The role of RSS in SEO
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was developed by Netscape in 1999. Any RSS is an XML file and it’s role is to store newest articles, stories, updates and so on. Various RSS versions and definitions give you an opportunity to choose one, however you sould bear in mind it’s validity, so people and search engines will go through it without having any problems. „Validity“ means valid valid XML code, correct encoding and using all reqired entities.
The first goal of RSS is to bring latest news to people, or to show them on another website. Generally, browsers like Opera, FireFox, or Mozilla support RSS feeds. If you decide to do so, you simply click on a button and you easily aggregate feeds from selected websites on these browsers. Of course, there are various RSS readers like Akregator or Liferea. Anyhow, let’s get back to it’s role in SEO.
RSS from a website „A“ can be shown on a website „B“ very easily. Depending on the way you choose, you can use simple PHP, Javascript or another code. Basically, if your RSS is of good quality, some people will find it useful and they will show your news on their website. You’ll simply get more links and more visitors. On the other hand, this kind of links isn’t stable. It is because all links are replaced with new ones as time goes by. Anyhow, there is one link which points to your homepage or a page which you determine within the XML code. Usually, such links point to homepages. If a webmaster decides to show your news on his website, he should link to your homepage too. It’s not guaranteed, however it’s a part of ethical principles.
Basically, you may get links from:
- 1) Pure-RSS sites, which don’t have any content and they show RSS from other websites only.
- 2) Ordinary websites, which use another’s RSS feeds just to bring fresh content.
- 3) Quality websites, which offer their own news as well as other’s news.
The first case isn’t very useful, since such sites won’t get high rankings in the future. The best case is the last one, since this kind of websites usually gets hundreds of natural links. In the sense of using another webmaster’s RSS feed, it is recommended to put 1-3 links to various RSS feeds on your website if you’ve just started it. Advantage is simple; You will get fresh content.
If you’re about to show external RSS on your web, make sure:
- 1) It’s freshness is guaranteed. You will not find it useful if that RSS feed is being updated once per 2 weeks.
- 2) It’s authors are skilled and they’re professionals at their area.
- 3) The RSS is theme based and is similar to your website’s theme.
- 4) The XML file is valid and is available 24/7.
If you’re about to offer one or more RSS feeds on your website, make sure:
- 1) You are able to update them at least once a week. However, it is recommended to update them at least once per 2 days.
- 2) Your RSS feeds are valid.
Let’s go through all advantages and disadvantages of using another webmasters’ feeds. Let’s consider they’re valid and updated daily or at least once per week. Otherwise, you should use another feeds.
Advantages are:
- 1) Fresh content.
- 2) Linking to related websites.
Disadvantages are:
- 1) Possibility that visitors will leave your site after clicking on a link shown from RSS feed.
- 2) Relatively long time while your script obtains them from the source site.
While using external RSS feeds might be difficult, it’s better to offer your own feeds. Generally, there is only one disadvantage of it; You must update your website daily. Because of this reason, you should consider your own feeds if only you’re capable to satisfy this requirement.
The easiest ways how your site might offer quality RSS are following:
- 1) Forum sites (posts, comments, articles, new members).
- 2) Directories (links or articles)
RSSs should be linked from every internal page within your website, since their popularity will be high as much as possible. Once their importance is high, search engines will crawl them periodically. More fresh content search engines find each time RSSs are crawled, more importance and popularity they get from these search engines. Because of this reason, new pages on your website will be found very easily and what’s more, they will be found in a short time. This is also the first advantage. Let’s imagine that you run very complex e-shop and Google knows only about 50% of your products. Similar situation can be caused by inappropriate site structure or low link popularity. If you put each new product into the RSS feed, they will be found much faster than without RSS feeds.
Another advantage of own RSS feeds is that other people will use them. Showing your links and a bit of content on other sites doesn’t give you high PageRank, however it’s still better than without them. At least, you will get some visitors and if RSS are shown properly, you will get relatively permanent link to your homepage. This is why you must include such link within your XML.
RSS structure is very simple. At first, it’s an ordinary text file which might be structured as following:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”windows-1250″?>
<rss version=”2.0″ xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>
<channel>
<title>Your website title</title>
<link>A link to your website</link>>
<description>Your website’s desciption</description>
<language>Language; e.g. „en“</language>
<item>
<title>Your latest story</title>
<link>A link to the latest story</link>
<description>Your latest story desciption</description>
<dc:creator>The author; For example you or a user who submitted latest story</dc:creator>
<dc:date>The date; For example, use yyyy-mm-dd format</dc:date>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Please note, that repeating „item“ will create more items, so you can publish 5, 10 or any other amount of latest news. Remember, that the latest story should be listed as the first one.