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If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’ve probably come across RSS feeds. If not, you might be wondering exactly what they are and why you should care. This is perfectly understandable as the technological world is growing at an immeasurable pace that leaves even so-called “hardcore” nerds panting. But how to define RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is in fact a method of disseminating information quickly without much fuss. Simply put it is not one specific web feed format but many different ones used to publish frequently updated information, be it blogs, video, text, audio, in a standardised method, such as XML. Also called a web feed, the information included can be either full or summarized text as well as miscellaneous information such as publication dates, and authorship.

But how does this benefit the average person? It is great for busy people as RSS feeds give them the option to subscribe to many frequently visited websites and have those updates and news available to them in one place through the use of an RSS reader. And it doesn’t really matter what the person uses as it is generic and can be read from anywhere by any reader, from a web browser to an iPhone.

That being said, if you own a website, be it for a physical or digital product or service, you might be wondering how an RSS feed can help your business grow. An RSS feed along with other forms of traffic, from article marketing to pay per click, allows you get “get the word out” about your product or service in quick and efficient manner. This also aids in getting more traffic to your site as well.

Over time, if done correctly, this will also increase the perception that your site and your business are serious and will be there for your customers.

But how can you submit an RSS feed? After all, unless you are in a technology related business, your expertise is most likely not Internet programming, graphics or websites. Your expertise is your business. You may be put off by what you perceive as something requiring a lot of time or technical expertise. In the early days of content syndication, this was true. But, unless you want to learn the ins and outs, it does not have to take a lot of time, nor does it have to be technical.

One method would be to set up a WordPress web log or blog. Any time you post to the blog, it will automatically create and submit your rss feed. The main issue with this method is that it takes time to setup properly and can become quite technical, quite fast and there is not the best documentation available to help you.

Another option is to pay your webmaster to do this or hire a contractor. The downside with this method is that you need to double check the work and you are held hostage to their schedule. And what if they decide to raise their rates?

The final option is to learn to do it yourself. But you need to be able to do so without all the technical jargon that seems to pervade most courses on technical subjects. You need to be able to learn it quickly, and be able to apply what you’ve learned just as fast. The key here is to get past the fear of learning something new.  This way, you have total control over your site and can create and submit an rss feed any time you wish.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Erik_Heyl

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a software solution that will take information from one source and put it into a shortened and readable format for another source. The information that is condensed in this way is going to be prevented so that it can be viewed by computer programs.

If you go ahead and create an RSS feed for your blog, you are going to see a lot more traffic. Getting a feed set up and working is surprisingly simple, and if you want to see the popularity of your blog spike, this is one thing that you need to consider. Even better, you will find that starting up a feed is free. There are a lot of providers out there, and one popular one is known as Feedburner, which is now owned by Google. You can create a feed that will transmit information from your website as well as your blog.

With Feedburner, this process is one that is almost shockingly easy. Not only will get the feed, you can also find applications that will bring more people to your blog or website. The widgets that this site can bring to you are easily downloaded onto your website or your blog and your readers will be more than interested in the possibility of subscribing to your feed for regular updates, either in a Yahoo or Google reader.

If you are going to subscribe to a program like this, you will find that you are in a great place to check the blogs and websites that you like. With a single click, you can put them on your screen, and you won’t need to worry about forgetting to check one. The stats page will tell you how many people are reading and subscribed. Also make sure that you find ways to use Feedburner’s pinging service. This tells pingomatic about your feed’s updates, which will alert Google, Yahoo and all the other search engines that your blog has new content. The more often you update, the more popular your site will become.

Feedburner will also help you figure out which of the feeds that you are running are the most popular. You can write more content for the feeds that people like while phasing back or improving the ones that they don’t.

All of this is intended to make sure that your blog or website’s profile is geared towards bringing your more traffic or, if you are using Google’s advertising, ore Adsense earnings. The truth is that search engines, whether you are looking at Google, Yahoo or any of the many smaller ones, all love new and unique content. The more often you update, the more traffic you get. It is a simple fact that you can make use of. Remember that when you are looking to make sure hat you are going to get all the traffic that you need that you should check out things like Stumble Upon and Blogging Zoom, as these are social sites that can bring up your numbers.

The other thing that is good for your content is to submit it to RSS feed submission websites such as SubmitmyRSS as these sites rank quite highly with Google and any visitors from there will also look good for your own site. So you can see that RSS feeds are a really easy way of publicizing your own feeds, and accessing the feeds of others.

What is traffic and why do you want it?

