You`ve undoubtedly seen the term RSS at some point during your exploration of the internet, hopefully, if you`re a webmaster, you already know what it is and you`re using it to its full potential. If not, the most popular expansion of RSS is ‘Really Simple Syndication`, and it is really simple indeed. But what exactly is it? It`s a way to get your written work out to as many people as possible in the shortest space of time, or at least a summary anyway. If the teaser is good it will encourage feed subscribers to visit the site where the full content is housed, thereby increasing your traffic.

RSS feeds are offered by a lot of sites nowadays, especially those where the content is constantly being updated. They`re not all that difficult to set up, given the right software. If you`re not confident in your ability to set it up yourself, there are any number of development companies which can handle the job for you. You`re viewers don`t have to have go through a complicated process in order to see your feed. All they need is a feed reader, which can be integrated into a web browser or installed on the desktop and which is usually free.

All of this is well and good, but can RSS feeds actually contribute to your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts? Well that depends on who you talk to. There are some who think that they`re a waste of time since the content they carry is just a duplication of your website`s content. They argue that search engines know this and won`t bother to take the feeds into consideration when calculating page ranks. It makes sense in a way, but is that all there is to it? Not really.

The key lies in using your RSS feeds properly. That way you`ll be gaining the greatest benefit from them. One method which is used is writing custom-made summaries which are different in wording from your site`s content but which retain the meaning, and the keywords. That way the content doesn`t appear to be a repetition. What`s the point of this? That`s simple. You can double the amount of times your keywords appear on your site, without getting penalized for keyword stuffing.

That`s great, but did you know that RSS feeds can help your SEO efforts in other ways as well? How? Syndication is a part of the acronym and that`s just what can happen if you have a high quality site with lots of useful content and updates. It`s just like a television show. Other channels will pick it up if there`s enough of a demand. In the same way, other webmasters will pick up your RSS feed if enough people are interested in it. What does that mean for you? Other than boosting the potential of you site to be seen, it also adds back-links which can be valuable when page ranking time comes around.

And there is no denying the power of RSS feeds when it comes to getting people to your site, which is part of the reason you`ve employed SEO strategies in the first place. You can tailor your feeds so that they are devoid of any extraneous material and directly target the audience who`s most likely to be interested in what you have to offer. That`s good for any site, but excellent for those which offer products for sale. You`ll be attracting the people who are most open to making a purchase.

So let`s summarize. What advantages can webmasters hope to gain by using RSS feeds on their sites?

· RSS feeds provide an easy, almost automated way to update your site`s content.

· It allows viewers the opportunity to decide what they want to read without forcing them to go anywhere, which they`re likely to appreciate.

· It allows both human readers and search engine spiders to find content based on keywords without compromising the quality for either one.

· It`s an excellent way to market any type of website, but especially blogs since these tend to be updated much more frequently and consequently have more subscribers.

· It`s a great method for keeping people informed during a collaborative effort.

· Having your feed taken up by other webmasters can increase the number and quality of back-links to your site.

RSS feeds are the way to go today if you want to draw visitors to your site, and they should be a part of any SEO strategy. It is important to remember though that RSS feeds work best on sites in which the content is updated regularly. If you`re not going to be able to do this then you can still use a feed, but you need to know that it`s not going to be quite as effective and one that is properly maintained.