ZenovayTools

RSS Feed Validator

Validates RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feed structure. Checks required elements (title, link, description), item fields, Content-Type, encoding, and feed size. Grade A-F.

How to Use RSS Feed Validator

  1. 1Enter your RSS or Atom feed URL.
  2. 2The tool fetches the XML and detects the feed format (RSS 2.0 or Atom 1.0).
  3. 3Required and recommended fields are validated for the channel and items.
  4. 4Review issues and the feed preview showing title, items, and metadata.
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Frequently Asked Questions

What is RSS and what are the feed format options?▾
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML format for syndicating content updates. RSS 2.0 is the most common version — used by blogs, news sites, and podcasts. Atom 1.0 is an IETF standard (RFC 4287) with stricter requirements and better internationalization. Both are widely supported by feed readers (Feedly, Inoreader, NewsBlur), podcast apps (Apple Podcasts requires Atom or RSS 2.0), and news aggregators.
What are the required elements in an RSS 2.0 feed?▾
Required channel elements: <title>, <link>, <description>. Each <item> must have at least either <title> or <description>. Recommended item fields: <link>, <pubDate>, <guid> (globally unique identifier). The <guid> element prevents duplicate entries in feed readers — use a URL or UUID that never changes even if the title or URL changes.
What Content-Type should my RSS feed use?▾
The correct MIME type for RSS 2.0 is application/rss+xml. For Atom, use application/atom+xml. Some servers serve feeds as text/xml or application/xml — this works but is less specific. Avoid serving as text/html — browsers may try to render the XML as HTML and feed readers may reject it.
How many items should my RSS feed contain?▾
Most feed readers only display the 10-20 most recent items regardless of how many you include. Including 100+ items increases feed size unnecessarily and slows down feed readers that must parse the entire XML. The recommended practice is 20-50 most recent items. For archives, link to an archive page from the feed. Podcasts are an exception — iTunes recommends including at least 300 episodes for catalog discovery.
Why is my RSS feed not showing in Google Discover?▾
Google Discover doesn't use RSS feeds for discovery — it crawls your actual HTML pages and uses structured data (Article schema). Your sitemap.xml is more important for Google. However, RSS/Atom feeds ARE used by Bing for indexing speed (Bing supports RSS/Atom as a sitemap alternative), and they're essential for feed aggregators, news apps, and podcast platforms that drive direct traffic.