rss

What you need to know about RSS feeds.

So, what are RSS feeds and why they are so popular among internet users and web designers?
Shortly speaking, RSS is a technology that lets you know about new information on different sites and blogs. Any user can sign on RSS feed and get the latest news and links to the information on the website. Depending on the version and specification of RSS the abbreviation means:
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
- RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9, 1.0 and 1.1)
- Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)

There were only three ways to look after favorite website updates before RSS feeds become available:
1. To visit your favorite website daily/weekly to check if something new appeared. It is a waste of time if you have more than five favorites, especially if you find no interesting updates.
2. To receive via e-mail notifications about website updates. In this case spammers can find out your e-mail and you`ll receive additional advertisements.
3. To use a program to track page updates. This will determine interesting sites and their changes. Apart from downloading and installing you`ll never know what precisely has changed there.

And here comes RSS! The newest and best type of notifications about news or events on sites – RSS feeds. It is executed by means of a special page on your site which is called RSS-document, usually it is rss.Xml. This RSS-document does not contain any waste information such as site design or navigation menu. It basically consists of information on the latest website updates, the additional description of the news and the link to the source page. It should be known that one website can contain not only one RSS feed. It is often that apart from the main RSS feed one major site holds a lot of extra RSS channels with news for different site sections which gives the user more flexible choice if he does not wish to watch for all site news.

How to make RSS feed on a site? There are a lot of ways to generate RSS channels with their advantages and disadvantages. For instance, blogs can be used as such servers give links on RSS document of your blog, which you place on your site and get a “news channel”. The other way is to make and manually edit the rss.Xml, for example, by means of Notepad ++. In this case you shall need a good knowledge of HTML and XML, and if the news will appear often, this method will turn to be very irksome. Thus the most convenient way is to use special RSS-generators, for example, RSS Channel Writer. It includes user-friendly tools like creator wizard, RSS editor, FTP manager, automatic RSS ping tool to RSS servers e t c. Being protected from making mistakes during RSS feeds creation, you don’t need to possess with XML syntax knowledge to create RSS feed with this program.

In its turn, receiving and reading RSS feeds is maintained by means of RSS aggregators, either standalone (for example, free of charge FeedDemon), or integrated in a browser (IE7, IE8, Opera, Firefox). Such aggregators usually have fewer functions to work with RSS feeds in comparison with standalone programs` possibilities, but in case of using web browsers it is not needed to install any additional programs. Consequently the users are now ready to use RSS feeds, and web designers need only to use this possibility to involve in website community and to hold there more and more regular visitors.

Every web site owner knows how important traffic is. If your site is not doing well traffic-wise, here are a couple of tips that could help boost the number of visitors coming to your site each day. And the best thing is, these simple techniques could increase or improve your website traffic without the need to spend money on advertising or promotion.

Step # 1: Provide beneficial and original content.

Aside from the attractiveness of your web site, you also need to provide quality content consistently in order to bring in lots visitors and page views.

Remember who your target audience is and write in such a way that would make them read your articles. If they enjoy – or benefit from – your articles, they would visit your website often and even tell their friends about it.

You would then have repeat visitors, and perhaps gain loyal fans. When people share the great information they’ve seen from your site, it will continue to grow and get more exposure.

Originality is one of the important factors in generating massive traffic for your web site. If your content is already available in many other places online, your webpage might not show up in the search engines, as other higher-ranking sites with the same content might dilute it.

It is also recommended to provide “evergreen” material. Evergreen content is something that never grows old, meaning the information is still relevant in the future. This can guarantee a flow of steady traffic to your site. Timeless material can make the readership grow over time.

Step # 2: Use appropriate keywords in your posts.

Search engine optimization (aka SEO) might sound like rocket science for beginners; but in reality, it is just using the right keywords at the right places. Keywords must be used in the post title, and sprinkled all throughout the start, middle, and the end of the content.

There is no hard and fast rule regarding the “ideal” keyword density, and various authorities on search engine optimization have differing views about this. To be on the safe side, try not to exceed 2%, but insert your keywords strategically while writing in a natural manner.
Use tags that are pertinent to your posts. These also act as keyword phrases that can assist in building traffic through search engines.

If your site has photos, image searches from search engines can be your ally in bringing traffic to your web site. Place the correct keywords in the alt attribute of the image. Be honest about the keywords you input. Don’t just write anything in it. Misleading others to click on your site is a major turn off.

Step # 3: “Advertise” your link on your emails and other sites.

When you hear the world advertising, the first thing that comes into mind is expense. But in reality, you can market your web site without shelling out any money. One of the simplest ways of doing so is by placing a link in your email signature.

Another way of promoting your website for free is by commenting on other sites, especially on those that are in the same niche as yours. This is one way of building your credibility and making people aware of your products or offer.

Step # 4: Use the Power of Web 2.0

Social bookmarking sites – such as Digg, Propeller and Stumbleupon – can help bring in targeted website traffic to your site. But make sure not to get overly promotional, as members of social bookmarking sites tend to discourage marketing activities.

Be an active member of the social networking sites you’ll be joining in. Make friends and grow your network. Contribute to the community and join the discussions. And most important of all, don’t just bookmark your own links. To get under the radar, bookmark around 4 to 6 times more non-self-serving links than your own.

Another powerful Web 2.0 tool that is taking the Internet by storm is Twitter. The aim is to build a solid number of followers. Then you can send them tweets about your website or update them whenever there’s a new post.

This can be quite effective as long as you’ve established good relationships with your Twitter followers and you provide helpful Tweeter posts that can help enhance their way of life. A little marketing is ok, but keep it subtle. Over promotion might discourage your followers from reading your posts, and might even cause them to unfollow you.

Step # 5: Trade links with other sites.

Look for similar sites and trade links with them. One way to do this is by searching for websites with similar topics or in the same niche as yours.

Contact the owner and ask for a link trade.  You could post their link first in your site so they would be more willing to reciprocate. You could always remove the link if they don’t return the favor.

These are some of the free yet effective ways that can help you get significant traffic to your website. Follow these website traffic tips and you’ll be seeing great results in no time.