While I don't want to detract from the joy many of our users gain from tweaking and updating their sites, the less time you spend updating WebSite Tonight, the more time there is to focus on your audience. Over the next couple of entries I'm going to show you how you can add various forms of dynamic content to your web site. This will keep it relevant, with renewable content that provides a reason for people to keep on coming back. I like to think of this content as the type of advertising that people actually want to receive.

First, let's define what a feed is.

A feed is a way for websites to distribute content for consumption by other sites or subscribers. Don't take my word for it. Try some other words over here and here.

Ah, but I want people to come to my site.

It may seem counter intuitive that providing feeds that could remove the need for people to visit your site can actually lead to a greater degree of engagement by your visitors. Obviously there are exceptions, those people whose sole product is the content that is contained within their feed. If you are in the latter position there's no reason you can't talk about the content and then link back to it. Your mileage may vary on how successful the following suggestions are for your specific case.

Ways in which you could use feeds?

There are many ways in which you could use feeds to enhance your small business site, and they nearly all relate back to it being “your” business website. There's no one better placed to discuss your products, service in depth and to promote upcoming items that yourself. It doesn't need to stop with just the one feed either. Your town paper, your suppliers, and any trade associations you belong to may have relevant feeds that your visitors may find of interest. I would suggest that you follow these external feeds just in case information that conflicts with your business reaches a prominent position. It's an interesting problem but one which can be solved by either writing the blog the feeds come from or by using a feed aggregate service such as Google Reader. Briefly, this lets you subscribe to all the feeds you are interested in. The entries you like can then be shared with Website Tonight's feed reader.

I realize this isn't an in depth guide about how to do it. The link for that is below. But, this is more of a start to get you thinking about ways in which your website can attract repeat visitors by using new content.

How do I get it?

http://help.godaddy.com/article/3058 has all the details.

Why do I want it?

I think we established that in the above entry.