RSS is making things for information architects. RSS appeals to me in large measure because I can get the information I want without having to visit a website, and I can usually do it without revealing any personal information at all. This prompts me to wonder how often information architects consider those with a tendency not to self-identify, and how often RSS in particular is considered as a possible alternative and then crafted in fashion. Companies and institutions invest a lot in the IA of their websites, which is probably why I’ve never seen a call to action like, “Never want to visit our website again? Here’s a set of RSS feeds just for you.”

One of the things I stress when speaking with institutions about RSS (including here publicly) is the importance of remembering that the existence of RSS means that there will be those who visit your website one time, grab some feeds, and then never visit again. With more and more RSS directories online, more of us will grab RSS feeds without having visited an institution’s website even once. This demands that the RSS feed be designed to stand alone as an information resource even as it complements an institution’s web offerings. Among institutions, RSS is in the “me-too” stage, but it will soon move beyond this and become an object of dedicated craft in its own right, as it already has in a few places. As practice surrounding RSS matures, there will be a real need for tools that, for example, support templated-like inclusion of branding information in a manually maintained feed–but this is a topic for another post.

So you want to offer RSS feeds on your college web site? Go for it! But remember, colleges and universities are not major online newspapers. The possibilities for RSS on a college website go far beyond the headline-oriented feeds offered by online newspapers. You will probably want to take advantage of the inherent flexibility of RSS to publish much more than, say, headlines from your college newspaper. Offered from the perspective of someone who’s subscribed to hundreds of college RSS feeds, here are ten quick pointers that will help maximize return on your efforts.

1. You’ve worked hard to create your feeds. Now feature them prominently! Several colleges promote their feeds on their home page; this is a great idea. It tells visitors that you’re interested in giving them information they want, in a form that’s convenient to them.

2. If at all possible, create a central page where you can list feeds from across the college website. (It won’t hurt to mention a feed in more than one place on your website.) Organize feeds on this page so that people can easily spot feeds that might interest them. The University of Utah provides an excellent example.

3. Link to your central feed page from the college web site home page. Link to your central feed page from anywhere you’re offering RSS feeds.

4. If departments and programs are creating their own feeds, give them an easy way to promote them on the central page you have created.

5. Where you promote feeds, provide a link to find out more about how to take advantage of the feed. Remember, many visitors to your website are new to RSS, and they will need some hand-holding.

6. Be sure that the feed channel title includes the name of the college or university. This will allow people to spot your feed easily in their aggregator. It will also help enable more accurate RSS search engine indexing. (Look for more about RSS search engine indexing in a future post.)

Good example: “Albion College Choir Tour 2005�
Avoid: “Choir Tour 2005�

7. For the same reason that you want to include the name of your college in the channel title, you want to avoid using acronyms alone in the channel title.

Good example: “Arizona State University Digital Media Instructional Technologies Podcast�
Avoid: “ASU DMIT Podcasts�

8. Take advantage of the channel description to explain what’s in the feed, rather than repeating the channel title.

9. If the subject of your feed is seasonal (e.g. baseball), or temporary (e.g. a spring choir tour), you might want to consider indicating this in your channel description. People who use your feeds may unsubscribe when they don’t see a feed being updated; providing them this additional information will let them know when it’s ok to do so (after all the items for a spring choir tour have been published, versus when it’s not—baseball will be back in a few months, and there may also be off-season news you want to hear about). In the case of something like a feed for a spring choir tour, you may even want to let your readers know that publishing has concluded by creating, as the (chronologically) last item in the feed, an announcement saying that postings have concluded for this feed.

10. If you want people to click through to your web site from your RSS feed, make sure you include enough text in the item description to entice them to click through.

There are many more basic best practices. Should I use chicklets to draw attention to my feeds? Should I allow users to add their feeds easily to the MyYahoo home page? Should I enter my feeds in a feed directory? How can I take advantage of the category tag? Should I provide an entire article in the feed, or just an excerpt? I will attempt to answer as many of these questions as possible in the future. In the meanwhile, feel free to drop a comment and share best practices you have found helpful.