Wait!Before you comment or answer  did you actually read the whole question?Did you notice that the question ends in the word button ?If this is how the question appeared to you:then please reread it and try to process the last word, too, before you post.Thank you.Now that you've read all of the question title ( button ! ), here is the question text itself:QuestionAlthough all my sites have had feeds since RSS has been introduced 17 years ago, personally, I have never used them. So I'm a bit unfamiliar with how users actually interact with the feed links on my sites.As I understand it, those users that use RSS or Atom feeds do not actually click the in-page links to the feeds but use a feed aggregator plugin which reads the rel=alternate links from the head section of source code of a website, finds the link to the feeds there, and notifies the user of its existence.So what do we need an in-page feed button for?ExplanationTo clarify, here is a screenshot from a random blog, showing the RSS icon besides a link to the feed:An in-page link or button like this seems common in most blog themes, while professional publications such as the NY Times do not offer an in-page link to their feeds anywhere on their site (although they have feeds and link to them in the head section of their source code).When professional news sites do offer an in-page link to their feeds, then because they offer a confusing number of different feeds, and the link usually leads to a page explaining the nature and content of the feeds you can subscribe to. Here is an example from the Huffington Post. But even when it is present, the in-page link to the feed page itself is nondescript and in the footer:ReminderDid I mention that my question asks about in-page feed buttons?
Do we need RSS buttons?
rss;usability
Possible advantages of having visible feed links:For visitors that know what feeds are:If they (currently) dont use a user agent with feed autodiscovery, they still get informed that you offer feeds and which URLs they have.If they use a user agent with feed autodiscovery, they might not expect to find a feed on your site (and therefore dont pay attention to the autodiscovery icon), or might not intend to subscribe to your feed. Stumbling upon the visible feed link could remind them or convince them to subscribe (Ah, a feed  why not).Search engine users might try to find your feed by searching for  feed. Having a link that contains this keyword helps here.For visitors that dont know what feeds are:They get the chance to learn about it.If you offer multiple feeds: Some user agents with feed autodiscovery only discover / allow accessing the first feed, so these users still have the chance to find your other feeds thanks to the visible links.It can be too complex to describe their meaning/differences in the title attributes. A separate page that links and describes all your feeds offers more clarity.Possible disadvantages of having visible feed links:They need some space.The site design might not be suitable for adding them.Only you (with your site and users in mind) can decide whats more important. Feed autodiscovery works by using link (or a/area) elements with the alternate link type and the feed format in the type attribute (i.e., application/rss+xml or application/atom+xml). Youre one of todays lucky 10000. ;-) The HTML5 spec defines that the first one is the default feed:The first [] must be treated as the default syndication feed for the purposes of feed autodiscovery.N.B. This very question ([icon] question feed) as well as the linked XKCD comic (RSS Feed - Atom Feed) contain visible feed links.