Are you always looking for new and better ways to market your web site? Search engines are always on the look out for fresh content. When doing a search you don't want old content popping up, you want to have the most up to date information. Search engines will generally reward those sites which provide new content on a regular basis i.e. daily or even bi-weekly.
On of the best ways to provide fresh content is to create an RSS Feed. What is an RSS Feed?
RSS stands for "really simple syndication". For example I write articles every 2 weeks and place them on my web site. I then
link to that article from my home page and from my article headlines page. I make that article available to others as an item in
my RSS file. People who use RSS readers or news aggregators can read, then link to your article from their web site.
You have now syndicated your content for others to view. This is a great way to improve or maintain your search engine rankings by
naturally getting incoming links. Every time you write a new article it will be instantly available to 1000s of web site owners.
How to create an RSS File
RSS files use the XML language. This is similar to html except you must be careful to use closing tags and be sure to validate it
before you use it. An XML file contains the information (Title, Description and Link URL) that your audience will receive through
a RSS reader.
Here is all you need to create an RSS file:
-Title
-Description
-Link
Open notepad on your computer, then copy and paste the information below replacing it with your own title, description and link
information.
The first part contains information about your web site. The second part contains information for one of your articles. You can
also include optional information in your headlines such as language, copyright info, contact email addresses, or an image.
Try to limit the number of articles you wish to include in your RSS file to 5 or less. Enclose your RSS information with the xml
and rss versions you are using followed by the channel and item tags. Finish off with the RSS closing tag.
<channel>
<title>Web Site Design | Hosting | Marketing</title>
<link>http://www.isitebuild.com</link>
<description>Affordable Web Design in Maryland</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<title>How to Add a Search Engine to Your Site </title>
<link>http://www.isitebuild.com/add-search-engine.htm</link>
<description>
When visitors arrive at your web site you want them to find
the information quickly otherwise they will lose patience
and move on. A great way achieve this is to add a search
engine or search box to your web site.
</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
You have now created your first RSS file that is almost ready
for syndicating.
How to Syndicate Your RSS Feed
If you syndicate your RSS Feed or advertise it, you will get an immediate boost in traffic to your web site by others reading
and/or linking to your information. There are 2 ways to do this:
a) Place an XML button at the top of your home page. This is a little orange image that links to your RSS file. You can
see one at the top of my home page at www.isitebuild.com. Get a copy of the image (right click, save picture as) and upload it to your website. Place the image, with your xml link, on your home page. For example, here's the line of code I placed on my home page:
<a href="http://www.isitebuild.com/rss/rss-feed.xml"> <img
border="0" src="rss/rss_icon.jpg" alt="rss for maryland web
design" width="36" height="14"></a>
Feel free use this code for your own site but remember to replace the information with your own link.
b) Submit your site's RSS feed URL to various aggregators or news readers. This will enable them to start checking your
RSS feed for updates.
Here is a list of some of the most popular news aggregators:
Update your RSS feed regularly - add new articles to your RSS file on a regular basis. Make sure you link each article to
your site to increase your web traffic. Remember to delete your old articles because the dates next to your articles will adjust
depending on when news aggregators pick them up.
You only need to do this once and then syndicators tracking your feed automatically pick up your new feed items as you update them.
Conclusion:
Even though RSS feeds are a relatively new way of marketing, once you set them up it takes very little time to maintain and
provides another great way to increase the number of visitors to your web site.
About The Author
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his Marketing Tips
newsletter for more original articles. Read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles.
By Herman Drost, ©Copyright 2005.
