Feed content hygiene
type: TechArticle
description: If you publish a feed, ship it well-formed. Identify the feed inside itself with atom:link rel="self", give every item a stable guid, declare an update cadence with the Syndication module, and validate before deploy.
language: en
is part of: Web Specification Studio
author: Web Specification Studio
publisher: Web Specification Studio
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
date modified: 2026-05-29T15:19:28.000Z
citation: RSS 2.0 Specification
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: RSS Advisory Board
citation: RSS Best Practices Profile
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: RSS Advisory Board
citation: RFC 4287 — The Atom Syndication Format
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: IETF
citation: RDF Site Summary 1.0 Modules: Syndication
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: RSS-DEV Working Group
citation: RFC 5005 — Feed Paging and Archiving
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: IETF
citation: W3C Feed Validation Service
  type: CreativeWork
  publisher: W3C

Web Specification Studio
type: WebSite

Web Specification Studio
type: Organization

breadcrumb
type: BreadcrumbList
item list element: Home
  type: ListItem
  position: 1
  item: https://webspecification.com/
item list element: Spec
  type: ListItem
  position: 2
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/
item list element: Foundations
  type: ListItem
  position: 3
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/foundations/
item list element: Feed content hygiene
  type: ListItem
  position: 4
  item: https://webspecification.com/spec/foundations/feed-hygiene/