How to Build an RSS Feed From Scratch

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Building an RSS feed means creating a special XML file that lists out your latest content. This file, which you’ll typically name something like feed.xml or rss.xml, can be put together manually with a text editor. Or, more commonly, your website's content management system (CMS) can generate it for you automatically.

Why Building an RSS Feed Is Still a Smart Move

In a world where social media algorithms call the shots, it’s easy to write off RSS as a relic of the past. But I’m here to tell you that building an RSS feed is one of the smartest things you can do for your content strategy. It gives you a direct, unfiltered line to your most loyal readers—the people who’ve gone out of their way to say, "Yes, I want to hear from you."

And this isn't just for blogs anymore. RSS is the quiet engine behind a ton of modern applications, from podcast directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify to all sorts of niche news aggregators. It hands you the keys to your own content distribution, creating a private channel that isn't at the mercy of some third-party platform's ever-changing rules.

Regain Control of Your Audience Connection

Unlike social media, an RSS feed puts you back in the driver's seat. When someone subscribes, your new content just shows up in their reader. No algorithm gets to decide if they see it or not.

This direct connection is gold for building a dedicated following that's way more engaged than a casual social media follower. It’s a huge reason why RSS is still incredibly relevant for your blog and any other platform where you’re creating content.

An RSS feed is your content’s direct-to-consumer channel. It bypasses intermediaries and ensures your updates land exactly where your audience wants them, every single time.

The Surprising Growth and Reach of RSS

Despite being around for a while, this technology is far from obsolete. The market for RSS is actually on the rise, fueled by the growing demand for personalized, algorithm-free content. The RSS Feed Market was valued at roughly 4.5 billion by 2035.

And it's not just a forecast. This chart from BuiltWith shows just how widespread RSS adoption is across millions of active websites today.

The data makes it crystal clear: RSS isn't some niche tool for techies. It’s a core technology for content syndication on the modern web. Speaking of core tools for content discovery, you should also check out our guide on https://feather.so/blog/how-do-i-make-a-sitemap.

What's an RSS Feed Made Of, Anyway?

Before you can build an RSS feed, you need to get a feel for its moving parts. At its core, an RSS feed is just a simple text file written in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). Think of it like a neatly organized shipping container where specific tags label every piece of your content. This structure makes it super easy for feed readers and other apps to know exactly what they're looking at.

We're not talking about some cutting-edge, complex format here. Building an RSS feed means creating an XML file that follows standards dating back to the late 1990s. The structure is old-school, but that's what makes it so reliable and universally understood. You can dig deeper into how these long-standing content standards have shaped things like modern social media statistics.

The whole thing is wrapped up in an <rss> tag, which is the main envelope for your content. Inside that, you'll find the most important element: the <channel>.

The Channel: Your Feed's Identity

The <channel> tag holds all the high-level information about your feed—not your individual blog posts. It’s what tells services like Feedly or Apple Podcasts who you are and what your content is generally about.

Every single valid RSS feed has to include three specific tags inside the <channel>:

<title>: The name of your blog or website (e.g., "The Outrank Blog").

<link>: The main URL for your website's homepage (e.g., "https://outrank.so").

<description>: A quick, one-sentence summary of what your feed covers.

These aren't optional. They provide the basic context any feed reader needs to properly display your content.

Think of the <channel> section as your feed's business card. It’s the very first thing an application reads, so keeping it accurate and concise is absolutely essential.

The Items: Your Actual Content

Tucked inside the <channel> tag, you'll find one or more <item> tags. Each <item> represents a single piece of your content, whether that's a blog post, a new podcast episode, or a news article. Simple.

Just like the channel, every item has its own set of mandatory tags:

<title>: The headline of your article.

<link>: The direct URL to that specific piece of content.

<description>: A short summary of the post (or even the full content).

<pubDate>: The date and time the item was published.

By lining up multiple <item> blocks inside the <channel>, you're essentially creating a list of your latest updates, all packaged and ready for other platforms to pick up. This straightforward, layered structure is the blueprint for every RSS feed out there.

To make this crystal clear, here’s a quick breakdown of the essential XML tags you'll be working with. These are the non-negotiables for a valid RSS 2.0 feed.

