The initials "RSS" are variously used to refer to the following standards:

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0)
• RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

Users of RSS content use programs called feed 'readers' or 'aggregators': the user 'subscribes' to a feed by supplying to their reader a link to the feed; the reader can then check the user's subscribed feeds to see if any of those feeds have new content since the last time it checked, and if so, retrieve that content and present it to the user.

RSS formats are specified in XML (a generic specification for data formats). RSS delivers its information as an XML file called an "RSS feed", "webfeed", "RSS stream", or "RSS channel".

Search engine optimisation 

As a RSS feed can provide regular updating content for your website it can often be used to good effect as one part of a SEO programme. Given relevant and interesting content it can encourage visitors to return on a more regular basis to your site.

Additionally, if you have a web site that contains regularly updated news, product information it is also possible to create a RSS feed of your own content for others to integrate into their own website or RSS reader.