Well, traffic is the people that visit your website. The more people that visit your website, the better. If you are selling or promoting a product, you always want targeted traffic. This traffic could be converted into customers.

If you have a personal website or blog that you like to share things on, then you want to get in front of as many people as possible. In any case, more traffic is never a bad thing.

How does traffic work?

Traffic can come from a variety of sources. Anywhere you can promote your website, there is potential traffic available. There are typically two types of traffic, however. Traffic that affects search engines and traffic that does not. Both are useful, but depending on your goals, one method could be better than the other.

Google for example, uses a system called “nofollow.” If the links you are creating around the web are nofollow, then they will not affect the rankings on some search engines. If the links you are creating are “dofollow,” then they will affect the rankings on Google and other search engines. Generating these “dofollow” links create what we call backlinks. The more quality backlinks that you create to your website, the better you will rank. Backlinks are only useful if you use them correctly and responsibly, though. This is one of the common methods for Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

This article series will focus on both methods for building traffic.

Optimizing your website

On your actual website, you want it to be optimized for the search engines. We won’t spend too much time on this, but we’ll discuss some of the essentials. Firstly, you want to use standard compliant code. An example of using compliant code is keeping your html and css separate. Also, you should create a sitemap so that your content is easily indexable by the search engines. Another thing to look into is the robots exclusion standard. One of the most important aspects of optimizing your website is creating good titles and links. You want both your page title and links to be easily read by search engines and humans. For more on this, check out the Wikipedia entry on “permalinks.”

More information on optimizing your website can easily be found on Google. Try searching for “search engine optimization.”

Content Management Systems, such as the popular Wordpress, have plug-ins available to make this much easier. That is why many people prefer blogs, because they are typically liked by the search engines and easy to work with. We will talk about why blogs typically get good rankings later on in the ebook.

Optimizing your links on other websites

Remember backlinks? An important part in making backlinks work for you is creating them correctly. When you leave a link on another site, you need to pay attention to what is called the anchor text. The anchor text of a link is just as important as the permalink, as they are easily indexed by the search engines. Your anchor text should include your keywords. For example, the words someone would type into Google to find your website. The same is true for blog posts, your anchor text should include the title of the blog post.

Using Keywords Effectively

Now that we know how links use keywords, let’s talk about the article itself. When you write an article, you want to use keywords. The better keywords that you use the better chance that your target audience will find your website. Write naturally and descriptively and the keywords should flow by themselves. Before you can do this however, you need to find a good keyword domain name related to your website.

Putting everything that we have learned so far together

Now we know how to effectively setup our website for traffic. We also now how to promote our website through links on other websites. The main section of this article is coming up, which is where to promote. I cannot tell you how many times I have had people ask me how to get more visitors to their website. What we have just learned is the very first step to building traffic and the most important. Now that we know how, we are ready to learn where to go to generate this traffic!

Are you looking for ways to promote your Web site? The more targeted traffic you get, the more sales you will make. Let’s look at five quick and easy ways to get traffic and rankings.

1. Pay Attention to Basics: Your Pages’ Titles and Descriptions — They’re Free Advertising

Google and the other search engines will advertise your site for free for you, using precisely the keywords and descriptions you want. Take advantage of that free largesse.

Here’s how. Look at your site’s home page in any browser. What do you see at the very top of the browser window? If you see “Home” you need to act.

Fix the “keyword” and “description” meta tags on every page of your site. Remember, when people are searching online, your site gets advertised for free by appearing in the search engine results pages.

2. Get Links, but Ensure They’re Relevant

Without links, the Web wouldn’t exist. All other things being equal, a site with many links will be ranked more highly than sites with few links. Get relevant links to your site. There are many ways to do this.

3. Get Into Google News

Want your site to appear in Google News? Here’s how: write a press release, and post it on one of the commercial press release sites. In long term traffic boosts, and ranking boosts, this will be the best money you’ll ever spend.

4. Create and Promote Your Blog to Drag Your Site Into the Rankings

Do you have a blog? Create a blog for your site. The search engines love blogs, and your blog can drag the rest of your site into the search engine rankings. Pay attention to the keywords you use in your blog; use the keywords for which you want to be ranked, and link to the rest of your site with those keywords.

5. Advertise Frugally: Use Pay Per Click (PPC) to Get an Instant Flow of Traffic

The fastest way to get good traffic is to advertise. However, be frugal when you do this. Bid only on the keywords which are directly relevant to your site’s offerings. Ensure that your keywords are “long tail” — avoid competitive keywords.