Essential RSS Feed XML Tags Explained

Tag Name	Parent Element	Purpose	Example
`<rss>`	(none)	The root element that wraps the entire feed.	`<rss version="2.0">...`
`<channel>`	`<rss>`	Contains metadata about the feed itself.	`<channel>...</channel>`
`<title>`	`<channel>`	The name of your blog or website.	`<title>My Awesome Blog</title>`
`<link>`	`<channel>`	The homepage URL of your website.	`<link>https://example.com</link>`
`<description>`	`<channel>`	A short summary of your feed's content.	`<description>All about tech...</description>`
`<item>`	`<channel>`	Represents a single content entry (e.g., a post).	`<item>...</item>`
`<title>`	`<item>`	The headline of the specific article or post.	`<title>How to Build an RSS Feed</title>`
`<link>`	`<item>`	The direct URL to the specific article.	`<link>https://example.com/blog/rss-feed</link>`
`<description>`	`<item>`	A summary or the full content of the post.	`<description>A step-by-step guide...</description>`
`<pubDate>`	`<item>`	The publication date and time of the item.	`<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jun 2024...</pubDate>`

Getting these tags right is the foundation of a working feed. Once you understand this basic hierarchy—an <rss> tag holding a <channel>, which in turn holds your <item>s—you're well on your way to building your own.

Getting Your Hands Dirty: Creating an RSS Feed From Scratch

Alright, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and build an RSS feed the old-fashioned way. We’re going to set aside the fancy software for a minute. All you really need is a simple text editor—something like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on a Mac will do just fine.

First thing's first: open a new, blank file. The very first line you type is non-negotiable. It has to be the XML declaration, which tells any application trying to read the file exactly what it's looking at.

It looks like this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>. This line specifies the XML version and, more importantly, the UTF-8 encoding. Using UTF-8 is a pro move that helps you avoid headaches with special characters down the road.

Right after that, you’ll add the main <rss> tag. This is the container for everything else. Make sure to include the version attribute: <rss version="2.0">.

Setting Up Your Channel

With the foundation in place, the next step is to define your <channel>. This section is nested inside your <rss> tag and acts as the profile for your entire feed. It holds all the high-level details, including the three mandatory elements we talked about earlier: <title>, <link>, and <description>.

Here’s a practical example you can steal and modify:

Just swap out the placeholder info with your own. The <title> should be your blog's name, the <link> needs to point to your homepage, and the <description> should be a punchy summary of what you're about.

Adding Your First Piece of Content

Now for the fun part: adding your first blog post. Each article, post, or update gets its own <item> tag, which lives inside the <channel> tag. And just like the channel, every <item> needs its own <title>, <link>, and <description>.

One of the most common spots where people trip up is the publication date. The <pubDate> tag has a very specific format it needs to follow, known as the RFC 822 standard. It looks something like this: Tue, 15 Jun 2024 10:00:00 GMT. If you're not sure how to generate that, a quick search for an "RFC 822 date converter" will give you plenty of free online tools.

Let's add our first item to the feed:

Pro Tip: Watch out for special characters in your descriptions, like ampersands (&) or less-than signs (<). In XML, these will break your feed. You have to replace them with their proper HTML entity codes: & for & and < for <.

To finish up, just add the closing </rss> tag at the very end of the file. Save your document with a .xml extension—something simple like feed.xml works perfectly. And that's it! You've just built a valid RSS feed from scratch.

When you're ready to upload it and make it live, our guide on how to publish a web page will show you what to do next.

Automating and Hosting Your Live Feed

Building your first feed file by hand is a fantastic way to learn the ropes, but let's be real—it’s not a sustainable strategy. The magic of an RSS feed is in its automation. It should instantly update every single time you publish new content.

If you have to manually edit an XML file after every blog post, you’re setting yourself up for typos, broken feeds, and a whole lot of wasted time.

Thankfully, most modern Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress or Ghost handle this for you right out of the box. They automatically create and update a feed at a default URL, which is usually something like /feed/ or /rss/. If you're on one of those platforms, congratulations—your work is already done.

Dynamic Feed Generation with Scripting

For those of us with custom-built websites, we need a more hands-on approach. Instead of relying on a static feed.xml file, the pro move is to write a simple server-side script.

Using a language like PHP or Python, you can create a script that will:

Connect directly to your website’s database.

Pull your 10-15 most recent articles.

Loop through the results to build the XML structure on the fly, creating a fresh <item> for each post.

Serve the final result as a perfectly valid XML file.

This is a much more robust solution. The feed gets generated the moment a feed reader requests it, so it’s guaranteed to be current.

A dynamic script is the professional standard for a custom site. It makes your RSS feed a living document that reflects your content in real-time, completely removing the manual element from the process.

