Using RSS Feeds To Your Advantage

An RSS feed is a very powerful SEO tool. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it represents an easy way for internet users to easily access updates to their favourite sites.

Most effective on blogs or news sites, which get updated quite frequently, RSS feeds eliminate the need for busy people to continually re-access web pages to see if something new has been added.

RSS Aggregators

Even more powerful are RSS aggregators. These tools take updates from a variety of sites and organise them according to subject so that internet users can quickly and easily find content that interests them.

Even further, aggregators can change the front page of links according to user preference or browsing history. They function much the same as an internet browser only they are fed by RSS with headlines and descriptions that are themselves links directly to the content.

Obviously, if your site is included on an aggregator, the odds of receiving visitors – qualified traffic, increases exponentially.

How RSS Aggregators Work

RSS Feeds have to come from somewhere. They are not automatically updated by search engine spiders, rather the owner or administrator of a website must create the document and then register the continually updating content with a publisher. This publisher makes the feeds available to a number of websites that syndicate content and register it in an appropriate directory.

In an RSS aggregator site, new content is king. Because there are so many sites on the world wide web, and news and information changes by the minute, only the freshest pieces of content with a short description or headline are featured on the front page, or amongst the sparse offerings on a small RSS screen uploaded to the desktop. The most popular are sports game scores, stock updates, and business news. Find a way to incorporate these types of statistics into your content and you will gain a great deal of free online traffic to your site.

You need not even have your own web page with content regarding that fed through RSS, just a headline or short summary with link to the initial article will suffice.

RSS utilises XML computer code, rather than the more common HTML. Providing an RSS feed is easy. You simply submit the information via URL appropriate for the client end, which could be a website or a desktop application. The aggregator monitors the feed for updates after it has been submitted and then continually updates the top links.

Alternately, you can provide an RSS feed link to anyone who visits your website or blog. You can attract RSS subscribers by utilising the main component of driving traffic – offering content that is informative and interesting. The more a visitor can gain by visiting your site, the greater the likelihood of having him or her subscribe to the content via an RSS feed.

Once you’ve gained subscribers, keep them. It is essential to provide regular updates to your content and to keep it topical, timely, and informative. The more a visitor accesses your site, the greater your chances they will take a look around, click on links to your products or services, and then buy them. With RSS subscribers, you are getting qualified traffic, so take advantage of it.

Many sites that you can join to augment your internet marketing efforts offer RSS feeds for your membership so you can take advantage of this as well. Grab your RSS feed info from your article marketing efforts and feed it to directories and to your own website.

Add those feeds to Web 2.0 pages like HubPages and Squidoo Lenses so that your pages will update with continual fresh content. And, use RSS Feeds on interactive websites and forums that allow you to feed RSS into your profile or signature as well.

Have a most outstanding day.

Sean Rasmussen
Aussie Internet Marketing
www.AussieSEO.com 2010

 

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