Google Follow Feature Recommends Descriptive Titles For RSS Feed & Using A Single Feed (Not Multiple)

Google has made a couple of tweaks to the documentation for the Follow Feature in Google Search. Google added you should use (1) descriptive titles for your RSS feed and (2) a single feed even if you have multiple.

The Google Follow feature lets people follow a website and get the latest updates from that website in the Following tab within Discover in Chrome. Currently, the Follow button is a feature that’s available to signed-in users in English in the US that are using Chrome Android. Google first added these help docs back in September 2021. Google has now updated them to add these lines:

Descriptive Titles for RSS Feeds

Google wrote that you should “use a brief but descriptive title for your RSS feed, just like you would for a web page.” Google recommends using “Google Search Central Blog” while Google does not recommend using “RSS Feed or Central Blog.”

Single Feed

Google changed the multiple feeds section to read “If you have multiple feeds on your website (for example, a news website with RSS feeds for the front page, business section, and technology), we recommend that you add a link element to a single feed that makes sense for that page. A single feed is easier to maintain, and is a better user experience when people are subscribing to your content. For example, if the article is about technology, specify the technology feed in the link element.”

Adding “Alternatively, you can add multiple feeds in order of your preference. For example, you might prefer that people follow the feed for the front page, then the business section, then technology, in that order. Google uses this information to understand more about how multiple feeds are used across your site.”

Here is what the Follow feature looks like in Chrome:

Forum discussion at Twitter.