Once you have your feed, whether it’s a static file or a dynamic script, you need to get it online so people and platforms can find it. If you have a static file, just upload it to your web server’s root directory using FTP. The goal is a clean, predictable URL like yourwebsite.com/feed.xml.

Finally, you need to tell browsers and feed readers where to look. This is surprisingly easy. Just add one line of code inside the <head> section of your website's HTML:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Your Blog Name" href="https://yourwebsite.com/feed.xml">

This little <link> tag is the universal signal for announcing your feed's location. It’s what lets services auto-discover your feed when someone plugs in your main URL. It’s also a key player in getting your content seen on various content syndication platforms.

Validating Your Feed to Ensure It Works Everywhere

You've built your feed file, which is a massive step. But a single misplaced character or a wonky date format can make the whole thing useless. Before you go shouting about your new feed from the rooftops, you have to validate it. Think of it as quality control—it guarantees all that hard work actually pays off.

This step isn't optional. If your feed is invalid, directories like Apple Podcasts and readers like Feedly won't touch it. It’ll be completely invisible.

The most trusted tool for the job is the W3C Feed Validation Service. It’s the gold standard for checking your feed's syntax against RSS 2.0 specifications.

Using a Feed Validator

Getting started is simple: just paste your feed’s URL into the validator and let it do its thing. You'll either get a green light or a specific list of errors that need fixing.

Here’s what the W3C validator looks like before you plug in your URL.

The tool is incredibly helpful, pinpointing the exact line numbers and issues. It might flag something like an incorrect pubDate format or an ampersand (&) in your description that wasn't properly escaped.

Fixing these little things is critical. Some people might think RSS is a relic of the past, but it’s still a powerhouse for content distribution. In fact, around 35 million live websites still use RSS to get their content out there, which shows just how vital a working feed is. If you're curious, you can dive into the data and see the full picture of RSS usage across the web.

Don’t skip validation. A clean, error-free feed is your ticket to seamless distribution on podcast directories, news aggregators, and every feed reader your audience might use.

Once you get that "Congratulations! This is a valid RSS feed" message, you're good to go. You can confidently submit your URL everywhere and add the discovery link to your site, knowing it’ll work like a charm.

Burning Questions About Building RSS Feeds

As you start piecing together your first RSS feed, you’ll inevitably run into a few questions that pop up time and again. Getting these sorted out early will save you a ton of headaches down the road and make sure your feed works flawlessly from the get-go.

Let's dive into some of the most common ones I hear.

RSS vs. Atom: What’s the Real Difference?

You’ll see RSS and Atom mentioned in the same breath all the time. Think of them as two different dialects for the same purpose: web syndication. Both are XML-based, but RSS is the old guard—it's been around forever and still completely dominates in areas like podcasting because of its rock-solid, universal support.

Atom came along later to clean things up and create a more robust, less ambiguous format. But honestly, for most people building a feed for a blog or a standard website, RSS 2.0 is the perfect choice. It’s recognized everywhere and does everything you need without overcomplicating things.

How Many Items Should My Feed Include?

There’s no magic number here, but a great rule of thumb is to stick with your 10 to 20 most recent items. This hits a sweet spot.

This range gives new subscribers a healthy taste of your latest work without bloating the feed file. A smaller, faster-loading file is a better experience for your audience and for the services pulling from your feed. It's all about keeping things snappy.

Can I Add Images or Audio to My Feed?

Absolutely—and you should! Adding multimedia is a fantastic way to make your feed stand out.

For Podcasts: The <enclosure> tag is non-negotiable. It's the standard way to link your audio or video file, telling platforms like Apple Podcasts exactly where to grab your episode.

For Blog Images: You can just embed images with HTML inside the <description> tag. A cleaner, more professional method, though, is using the Media RSS (MRSS) namespace to define a featured image with the <media:content> tag.

Using structured tags like <enclosure> or MRSS gives feed readers a crystal-clear signal about your media. The result? Your content looks more consistent and polished, no matter where it shows up.

Does My Feed URL Matter for SEO?

Your feed URL itself won’t directly catapult you to the top of Google, but a clean, permanent URL is critical for other reasons. Think yourdomain.com/feed.xml. Simple, right?

The real goal here is long-term stability. If you change your URL, you’re forcing every single subscriber to track down your new feed and add it again—a huge pain that will cost you readers.

Pick a simple URL, stick with it, and let it build authority with aggregators over time. In the world of RSS, consistency is king.

At Feather, we believe content creation should be simple. Our platform turns your Notion pages into a fully-optimized, SEO-friendly blog and newsletter, no coding required. Start publishing in minutes with Feather.