Integrating RSS into Optimization Campaigns

[St0n3y]

RSS is relatively new to me but I've had success creating an RSS feed for our important web content. I think RSS can be an important addition to an overall optimization and linking strategy. Does anybody have any thoughts to contribute to such a discussion?

Also, I've found plenty of info on creating RSS feeds, etc. but very little about what to do once you have created the file. Do RSS feeds need to be submitted or do they get spidered, or just simply added to individual news aggregators as one chooses to import the information?

[rustybrick]

If we are limiting this thread to how RSS feeds help you from a link building standpoint, then this answer would hopefully be helpful. If not, please let me know.

RSS feeds help increase backlinks. For example; this forum has an RSS feed. I include the SEW forums RSS feed on the left hand side of my blog (http://www.seroundtable.com/). This forum has three links from my blog on every single page of my blog. Not bad.

There are also many sites that include my blog's rss feed on their sites. It works both ways.

For more info on RSS feeds, I recommend visiting the thread from the SES San Jose conference named Web Feeds, Blogs & Search - Live From SES San Jose (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=952).

[St0n3y]

I guess the "how" is the easy answer, but no less relevant for those who don't know much, or anythign, about RSS. I was hoping also to also talk about if or how others are integrating RSS into their overall optimization strategies.

Thx for the link!

[Nick W]

>>RSS

Shhhhhhh........! Don't tell everyone! ;)

Do RSS feeds need to be submitted or do they get spidered, or just simply added to individual news aggregators as one chooses to import the information?

They get spidered, but submitting them to places like these (http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Library_and_Information_Science/Technical_Services/Cataloguing/Metadata/RDF/Applications/RSS/Directories/) is of good benefit too.

>>integrating

Well, i like to collect and display relevant news stories where appropriate. Makes nice KW rich pages that take minutes to prepare. Drupal (http://drupal.org) along with a few other CMS's have this feature built right in but it's ever so simple to make yourself if you know a little PHP....

When I get round to it, my latest RSS venture will be to write some scripts that others can download and cut'n'paste into their sites to show my headlines. I could butcher someone elses for the purpose but it's often easier to just to write it than trying to understand someone elses code...

Nick

<added>Dmoz have an "RSS Feeds" part to their categories now aswell, even if you have a listing, you can submit your RSS page...</added>

[bethabernathy]

I just made an RSS feed for a real estate site. I am very new to this, but read Danny's article at:

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175271

Worked great. Is the SEW forum rss updated manually? Or is there something else that is done to get the posts added? :)

[AussieWebmaster]

Successful RSS link building requires submission in many cases of the html file that contains the link and then gets added to the other site ... you are constantly adding pages to your site with the updated links and RRS info.

[dannysullivan]

Is the SEW forum rss updated manually? Or is there something else that is done to get the posts added?
We have a script that our developers use to create the threads.

You'll need to find some method that works with your own system. There are both scripts you can install on your server or programs that will "scrape" content off your web pages and build a script.