Tag Archives: feeds

Get Better Google Rankings and Increase Web Traffic With RSS Syndication (Page 1 of 2)

So maybe you have heard about Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and seen the RSS symbol on websites?

Perhaps you have even used it to catch up on your daily news from your favorite websites. Great free resources like the Google Reader makes it a breeze to keep up with the latest happenings on topics of interest to you.

But there is another side to RSS I would like to discuss with you today, and that’s RSS syndication also known as RSS submission which is the process of using this technology to get better page rankings in the search engines and increase web traffic to your website.

I am going to suggest to you that this is a vital process for you to understand and start using as the vast majority of your competition (other web sites) are not leveraging this technology. So using feed submission is a great way to assist you in leapfrogging your competition.

But lets take a step back and understand how the process works. Firstly in order to use RSS like this, you need an RSS feed.

Think of an RSS feed as just a description of one or more pages on a website. It’s a standard format that can be read by literally millions of programs on the internet.

You see computers being what they are, they cannot understand a particular piece of information unless they understand the structure. Because RSS is a documented format, it means all these programs that use RSS can then understand how to read an RSS feed, and how to process the contents in the file.

Many websites have this technology built in. If you are running a wordpress blog you automatically have this technology built in to every post you make on the website.

And even if your using a static website without RSS feeds, you can invest in an inexpensive RSS script to product RSS feeds for your website.

As I mentioned previously RSS technology has mainly been used to retrieve information for a group of websites (news, new content, etc). It has not really been used to assist you in getting visitors to your website or ranking better in google.

But new exciting software is coming out to leverage the power of RSS to get the word out about your website.

Entire websites are developed and being developed as RSS Aggregators, in other words sites dedicated to receiving information about the content that is on other websites. And guess what? They use RSS technology as well.

Google, the premier search engine itself invested million purchasing a major RSS website called feedburner. Further they then added to their AdSense program a module for RSS Feeds. AdSense is the most widely used technology to put advertisements on websites that we know of today.

I am hoping your starting to see where I am going with this, if entire sites are setting themselves up to use RSS exclusively and Google themselves are heavily investing in RSS technology, then this is something that internet marketers should be looking at.

Google realize that RSS is all about tracking content changes, because anytime a website adds content to their website (if they are using RSS technology) then their RSS feed is updated automatically.

How To Submit Rss Feed For Your Website

One of the best ways to keep users of your website is to have them coming back for more. You can accomplish this by providing RSS feeds. RSS Stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is a coded method of informing website users of new news, activities happening, contests you are running, anything you really want to know. The process of RSS Feeds is relatively easy, when you know how to do it. But for the beginner, it may be a little intimidating to learn how to submit an RSS feed for your website.

One way to submit an RSS feed for your website is to put up a blog or “weB LOG” Blogging software usually contains built in code that will submit your feed to RSS directories every time you make a new post. For some people, however, this can be tricky. Blogging software out of the box can be a little intimidating, and they usually provide very little to no documentation. Hosted blogs like WordPress and Blogger usually contain those built in codes, but customizing your blog to your liking can be difficult.

Another, less used but highly popular, method is to create the RSS Feed yourself. This is done through eXtended Markup Language, or XML. XML is almost like HTML in its design, except for the fact that RSS XML Files contain usually only three or four items. These items are the title, description and link. You can embed multiple items into one XML file, which creates your feed.

An RSS feed is a grouping of items chained together. This is called a “channel” and is referenced by the “channel” and “/channel” tags at the beginning and end, respectively, of your XML file. The last thing you need to do at the top of your file is indicate it is an XML file by using the XML and RSS tags. See your favorite web design book or website on how to do this.

So, you’ve spent all this time creating your XML file, it works, and all is well, now what do you do with it? Well, you need to submit it of course. The best way to submit an RSS Feed is to use one of the multitude of RSS Directories out there. I won’t list any, just google it. Once you’ve found one, submit your XML file like you would a web page, and within minutes, your newly acquired RSS Feed will be screaming across the internet at the speed of light, both to your current users, and also attracting new users at an alarming rate.

The benefits of RSS are great. You can keep your users informed of happenings on your site, you can attract new users, and you can ensure that your news will get out to the world with ease.

ABCs Of RSS Feeds (Page 1 of 3)

Implementing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can be aided by an understanding of the terms relating to RSS. Learn the ABCs of RSS….

A – AutoDiscovery

Auto Discovery is code that is inserted into the header of an HTML web page, which then indicates to readers that an RSS feed is available for the content.

B – Blogs

Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. Blogs generally contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases, blogs are used as daily diaries about people’s personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever the author wants them to be. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content.

C – Cache

Cache is a temporary storage area for frequently-accessed or recently-accessed data. Having certain data stored in a cache area speeds up the operation of the computer. Using a cache with RSS feeds will help minimize bandwidth and display an RSS feed’s content quicker.

D – Display

RSS Many webmasters post the content of an RSS feed on their website. They use either PHP, ASP, or javascript for such purposes. If done properly, the feed’s content will dynamically update as the content of the feed changes.

E – Elements

Within an RSS feed, there are various feed elements. The elements of an RSS feed are defined by tags.

F – Filter

Many RSS feeds contain duplicate or similar content. Publishers can filter RSS feeds so that they only see content that they wish to see, by filtering out duplicate postings.

G – GUID

GUID stands for Globally Unique IDentifier. The RSS specification strongly suggests that each RSS feed item have a unique GUID. If you are creating feeds, a GUID is important because GUIDs are often used by feed readers and aggregators to determine if a feed item is new or simply an existing item that has been updated. Each item in the RSS feed should have a unique GUID.

H – HTML

HTML, which is the acronym for HyperText Markup Language, is frequently used to design websites.

I – iTunes Namespace

The iTunes Namespace allows the user to add the information necessary to have a podcast listed on the Apple iTunes Music Store (ITMS).

J – JavaScript

Javascript can be used to display the content of an RSS feed.

K – Keywords

Keywords should be integrated into the RSS feed to help search engines determine what the RSS feed is about.

L – Links

Links are used to direct RSS readers to the original webpage containing information that directly relates to the feed.

M – Mashup

A mashup is a combination of multiple RSS feeds that have been merged together to create a new, single feed.

N – Namespace Extensions

The RSS specification allows you to create and use your own custom elements (tags) in any RSS feed by declaring your own namespace. Doing this is 100% in line with the RSS specification and the feed will validate. However, you should have a specific and well-planned reason to do so. No RSS readers, or other RSS processing applications, will be able to use your custom info for any purpose. Adding elements (tags) would typically be used only in an in-house situation where both the writing application and the reading application have prior knowledge of the new tags.