If you are currently providing summary articles in your site or blog’s RSS feed, you may want to consider switching to full-text. As RSS applications become more sophisticated and average readers become more discerning and demanding, it may be time to reconsider how best to use this valuable tool. Below are the top reasons for using full-text articles, the objections that are typically raised against full-text, and also some exceptions.
Reasons to Use Full-text Articles
• Increasingly, busy surfers and readers are viewing your RSS articles on a mobile device. If they have to click on a link that takes them to a web site to read the rest of an article, their experience can be less than optimal: no mobile version of the site, small web pages, and slow load times.
• Content is still king on the internet, not just at your web site but in your RSS feed as well. Building a following and reader loyalty is often grounded in offering content that is useful and/or entertaining and not difficult to access.
• Full-text articles increase the likelihood that your message gets read–assuming that’s your point. If you’re trying to get click-throughs or gauge metrics, there’ll be more to say on that below.
• Readers have already demonstrated they have an interest in what you have to say by subscribing to your feed. By only providing a summary, you risk alienating them by requiring that extra click.
• Overwhelmingly, at polls and in comments across the blogosphere, RSS readers agree that they want to see the full text. In fact, some RSS readers will not subscribe to a feed if it only provides summaries.
• If your readers are following lots of RSS feeds, they may not take the time to visit your site. One of the primary advantages of RSS reader applications is that they aggregate feeds for the sake of convenience and efficiency.
• Users may be more likely to Digg, StumbleUpon, Tweet, link or otherwise share your article if it’s full-text.
• Some busy readers on the go like to cache their feeds and read offline. In the same vein, if your site is down, the feed is still out there.
Objections to Using Full-text Articles
• Many people who use summaries in an RSS feed are trying to ensure that readers also visit their site. If you’re trying to get users to the ads on your site, first consider the enormous amounts of traffic that it takes to monetize a site with contextual ads and, second, consider putting ads in the feed itself. On the other hand, if you have an affiliate site, then you really want an optimized landing page for people who want to buy what you’re selling, visitors that are typically generated through paid advertising and some organic search.
• You’ll get more comments on your articles if the reader has to click through to the full article. First, of course, you’ve got to get the reader to click through, which may not be that easy to do. However, even with a full-text article, experienced RSS readers will know that the comments can often contain as much useful information as the original article and may click through to see these–especially if the comments are referenced in a future article or post.
• If users don’t click through, then you can’t gather metrics. Then again, some of the most metric-driven sites on the internet–professional bloggers and internet marketers–almost universally use full-text articles.
Exceptions to the Rule – There’s Always a Few
• A summary RSS feed is a good way to skim news sources that manage to summarize their content in the title and tag. Readers can often get the gist of the news from a few short sentences.
• If you post several times a day, then it may be a kindness to your readers to use summary articles. However, consider writing unique content for the summary instead of just using an excerpt.
• Sometimes the decision comes down to the length of the post. Really long posts, or posts heavy on images, might best be left at the web site and a summary sent out that outlines the entire article.
There is no strict set of guidelines that publishers can use to decide whether or not they want to provide a summary or a full-text RSS feed. However, one rule of thumb that webmasters have used successfully for years has been trying to imagine what they themselves would want out of a site. By putting your readers experience at the forefront and offering content that is genuinely of value, you put your site on a much faster track to success.
Bonus Tips
• Whether you use summary or full-text articles in your RSS feed, subscribe to it yourself. You may be surprised by what you see. Not only can the formatting change, but be sure to check links back to your site, ads, and also social media share buttons.
• To change your RSS settings in WordPress, navigate to Settings > Reading, and then select “Full text” or “Summary”.
• To change your RSS settings in Blogger, navigate to Settings > Site Feed > Allow Blog Feeds, and then select “Full”, “Short”, or “None”.
• In LiveJournal, full text is the default. If you want to change it, you’ll have to use the Admin console.
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