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SEO Tips - RSS Feeds |
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SEO Tips |
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RSS Feeds
This month we'd like to look at RSS feeds and how they can help your search engine optimization program.
RSS is a mechanism for delivering requested information (information to which you have subscribed) directly to your desktop. In order to receive this information, you need to have an RSS feed reader (or aggregator), which is an application that checks your list of subscriptions for new information and updates.
So what does this have to do with SEO?
Just as HTML can be optimized for search engine visibility, so too can RSS feeds. Site optimization can be improved if you create RSS feeds that contain top search engine results for the keywords you're targeting. If your site already contains blogs, you have the perfect vehicle for RSS feeds, although columns and other content can become a feed as well.
How do you get your feed spidered? The first and easiest step (inexplicably overlooked by most webmasters) is for you to set up a personal my.yahoo and my.msn homepage and include the feed there. Just set up an account and put together a home page that has some content about your feed or blog and note the URL to the feed; the feed's contents will be indexed far more quickly than is typical for webpages.
You can also use the SEO emphasis on links to increase search engine visibility of your RSS feed by submitting it to appropriate directories. Ask your inhouse or contracted SEO professional about how to do this. Blogs and podcasts, other ways of getting your changing content "out there" and into the webcrawlers' paths, also have directories to which your content can be submitted.
Whenever you do anything on the web, always think of ways that activity can be used to boost your search engine optimization. Small changes will, over time, make for big differences in your search engine placement!