One common measurement for a website’s popularity is how many subscribers well, subscribed to that particular site’s web feed.

For those of you who know what a web feed is, you can skip the next two paragraphs.

For those of you who do not know what a web feed is, basically, it is a means of syndicating or publishing that particular website’s content to subscribers.

In other words, it is the same concept as reading your favorite writer (like Dear Abby who appears in multiple newspapers all over the country) on multiple websites (such as maybe CNN, MSNBC, or even your hometown’s newspaper website).

As with any technological advancements, there are pros and cons of having a web feed. The list of pros and cons for a web feed can go on forever. Someday, I will try to compile a list of pros and cons here or if I find a good article for you to read, I will link to it.

One of the most common complaints about having a web feed is being a target for scrapers.  Scrapers are basically software programs that will take the information from your website to serve its’ purpose which can include passing the content off as its’ own instead of crediting the original owner of the “scraped” content.

The Reason Why I Do Not Have a Web Feed Available

As stated on Wikipedia,

Web scraping may be against the terms of use of some websites, the enforceability of these terms is unclear.

The fact that there is a grey area surrounding this technology is the very reason why as the owner of The Susquehanna Valley Fog Company, I decided to not have a web feed on my website. If you will notice, not every website has a web feed so it really comes down to the question of how will you use your website’s feed to your advantage.

I am more interested in tracking the number of returning visitors to my blog than I am interested in how many “subscribers” I have.  The reason I put subscribers in parenthesis is because some of these subscribers are scrapers themselves and not human readers.

The bottom line is for your website, you need to decide whether it is crucial or immaterial to the success of your website.  Well, after reviewing what I wrote here, I guess I will have to write about the pros and cons of having a web feed from a business owner’s perspective later on when I have the time.  It could end up being two articles.

Stay tuned…

In the meantime, if you have any questions or thoughts about whether you need a web feed for your small business website, I invite you to contact me.

Thank you for visiting.

Mark