Using RSS Feeds For SMO
One of the stated goals of social media optimization is “to optimize a site so that it is more easily linked to, more highly visible in social media searches on custom search engines (such as Technorati)”. One of the best ways to do that is through the use of RSS feeds.
To many web site owners and marketing professionals, using RSS feeds is synonymous with having a blog. For a lot of companies, because of regulatory or personnel constraints, publishing a blog is just not an option that is open to them. So what options do they have if they want to utilize RSS feeds to distribute there content to a wider audience?
One trend I have seen recently is that websites are using RSS to syndicate some (not all) the content on their web site. For example CNN offers slices of its news via RSS feeds. So if you are interested in only health related news, then http://rss.cnn.com/rss/cnn_health.rss is perfect for you.
One of the best examples of integrating RSS into the fabric of a web site is the new History.com web site. Throughout the site, History.com offers many different RSS options depending on your interests. Whether you are interested in This Day in History or today’s TV schedule, you can now receive that information daily via RSS.
So if you are the web site owner or a marketing professional in a mid to large size company, explore your web site at look at the different customer “touch points” that you have and then think about how you could disseminate that information further. Utilizing RSS feeds tactically might be the answer that you come up with.
Filed under SEO, Social Media Optimization : Comments (2) : Aug 31st, 2006
August 31st, 2006 at 2:23 pm
I agree with you David. I think it’s a great way to further provide relevant and useful information to site visitors. Go SMO!
September 1st, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Hey David, Here’s a new SMO tool we’ve launched to make it easier for readers to subscribe to RSS feeds: http://www.toprankblog.com/tools/rss-buttons/