There's no denying it, the Internet has changed. The change was so subtle most people missed it. It was no great momentous event, just a slight sideways flex in how information is exchanged on the web. However, this slight shift has significant ramifications for anyone trying to achieve top rankings in the different search engines. So keep reading to find out how you can use this new SEO wildcard to 'hotwire' your site to the major search engines such as Google, Msn and Yahoo. Of course, the wildcard we're talking about is RSS! RSS stands for 'Really Simple Syndication.' Basically, RSS allows you to directly deliver your content to all interested parties... don't come to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website. It syndicates your content. In a nutshell; it's simply a more efficient way to get your content 'out there'. It was first used by News sites to send updated headlines and brief summaries to all interested parties. Many people associate RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs are usually written in XML or RSS format (code like HTML) so that these headlines and postings can be easily read and accessed. Although the change may have been slight, the ramifications of RSS may be long lasting and far reaching. As the major search engines incorporate RSS into their SERPs and Algorithms, RSS may even play a larger role than many people realized at first glance. However, RSS emergence as a dominant SEO factor is not really a big surprise; RSS presents 'raw-timely-content' for the search engines to serve up to their patrons -- its just what the 'info pushers' ordered. Therefore, you must optimize or position your site to take full advantage of the RSS wildcard. RSS Positioning! Simple RSS strategies that you can use to position your site with the major search engines including Google. Actually, Google has just introduced a new XML powered Sitemaps. You are basically setting up a direct 'hotwire' -- linking your site to Google. Any or all changes on your site can now be instantly updated and indexed by Google. How It Works There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which you can download from Google. This is a Python file that you can upload to your webserver and this generator will create a sitemap from your 'URL lists, webserver directories, or your access logs'. Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML sitemap to Google -- the search engine will use this XML sitemap to update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site. You will need to have a Google account. You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have or will be given low priority for the time being. To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login But Google's new Sitemaps is just the latest way to use RSS positioning, its not the only way! You can further optimize your site by using the following RSS strategies: Build RSS Feeds and Blogs for Your Keywords. One of the best ways to use RSS is to set up a Blog and RSS feed for each of your major keywords. Any major topic or subject on your site must or should have a Blog and RSS feed to compliment your site's content. To optimize fully, it is best to have a separate IP address for each of these Blogs, different from your site's IP address. You can even use Free Blog sites like Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves) or eBlogger (owned by Google). To take full advantage, it's best to use 'unique content' in these blogs and make sure you link only to high PR quality sites. Ping Your Blogs Regularly Pinging your blog posts regularly will alert the search engines new content has been added to your site or blog. Most of you have probably noticed by now that using sites like 'MyYahoo' to ping your blogs and RSS feeds is a great way of getting your sites spidered and indexed quickly in the major search engines. Pinging is simply sending out a signal to all the weblog tracking sites that your site/blog has been updated. Here's a site http://pingomatic.com that will 'ping' you blogs automatically. Add RSS Feeds to Your Site Another way to attract the search engines is to place high quality RSS feeds on your site related to your subject area. Use these feeds to provide valuable content to your visitors. And it's quite simple to do; just add "&format=rss" at the end of the URL in your Msn search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for 'tsunami relief' you would use this url: http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different: http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt Of course, you can change 'tsunami+relief' with the keyword or phrase of your choice to suit your website's content. Conclusion Trying these RSS positioning strategies will give your site added visibility on the web and a greater presence in the major search engines. It will create dynamic links to and from your site and this will result in faster spidering/indexing of your sites. You should be using RSS to basically 'hotwire' your site or sites to the major search engines such as Google, Msn and Yahoo -- in fact, it should be your number one priority. RSS is still relatively new; despite the popularity of blogging, podcasting, MyYahoo and the RSS featured Firefox Browser, it hasn't totally gone mainstream. Many webmasters have not yet optimized their sites for RSS, so you can give your site a slight competitive edge if you act quickly. By taking full advantage of this new technology you will see a marked improvement in your site's traffic, not to mention a noticeable increase in your site's rankings. So don't delay, 'hotwire' your site by utilizing the RSS factor and you might be pleasantly surprised where it takes you! |
