RSS feeds should be optimized just like your HTML web pages. If you’re already doing some level of search engine optimization, you’ll find it easy to include your fonts in your projects. Better optimization means better exposure and more subscribers.
Here are some simple steps to optimize your RSS feed for search engines.
QUALIFICATION
Just like your articles, web pages, and blog posts, the titles you use in your feeds should be keyword-rich for search engines, while also drawing people to read more.
LINK
Links within a feed must use the full path, not a linked shorthand to ensure the link remains valid. If someone else is displaying your content, there is always a risk that the link will be lost. If you have shown the full path, a reader can copy and paste.
KEYWORDS
Keywords are not just for titles and within your content. Search engines also like links to have keywords. Make sure that all links to your website also use keywords.
SEARCH ENGINES
There is a secret to getting your feeds quickly identified by major search engines. Create a personal account on My.Yahoo, My.MSN and Google+ and link to your own feeds on the home page. Once you’ve done this, you can expect search engines to index your feeds in about forty-eight hours.
POPULARITY
Increase your link popularity by submitting your RSS feeds, blogs and podcasts to directories. Go to http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm for a list of places to submit.
DESCRIPTION
RSS feed descriptions are short summaries of the article or blog content being listed. The purpose of the abstract is to entice the reader to click the link and visit the site containing the full article or content. Be sure to take the time to create quality summaries of your blog posts and articles.
advertisements
You can use advertisements in your RSS feeds. Start with your logo on every feed. Branding is important, so use your RSS feed as another way to use it. If you are using Google Adsense, please add it to your feed. Go to the “ads” section and click on “feeds”. Use a service like Feedburner to “burn” your feed, then use that URL as your referrer, to ensure that your ads show to the most readers.
SUBSCRIBE
A no-brainer? Not precisely. Be sure to subscribe to your own feeds. An alarmingly large number of publishers don’t take this simple step, so they don’t know what their subscribers are seeing. Subscribing to your own feeds allows you to not only see what it looks like, but you can also work on the format and add other elements to your feeds.
A IS FOR APPEARING FIRST!
Feeds on aggregators are often listed alphabetically, so if your feed is called Zooligist Digest, it will probably be at the bottom. You may not want to change the name of your site, but you might consider adding a keyword to the beginning of your name that moves it up the alphabetical list. Consider renaming the example A Zoologist’s Summary for better placement.
Optimizing your RSS feed is no more difficult than optimizing any other part of your website, and following these simple guidelines will help you position your RSS feed better. Like all optimization, it is an ongoing process and is subject to the vagaries of search engine placement.
