Atom self link

rel self links tell clients the canonical feed URL.

Checked by FeedInspector

Capability checks

feed.selfLink

Metrics

itemCount

Definition

A feed self link is an atom:link with rel="self" that points to the canonical feed URL.

Why it matters

Canonical feed URLs reduce duplicate subscriptions and help clients detect moved feeds correctly.

How FeedInspector checks it

FeedInspector maps atom:link rel self into feed.selfLink and reports it in core capability checks.

Common problems and fixes

Problem: rel self points to the website home page instead of feed URL.
Fix: Set rel self href to the final feed endpoint URL.
Problem: Multiple self links with conflicting URLs.
Fix: Publish one canonical self link per feed document.

Minimal example

atom:link rel self

<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <atom:link href="https://example.com/feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
  </channel>
</rss>