RSS and SEO

What is RSS?

RSS, in short for Really Simple Syndication is a web feed format used to publish frequently updated content. It is mainly used for blogs, News and podcast updates.

Why Is RSS Popular?

It is well received because people no longer have to go to their favorite sites to check for frequent updates. They just have to use a feed reader (Many of the readers are totally free, example Google Reader) and subscribe to the feeds of their choice, then sit back and relax! The readers will constantly check the subscribed feeds for updates and will bring the new updates to the user.

Uses For RSS

RSS is a proven driver of traffic. It can be used for

• Affiliate communications


• Syndicating your content on other sites


• New product announcements


• Security alerts


• Product uses tops and articles


• Customer communications, press room, and career channel

How Do I Add RSS Feeds To My Site?

There are a number of companies that offer hosted or downloadable applications for publishing RSS feeds, as well as blogs, podcasts and other content. If your blog /news publication is hosted on your own site, you may want to use one of the tools available in the market to help convert information from XML or HTML to RSS feeds.

If you know how to create XML files, you can create your own RSS feed without the use of these tools.

RSS and SEO Points

Follow these tips to make sure your RSS Feed is optimized.

• Within the feed, the titles of each of your items should be keyword-rich, because they will, more likely than not, become anchor text in the links that point to your content from blogs and syndicating sites


• Have a compelling site description that draws people in


• Routinely prune the old items in an RSS feeds and archive the content contained in the feed to ensure that feeds load quickly in RSS readers

Parting Thoughts

Without RSS feeds, your site will be passive and generally won't be accessible to most of the world until search engine crawlers find and index its pages. And then, once indexed, these pages stand relatively little chance of being surfaced by web searchers. Optimized RSS feeds make your site’s new content immediately available to feed readers and search engines.

Net Neutrality Update

In 2006, politicians and “netizens” from around the country turned their attention to the issue of network neutrality. As Congress weighed both sides of the argument, the team at Digital Brand Expressions kept a close eye on proceedings and blogged about our take on the network neutrality bill.

After months of back-and-forth, the end of the 109th Congress marks the death of Sen. Ted Stevens’ anti-net neutrality telecom bill. Although this is positive news for SEOs and other supporters of a free and open Internet, it’s only one step on the path toward ensuring the protection of net neutrality.

Without legislation that specifically preserves our Internet freedoms, the future of the Internet is still in question. Legislators must work toward a compromise that not only meaningfully defends net neutrality, but also takes into consideration the needs of the broadband providers --- creating a win-win situation for both consumers and the industry.

In the year to come, DBE will continue to follow the net neutrality debate. Check back to our blog in the future for additional insight and updates.

For more information on this important issue, please visit SavetheInternet.com.