There’s no denying it, the Internet has changed. The change was so
subtle most people missed it. It was no great momentous event, just
a slight sideways flex in how information is exchanged on the web.
However, this slight shift has significant ramifications for anyone
trying to achieve top rankings in the different search engines.
So keep reading to find out how you can use this new SEO wildcard to
‘hotwire’ your site to the major search engines such as Google, Msn
and Yahoo.

Of course, the wildcard we’re talking about is RSS!

RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication.’ Basically, RSS allows you to
directly deliver your content to all interested parties… don’t come
to us; we will deliver the information to you or your website. It
syndicates your content. In a nutshell; it’s simply a more efficient way to
get your content ‘out there’.

It was first used by News sites to send updated headlines and
brief summaries to all interested parties. Many people associate
RSS with Blogs or Blogging because Blogs are usually written in
XML or RSS format (code like HTML) so that these headlines and
postings can be easily read and accessed.

Although the change may have been slight, the ramifications of RSS
may be long lasting and far reaching. As the major search engines
incorporate RSS into their SERPs and Algorithms, RSS may even play
a larger role than many people realized at first glance. However,
RSS emergence as a dominant SEO factor is not really a big surprise;
RSS presents ‘raw-timely-content’ for the search engines to serve up
to their patrons — its just what the ‘info pushers’ ordered.

Therefore, you must optimize or position your site to take full
advantage of the RSS wildcard. RSS Positioning! Simple RSS strategies
that you can use to position your site with the major search engines
including Google.

Actually, Google has just introduced a new XML powered Sitemaps. You are
basically setting up a direct ‘hotwire’ — linking your site to Google.
Any or all changes on your site can now be instantly updated and indexed
by Google.

How It Works

There are several ways to set-up a XML Sitemap, perhaps
the easiest way is to use the open-source Generator which
you can download from Google. This is a Python file that
you can upload to your webserver and this generator
will create a sitemap from your ‘URL lists, webserver
directories, or your access logs’.

Once done, you have to then submit your newly generated XML sitemap
to Google — the search engine will use this XML sitemap to
update and index your site whenever you make changes on your site.
You will need to have a Google account.

You may also submit text files containing URLs from your web site
to be included in Google Sitemaps but these text files will have
or will be given low priority for the time being.

To get started on your own Google Sitemaps Account you can click here:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login

But Google’s new Sitemaps is just the latest way to use RSS positioning,
its not the only way! You can further optimize your site by
using the following RSS strategies:

Build RSS Feeds and Blogs for Your Keywords.

One of the best ways to use RSS is to set up a Blog and RSS feed for
each of your major keywords. Any major topic or subject on your site
must or should have a Blog and RSS feed to compliment your site’s content.

To optimize fully, it is best to have a separate IP address for each of
these Blogs, different from your site’s IP address. You can even use Free Blog
sites like Bloglines (owned by Ask Jeeves) or eBlogger (owned by Google).
To take full advantage, it’s best to use ‘unique content’ in these blogs
and make sure you link only to high PR quality sites.

Ping Your Blogs Regularly

Pinging your blog posts regularly will alert the search engines new
content has been added to your site or blog. Most of you have probably
noticed by now that using sites like ‘MyYahoo’ to ping your blogs
and RSS feeds is a great way of getting your sites spidered and
indexed quickly in the major search engines.

Pinging is simply sending out a signal to all the weblog tracking
sites that your site/blog has been updated.

Here’s a site http://pingomatic.com that will ‘ping’ you blogs
automatically.

Add RSS Feeds to Your Site

Another way to attract the search engines is to place high quality RSS
feeds on your site related to your subject area. Use these feeds to provide
valuable content to your visitors.

And it’s quite simple to do; just add “&format=rss” at the end of the
URL in your Msn search engine query. For example, to get an RSS Feed for
‘tsunami relief’ you would use this url:

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=tsunami+relief&format=rss

In Yahoo the URL would be slightly different:

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/rss?p=tsunami+relief&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&x=wrt

Of course, you can change ‘tsunami+relief’ with the keyword or phrase of
your choice to suit your website’s content.

Conclusion

Trying these RSS positioning strategies will give your site added
visibility on the web and a greater presence in the major search
engines. It will create dynamic links to and from your site and this will
result in faster spidering/indexing of your sites. You should be using
RSS to basically ‘hotwire’ your site or sites to the major search engines
such as Google, Msn and Yahoo — in fact, it should be your number one priority.

RSS is still relatively new; despite the popularity of blogging,
podcasting, MyYahoo and the RSS featured Firefox Browser, it hasn’t totally gone
mainstream. Many webmasters have not yet optimized their sites for RSS,
so you can give your site a slight competitive edge if you act quickly.
By taking full advantage of this new technology you will see a marked
improvement in your site’s traffic, not to mention a noticeable increase
in your site’s rankings.

