Blogs, RSS Feeds and Articles are hot topics now adays. As a webmaster I’m constantly being asked about them. In this article I’m going to give you a very basic overview of the whys and wherefores of Blogs and RSS feeds from a business and name brand awareness benefit point of view. For a comprehensive, indepth tutorial on an effective BLOG AND PING method for getting your site indexed in the search engines FAST, visit http://www.internetoutfitter.com/blog-and-ping. To do so I have to first talk briefly about the two things that make a website popular in the public eye and in the search engines, namely...
1. Onsite Factors
2. Offsite Factors
Unfortunately, achieving top rankings in the search engines for popular targeted key phrases is getting more difficult due to an exponentially growing competitive online marketplace. It can still be done but it does require more effort and knowledge than ever before. The search engines also CONSTANTLY change their ranking criteria so what worked well yesterday may not work as well today. However there are a few things that are consistent among them.
Onsite factors: This is targeted and unique CONTENT. The content and layout of your web site including titles, headers, Meta tags, keyword prominence and density etc. We aren’t going to cover this topic in this report. What we are going to cover briefly in relationship to Blogs and RSS feeds is another factor that is gaining prominence as a major factor to top search engine rankings and visitors. Namely..
Offsite Factors: This has to do with other sites linking to your site primarily. Especially highly regarded (high PR ranking) related web sites as opposed to link farms or Spam marketing sites.
You may have heard the term PR. The PR rating is an attempt by some search engines (especially GOOGLE) to determine a sites validity and popularity or value based on a number of factors, which probably constantly change so I won’t attempt to expound on this. Let’s just say that if you have one, incoming (one way) link to your site from another RELATED CONTENT site that has a high PR rating it is good. The relevancy of text in the actual incoming links to your site is also an important factor. Incoming links are an indication of how popular your site is in the Internet community. Call it third party credibility if you will. Incoming links come in two flavors;
More recently Blogs, Articles and RSS syndication have become popular and effective methods of not only raising a sites PR rating, but getting more web site traffic, via incoming links, offsite exposure and brand name recognition. This can and often does result in higher listings in the search engines as well.
So what are Blogs and RSS Feeds?
BLOGS: Blogs (Short for weB LOGS), are basically online journals where you can write your thoughts and share information with the world. Blogs are used for both personal and business purposes and have their own BLOG search engines. A typical blog also has RSS feeds integrated right into it so it can be syndicated in newsreaders and on websites across the net. A Blog may or may not allow for ongoing comments and conversations from your viewing audience.
Blogs are different from web sites primarily because they tend to be content rich, information sharing platforms as opposed to marketing platforms so people are more likely to read them looking for information they are interested in. That is not to say a blog cant be a back door way for business because it can and I will cover that briefly, in a moment.
RSS: (Really Simple Syndication). RSS feeds are typically snippets of .xml code containing all or part of an article or .html page content that can be read in newsreaders or syndicated (posted) to online newsreaders like My Yahoo. There are also many desktop newsreaders available that allow people to subscribe to RSS feeds and view them on their desktop. Many sites also post other peoples RSS feeds in order to increase their relevant content and provide their readers with more information. The author of the RSS content snippet benefits by having a link to the rest of the article, which is posted, on their site.
RSS feeds can be automatically updated as new information comes in. RSS started primarily as a way for NEWS SITES to steam live news feeds across the net as the new breaks. However, RSS feeds have now found their way to the public and if you have a savvy Webmaster, he or she can help you integrate them into your marketing strategy. Or if you have the time, you can do it yourself.
ARTICLES: I should say something about articles, which are an important feature of many Blogs and RSS feeds. Actually the RSS feed is typically a snippet of a full article that is found on your web site. The RSS feed presents a few sentences and if the reader is interested in the full article they can click a link and visit your site to read more.
There are also article directories that allow you to post your articles (with kudos to you and your site of course) so others can download your article and post it on their sites. Content publishers and complimentary service sites might be interested in posting your article on their site. This allows them to feed their audience more interesting content and it allows you to get a link back to your site along with name brand recognition for the article. Again incoming links and recognition to the author of the article is the name of the game. You can also post your articles to your blog. Remember Blogs already have RSS feeds built into them so your article or entire blog can be syndicated via RSS.
Why do people subscribe to RSS feeds?
Putting it all together
So how can all this benefit the typical online business person? Well consider the following simple example. It is only one of many possible scenerios...
Jane has a web site that sells cleaning products. She also has been a cleaning lady for a number of years and knows many shortcuts and helpful techniques for saving time and getting great results. So Jane decides to use a blog, RSS Feeds and Articles to boost her popularity, web traffic and search engine rankings. Here is one way she might go about it. There are many others.
Jane writes two or three articles about what she knows best. Although the articles aren’t real long they are composed of great content that can really help people reduce their efforts and get better cleaning results. Besides Jane doesn’t want to tell the whole story because one of the products she sells on her site is a cleaning book and video. Her article may be a few paragraphs of her book as a matter of fact.
Anyway, once she has two or three articles. She starts a BLOG and posts the articles to her blog (or web site). She then converts the first few sentences of each article to an RSS feed.
Once she had done that she submits the RSS feeds to the RSS feed directories, the blog to the blog directories and the articles themselves to the article directories. These directories are not the major search engines (although they could include them). As a result she already will have more incoming links to her site from these directories and ANYONE who ever posts, links to, or subscribes to her RSS feeds or articles or blog with become a ONE WAY INCOMING LINK RESOURCE for her, sending her traffic and helping to raise her PR rating in the search engines which in turn can and possibly will get her higher rankings.
This means if say “Janet” links to her articles then anyone who ever visits Janet’s site and reads Jane’s article will actually visit Jane’s site (in the case of the RSS feeds), or at least “Janet’s” site will have a one way link to yours and that can be a good thing, especially if Janet has a similar topic site with a high PR rating and good search engine placement.
Also note that any article you write should end with a signature line about you and a link to your site for more information (just like this one does). Although you aren’t advertising your product or service directly in your articles you can mention them in the signature line and if the person likes what you say and sees the value of your knowledge they are more likely to check out other things you have to say and buy from you. You are building credibility as an expert in their minds before they actually visit your site and at the same time circulating links to your site(s) across the net. One thing I would like to suggest strongly is that you always GIVE more than you receive and if you are going to say something, say something worth listening to.
Hopefully you can see from this small article the benefit of using BLOGS, RSS feeds and Articles to extend your reach beyond just the search engines. Once an article or RSS feed takes hold online it tends to spread like wildfire and that improves your link/PR rating and search engine rankings as well. Call it “backdoor viral marketing” Another benefit is the RSS, Article and BLOG directories still don’t have as much competition as the major search engines so if you have something worthwhile to say there is a very good chance you will get good placement and recognition. The next time you are on a business web site, you might want to look for RSS feeds, articles or a Blog.
About the Author:
Mark Hamilton is a Webmaster and SEO specialist. since 1997. You can visit his
site at www.internetoutfitter.com . For a comprehensive, indepth tutorial on
a proven method of Business Blogging and Pinging and how it can increase your
traffic and get your site listed in the major engines like Yahoo and Google
FAST, visit www.internetoutfitter.com/blog-and-ping/
You are free to post this article on your site as long as you leave ALL the information intact.