RSS Feed Monitoring

RSS feeds provide real-time insight into competitor content and announcements. RivalReport monitors RSS feeds to keep you informed of new blog posts, changelog entries, and other published content.

What Are RSS Feeds?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds are structured data streams that websites use to publish updates. Common sources include:

• Company blogs
• Product changelogs
• Press releases
• Podcast episodes
• Newsletter archives

Automatic Feed Discovery

RivalReport automatically discovers RSS feeds:

1. When you add a competitor, we scan their website for feeds
2. We detect common feed locations (blog, changelog, news)
3. AI suggestions recommend feeds we find
4. Click Add to start monitoring any suggested feed

Manual Feed Addition

To add an RSS feed manually:

1. Go to the competitor's settings
2. Click RSS Feeds
3. Paste the RSS feed URL
4. Click Add Feed

Finding RSS Feed URLs

If you need to find a feed URL:

• Look for RSS/feed icons on the website
• Check /feed, /rss, or /blog/feed paths
• Use browser extensions that detect feeds
• Check the page source for <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">

What We Track

For each RSS feed, we monitor:

• New entries — Posts published since last check
• Entry titles — Headlines and topics
• Publication dates — When content was published
• Content summaries — Brief excerpts when available
• Entry links — Direct URLs to full content

Reading RSS Updates

Your weekly report includes feed activity:

Acme Corp content activity:

• Blog: 3 new posts
  • "Why We're All-In on AI" (Feb 1)
  • "Customer Spotlight: TechCo" (Jan 29)
  • "Q4 Product Recap" (Jan 27)
• Changelog: 2 new entries
  • "API v2.0 Now Available"
  • "New Dashboard Widgets"

Common Feed Types

Company Blogs

Track thought leadership, announcements, and positioning:

• Product announcements
• Industry perspectives
• Company news
• Customer stories

Product Changelogs

Monitor feature releases and updates:

• New features
• Improvements
• Bug fixes
• Breaking changes

Press/News Feeds

Stay informed of official announcements:

• Funding news
• Partnership announcements
• Executive changes
• Awards and recognition

Engineering Blogs

Technical insights and culture:

• Architecture decisions
• Technology choices
• Engineering culture
• Open source contributions

Update Frequency

RSS feeds are checked regularly:

Feed Type	Check Frequency
Changelogs	Every 6 hours
Blogs	Daily
Press/News	Daily
Other	Every 2-3 days

Setting Up Alerts

For immediate notification of new content:

1. Go to Settings > Alerts
2. Enable RSS feed alerts
3. Select which feeds should trigger alerts
4. Choose your notification method

Troubleshooting

Feed Not Updating

• Verify the feed URL is still valid
• Check if the competitor changed their feed location
• Some feeds update infrequently—this is normal

Feed Not Found

• Not all websites have RSS feeds
• Some sites disable RSS for content protection
• Try alternative paths like /atom.xml or /feed.xml

Duplicate Entries

• Some feeds republish content with minor changes
• We filter obvious duplicates automatically
• Contact support if you see excessive duplicates