So don’t delay, ‘hotwire’ your site by utilizing the RSS factor and you
might be pleasantly surprised where it takes you!

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Programmable Multi-cooker

RSS is fast becoming an obsession for me. I didn’t
plan for it to be that way. It just happened.

I have been interested in RSS for a couple of years now
but it was only around this time last year that I started
taking a serious look at this little syndication standard
that’s changing how we communicate on the web. Really
Simple Syndication. Simple phrase but it changes everything.

I figured what better way to get to know a subject than to
write about it. Going through the vast resources of the Internet,
blogs, forums, ebooks to collect what information I needed for
my ebook and articles. The Internet is one huge storehouse of
knowledge that more than supplied me with enough material to
write a hundred articles.

Coming from a fine art background, I also knew the only way
to really learn about a subject was ‘hands on’ experience.
So at the same time I started to really implement RSS tactics
on my own sites to get ‘first-hand’ evidence to prove or back
up my articles and writing. I concentrated on website RSS
techniques that worked with the major Search Engines; starting
my own blogs and RSS feeds to enhance my sites and manipulating
the search engines, feeding the spiders with very legit content
to build targeted traffic to any keyword or market sector I
wanted to promote.

Experiences that have opened my eyes wider than they have been
since kindergarten and RSS is still surprising me at every turn.
Only after I had started researching and writing about RSS did
it dawn on me that I had no idea just how Big a Player RSS is
becoming and will become in the very near future. The impact
will be felt in all areas of the web.

At the beginning of last year I wrote a simple article,
10 Reasons to Put RSS On Your Site. In that article
I stated that this year would be the Breakout Year for RSS…
the year RSS would finally enter the mainstream.

Since that article, during this year, there have been many
developments for RSS. Some of the major ones:

Google Blog Search Which now opens up the whole area of blog
content and feeds to the one search engine that counts. Google
also finally embraced RSS despite its major investment in the
other syndication standard — Atom. Google bought Blogger.com
a while back which promotes the Atom feed.

Microsoft’s Longhorn Statement The next version of Windows will
have RSS. This will open up RSS to the mass market. This will put
RSS center stage for computer and Internet users.

Google Sitemaps This XML powered system lets you update and
quickly index your site’s pages in Google.

Podcasting The enormous popularity of sending audio files or
podcasting is opening up a whole new audience for RSS.

Media RSS This will permit the syndication of all types of media,
including video and TV programs through RSS, further opening up RSS
to becoming a broadcasting system for the Internet.

RSS Search MSN, as well as other search engines, makes it possible to
search RSS feeds for the information we need.

Mozilla Firefox Browser This RSS powered browser with its ‘Live
Bookmarks’ is proving very popular with surfers. It also proves you
really don’t have to know a thing about RSS to enjoy its benefits
– it can be seamlessly integrated into the background or operating
system with the end-users oblivious to even the existence of RSS.

Commercial RSS Then there is the whole potential of RSS ads and
advertising which would commercialize RSS and bring it into play by
large corporations who are mainly interested in the bottom line.

Not to mention all those orange XML or RSS buttons popping up on
website after website. RSS is taking on a life of its own, gaining in
popularity and growing in strength. RSS is becoming a force that
has to be reckon with by every webmaster.

How about you? Is your site RSS ready? Are you taking advantage of
RSS? Are you using RSS?

This is a gentle warning that you will start using RSS if you haven’t
already and here’s why… if you want your site to remain truly
competitive you must have RSS on it. Without RSS you will be losing
visitors and traffic to RSS empowered sites. You will be losing
traffic to sites that are targeting keywords with blogs and feeds.
You will be losing traffic to those sites using the XML powered Sitemaps.
You will be losing traffic to sites that are RSS User-Friendly and
fully optimized for RSS.

You must have an RSS User-Friendly site if want your site to be
competitive. Just ask yourself, when the next Windows browser
comes online, how competitive will your site be without RSS? What
role will RSS play in getting visitors and repeat visitors
to your competitor’s website? How much more effective will your
competitors be with RSS on their sites?

Webmasters should be gearing up now for RSS, if they haven’t already.
You have to prepare your sites for RSS. You have to position your
sites to take full advantage of the coming RSS revolution! Take
advantage of Google’s Sitemaps, Blog Search, Media RSS, Next RSS
powered Windows…

Get Ready. Prepare your site.

RSS is not only changing the rules, it is changing the whole ball game.
RSS will transform the Internet. RSS will play a bigger and bigger role
in the success or failure of your website.

Proceed without RSS at your own risk.

Author: Titus Hoskins
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Hybrid and Electric Cars