Now that you have some well structured SEO pages, lets provide a means for them to be shared across the net. Today we will take a look at RSS. What is RSS? Why use RSS? How to use RSS?

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summery. RSS is an XML-based format for content distribution.

Here are a few various definitions from around the net:

• RSS (n) RSS is a Web content syndication format. Its name is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a dialect of XML. (source Harvard)
• RSS (n) RSS is a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites, including major news sites like Wired, news-oriented community sites like Slashdot, and personal weblogs. (source XML.com)
• RSS (n) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content. (source WebReference)
• RSS (n) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based format for content distribution (source CNET)
• RSS (n) RSS is an XML-based format for syndicated content. (source IBM)
• RSS (n) RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web, also known as syndication. First started by Netscape as part of the My Netscape site, it expanded through Dave Winer and Userland. RSS started off in an RDF format. (source newsmonster)

Why use RSS?

RSS has benefits for both viewers and webmasters.

RSS allows webmasters to:

• Provide fresh and relevant content on their website, which encourages users to return.
• Constantly changing content means that search engine spiders will visit more frequently.
• Automate content delivery.

RSS allows for users to:

• Easily locate information.
• Read condensed information or ’sound-bytes’ with clearly marked and dated topic material.
• Classify and categorize information in an easy to navigate manner.
• Maximize their time without having to deal with spam.

How to use RSS?

You can either manually create your RSS feed or you can use a site like FeedBurner to create and manage your sites RSS feed for you.

A RSS feed file looks like this:

<?xml  version="1.0" ?>
<rss version="2.0">

<channel>

<title>The title of your site</title>
<description>This is the description of your site.</description>
<link>http://www.foo.com</link>

<item>
<title>Your article or post title you can use a keyword here</title>
<description>Description of your article or post.</description>
<link>http://www.foo.com/post-name.html</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Your article or post title you can use a keyword here</title>
<description>Description of your article or post.</description>
<link>http://www.foo.com/post-name.html</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>Your article or post title you can use a keyword here</title>
<description>Description of your article or post.</description>
<link>http://www.foo.com/post-name.html</link>
</item>

</channel>

</rss>

There are three elements you need to have in your RSS feed file.; title, description and link. Now if your sites pages don’t change you can get away with just creating your RSS feed manually. However if you have a site where you are adding new content all the time you will want to use a automatic RSS feed generator.

If your site uses a CMS ( content management system ) - forum software or blogging platform, chances are that the RSS feed is automatically done for you, you just need to link it to your homepage.

Basic SEO Steps

• SEO : Getting Started
• SEO : Step One : Keyword Research
• SEO : Step Two : Meta Tags
• SEO : Step Three : Header Tags
• SEO : Step Four : Content
• SEO : Step Five : Paging Structure
• SEO : Step Six : Bold Keywords
• SEO : Step Seven : SEO Images
• SEO : Step Eight : Sitemap
• SEO : Step Nine : RSS
• SEO : Step Ten : Submissions

About The Author

Written by MissDanni
MissDanni is a jill of all trades, from web design to web promotion and everything in between, you might just say web everything. Working in the web industry since 2000 she continues to learn new things everyday. "Nothing is impossible if you are willing to take the time to learn and make mistakes."

Other posts by MissDanni

Tags: diy seo, RSS, SEO, seo help, seo tips

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