If you spend all day connected to high-speed wifi, you’ve probably never considered what it takes for your listeners around the world to access your content. The majority of podcast distribution apps check podcast feeds once an hour, looking for any new content to add to the listener’s lineup of episodes. To check for new content, these apps redownload your podcast’s full RSS feed.
As more episodes come out, your RSS feed will only get longer, increasing the bandwidth required to download the full feed every hour fully. Beyond taking extra time to appear and update, your long RSS feed could be costing your listeners unnecessary data for the sake of keeping up with your content.
How Did My RSS Feed Get So Long?
Size matters (no jokes, please), and in the case of your podcast’s RSS, size could be impacting your listenership. RSS length is determined by the number of characters in the feed itself. As more is added, the feed becomes slower, with each additional piece of data impacting download times and bandwidth consumption.
It’s Time To Downsize
So, what’s the solution to excessive data consumption and slow download times? It’s time to shrink that RSS so your listeners will get your podcasts right away without waiting forever for new episodes to download.
What Do I Do Next?
Check out this article and accompanying podcast from The Audacity to Podcast for tips and tricks on how to get your RSS feed under control.
Want more information on promoting your podcast? Visit Headliner to learn how you can advertise your podcast with video!
*Interested in guest posting here? Know a lot about RSS feeds and want to write about it with a link back to your site? Get in touch!
