Getting More Traffic from Your RSS Feed
A subscriber wrote in today, asking for RSS Feed help and about the RSS ebook with Submission software bundle I have on this site. (This is not The Stampede Secret, but a cheaper RSS Feed book with a bonus of time-saving software).
“My primary aim of purchasing this ebook is getting more traffic to my website. I already have an RSS feed setup on my website. But maybe I am not doing it correctly…”
I’m including my response below because I think it may help many of my readers…
Hello again! Great to hear from you…
I must not have received your last email because I respond to every one I get – I try to do this within 24 hours but it’s been so busy here I’ve not gotten to some within 48 hours – we’ve got a very sick friend we’ve been carting back and forth to the hospital (a 3 hour drive each way), plus Christmas so close now, and my volunteer involvement with the local children – it’s a crazy time of year!)
I had a look at your site’s RSS Feed. It’s script-sound, but you may just need to start submitting the feed url to the RSS directories. The software will do this for you in about 20 minutes to over 50 directories.
However I do have a few advanced tips if you’re interested…
Do you have much knowledge of keyword research?
Basically the same steps you take to determine the best keywords for your website are the same steps you’d take to optimize your rss feed. You’ve got to find and target a highly searched for keyword term or phrase, without a lot of competition, to ensure your feed draws the traffic you desire.
Once you’ve uncovered about 10 sets of good keywords or phrases (this involves some research) , you’ll want to see what kind of RSS competition (not website competition) you’re up against, and then ensure that you are always one step ahead of your competition.
By one step ahead I mean assessing what they do then doing it “one better”.
“One-better” techniques might be:
(a) updating your feed more often,
(b) adding one or two extra keywords in your feed, or
(c) beefing up your total text within the feed.
So, with keywords chosen, here’s how to find the RSS competition…
- go to yahoo.com
- without entering anything into the search box at the top of the page just click the Yahoo Search button.
- you’ll then see a link to Advanced Search
- pop your keywords into the “Show Results with:” box, then scroll down to the “File Format” selection and choose RSS/XML from the drop down list.
- scroll back up and click the “Yahoo Search” button.
- the result you get is yahoo’s top RSS listings for your keywords.
To view any of those top listing’s RSS Feeds simply click on the “View as XML” text link under each listing.
Now, you may never make it to the #1 spot, but if you can be in the top 5 you’re in good stead.
This is where assessing your site’s RSS competition comes in…
Find the site and the site’s feed that you know you can beat. (As a general rule there are sites you’ll likely never beat – the real big shots in your niche. For instance if your site is about home decor you’d be hard pressed to beat out bhg.com, about.com, ivillage.com).
If the top competitors are too fierce for the keywords you have chosen, move down your list of keywords and check out the competition for those keywords.
When you’ve found a site’s RSS feed that you can beat, assess it by asking:
- How often do they update?
- How often do they use the keywords in the text?
- How much content do they provide for each item?
Now just do it “one-better”!
- If they update once a week, you’ll update the items in your feed twice a week.
- If they use the keywords 5 times in the entire feed, you’ll use the keywords 6-8 times. (Test this factor. If their feed reads as a keyword-stuffed feed, then lessen your use of the keyword and see if that works better.)
- If they’re publishing two sentences for every item in the RSS feed, then you’ll have three sentences.
To wrap it up:
a) determine keywords for your site and feed
b) find your competitors
c) assess the competition
d) one-up them
Hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to enter them by leaving a comment below.
Merry Christmas to All!
Laura Childs
Hi Laura, it is nice to see your doing well. Congratulations! Beautiful daughter too! E-mail me if you would like to catch up. I live in Virginia. Hope to hear if you get this. I think it’s been what? twenty years!
John, what a great joy to see your name here!
It was 1990 when I saw you last (not quite 20 years ago). You pulled up to Toronto’s City Hall on your Harley and took me out to lunch. It had been about 8 years since I’d seen you the last time!
Remember when we met and were both 15? I always knew we’d be friends forever – lost at times, but would always find each other again. The internet makes that so easy…
I sent you an email. If you don’t get it, drop me back a note here.
It’s really good to hear from you my friend.
Merry Christmas,
Laura Childs
Now that the personal visiting is over, a new question has come via email:
Dear Laura Childs,
This is the third time I am writing to you for your help. Previously you have given me some remarkable tips on RSS feeds and I thank you very much for that.
A few months before I had asked you about attracting traffic with RSS feeds and how frequently I should update the feed. You had given me following procedure and also posted my question on your blog for other blog readers.
1) go to yahoo
2) click on search button without any keyword.
3) go to advanced search
4) search for desired keyword by selecting only RSS/XML format.
Then you had suggested to check what the top 10 websites are doing. If the top 10 websites update their feed every week I shoud update my feed twice a week and so on….
My question is, Is there any way to find out how often do my competition update their RSS feed?(so that i can catch up with them.)
I have come up with following answers.
1) keep an eye on the serch resilts for one week and see the SERP’s
2) Visit their XML file and look for XML tag. But all feeds don’t have this tag in them. SO how can I find out how often do they update.
It would be a great help if you could answer this…
Looking forward to your reply…
———-
My reply:
Great to hear from you again!
What I usually do is add my competition’s feed to my RSS Reader and keep an eye on their feed.
Everytime they add an item, so do I, and then I’ll add another new item the next day.
If you don’t have a feed reader try FeedDemon. You can download a trial version here:
http://www.stampedesecret.com/zipped/feeddemon-trial.zip
Laura Childs
http://www.smartzville.com