Content and
RSS:
RSS Feeds - a
Website Owners
Friend in
Disguise
We've all heard
about it-it
seems like all
the buzz right
now in the
search engine
marketing
industry is RSS.
If you're a
website owner,
than there are
two ways your
website can
benefit from
using RSS on
your website-you
can provide an
RSS feed or, for
the
not-so-technically-inclined
folks like me,
you can use an
RSS feed to keep
your site's
content fresh.
RSS is a way to
syndicate
website content.
According to
Wikipedia, "RSS
is a family of
XML file formats
for web
syndication used
by (amongst
other things)
news websites
and weblogs...the
RSS formats
provide web
content or
summaries of web
content together
with links to
the full
versions of the
content, and
other
meta-data."
Wikipedia goes
on to say that
"A program known
as a feed reader
or aggregator
can check RSS-enabled
web pages on
behalf of a user
and display any
updated articles
that it finds.
It is now common
to find RSS
feeds on major
web sites, as
well as many
smaller ones."
If you're a
website owner,
you can use RSS
to your
advantage in two
ways: use
someone else's
RSS feed or
produce your own
RSS feed. 1.
Install a script
on your
website-whenever
a web page on
your website is
loaded the
script
automatically
loads data from
an RSS feed. If
the RSS feed you
choose to use is
the latest news,
then the latest
news will appear
on your website.
This is fairly
easy to set up
and is good for
search engine
optimization
purposes. I'll
discuss
installing an
RSS feed script
on your website
later on in this
article.
2. Provide an
RSS feed of your
website's
content so
others can use
it. By providing
an RSS feed of
your website's
content, you're
essentially
allowing people
to use the
content on their
website or
through their
feed reader. In
either case,
you're also
providing links
back to your
website, which
is good for
search engine
optimization
purposes-it will
also get
visitors to
visit your
website.
Providing an RSS
feed of your
site's content
can be tricky to
set up-or it may
not be
appropriate if
you don't have a
lot of content
on your website.
I'll discuss
your options
later on in this
article.
If you're a
website owner,
then chances are
you want to keep
your website's
content fresh.
By updating the
content on a
regular basis,
the search
engine spiders
will take
notice-they'll
visit your
website more
often and index
the new content
and new web
pages-which can
ultimately bring
more visitors to
your website.
For example, if
your website is
about real
estate, you
might consider
including the
latest real
estate news on
your website.
Users typically
search for
topics that are
related to items
in the news, so
if those topics
and keywords are
included on your
website you can
typically be
found in the
search engines
for those terms.
It's like having
your own real
estate news
staff on hand,
24 hours a day,
adding the
latest news on
your website.
Installing an
RSS Feed on Your
Website
Installing an
RSS feed on your
website is not
as difficult as
it sounds. You
simply install a
script one
time-and then
anywhere you
want the RSS
feed to appear
you simply pick
a feed and copy
and paste some
code on your
page. The first
thing you need
to do is figure
out which script
to use. If your
website is using
an Unix server
and has PHP
installed, the
the easiest PHP
script I've
found is called
CaRP. You will
first want to
visit the CaRP
download page
and download the
file. CaRP has a
free version
that you can use
on your website.
They request
that you link
back to their
website if you
use it. Unzip
the zip file and
upload the files
to your website
using an FTP
program. Then,
run the setup
file in your web
browser, chmod
the appropriate
files, and
continue with
the directions
given to you in
the web browser.
Once it's
installed, the
script will give
you code to copy
and paste
wherever your
want the RSS
feed to be
displayed on
your website.
You can even
change the font,
size, and color
of the feed by
specifying those
attributes
before the code.
There are other
RSS parser
scripts
available, but
CaRP is the one
that I'm more
familiar with
because its ease
of use and ease
of installation.
To find other
RSS parsers, you
can search
Google for "rss
parser script".
CaRP is
typically used
if you have PHP
installed on
your website,
and RSS parser
scripts are
available if
you're running a
website on a
Windows server.
If you're using
the PHP version
of CaRP then
you'll want to
use PHP pages on
your website-or
you will need to
parse your html
pages as PHP
pages.
Finding an RSS
Feed
Once you've
installed the
parser script,
you'll want to
find the
appropriate RSS
feed to use on
your website.
Keep in mind
that a lot of
RSS feeds are
provided for
"non-commercial
use only", so if
your website is
a for-profit
website you'll
need to check
the terms of
using the RSS
feed before you
use it.
The best way to
find an RSS feed
is to search for
it. Following my
real estate
example above,
searching for "rss
real estate"
(without the
quotes) finds
several feeds.
Topix.net
provides a real
estate rss feed.
By copying that
URL and pasting
it into the CaRP
code provided by
CaRP, you can
add that code to
any web page on
your website and
the latest Real
Estate News from
Topix will
automatically
appear. Another
way to find a
feed is to look
for a blog on
your site's
topic. Most blog
software
includes an RSS
feed, so
searching Google
for "keyword
blog rss" might
also help you
find a feed you
can use.
Adding an RSS
feed on your web
page won't get
you high
rankings in the
search engines.
A while back I
tested this
theory a while
back by making
three nearly
identical web
pages-one static
page, one with
RSS feed content
on it, and
another with a
live RSS feed on
it. It turned
out that after
all three pages
were indexed and
ranked, the page
with the live
RSS feed
actually ranks
third-the static
page without the
RSS content on
it always ranks
the best. Search
Google for
"silly burlywood
revenue" and
you'll see what
I mean.
Although adding
an RSS feed
won't get your
page top
rankings in
Google, there
are other
benefits. For
example,
updating your
web page's
content on a
regular basis
gets the page
crawled more
often-and more
active crawling
can contribute
to other
benefits, such
as ranking for
terms that
appear in the
feed on your
site as well as
causing new web
pages on your
site to get
indexed faster
than they were
before.
Providing an RSS
Feed of Your
Content
Depending on
your website's
content,
providing an RSS
feed of your
content might be
appropriate. If
your website
provides news or
contains a blog,
then publishing
an RSS feed
might work well.
Most blog
software
automatically
publishes an RSS
feed of your
blog, so you
might want to
find its URL and
start promoting
it. If you sell
a lot of
products on your
website, you
might consider
making an RSS
feed
available-perhaps
one that
includes your
top selling
products along
with their
prices. Other
websites might
be interested in
publishing that
data for their
users, and you
would receive
more visitors
and links back
to your website,
something that
will help your
site's search
engine rankings.
Publishing an
RSS feed is a
little more
complicated,
perhaps to
lengthy a
discussion for
this article.
However, there
are many good
tutorials out
there, including
Danny Sullivan's
Search Engine
Watch article
about it, as
well as the RSS
tutorial at
mnot.net.
Whether you use
RSS to publish
your own feed or
you use someone
else's feed on
your website,
both provide
great benefits
to website
owners-and
definitely will
continue in the
future to be
used more and
more.
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