RSS feeds & SEO

[DarrenC]

I want to create an RSS feed which looks something like this when in the reader:

Choose from over 400 Yellow Widgets
Click to view our Yellow Widget range

Choose from over 200 Blue Widgets
Click to view our Blue widget range

and so on..

I'm hoping then that people will use this RSS feed within their website so people can view my lovely yellow and blue widgets.

Is this a good way to get links back to your widget pages? Is there a potential problem with Duplicate content if this feed is placed on a few hundred sites?

Any advice appreciated.

Darren

p.s. I don't really deal with Yellow and Blue widgets

[John Scott]

I don't understand. Are you hoping people will post your RSS to their own sites?

[DarrenC]

Basically yes.

I'll give you a better example - my clients have special offers and late holiday deals - I have created an RSS file which includes these special offers - I want other websites to add the RSS feed to their website so 1) I can promote these special offers and 2) I have links going back to my late deals page.

The advantage for someone who adds the RSS feed is that they are going to get content - I just need to look would this have a negative impact on the SEO of my website?

[veridicus]

It won't hurt SEO in my experience. The pages which repost your RSS content will look completely different than your own site. They're only redisplaying a small portion of your content. The bulk should be original. I've never seen this sort of thing do anything but help seo.

[netsearch]

google like RSS feeds

I havn't even set them up and google list my msn space feeds

[bratwebdesign]

Is this a good way to get links back to your widget pages? Is there a potential problem with Duplicate content if this feed is placed on a few hundred sites?

Yes, It is a great way to get links back to your site.

Most people who post another's rss feed usually only post so much of the information such as the Title or Title and part of the Description.

So I would think you wouldn't have to worry about the duplicate content. imo

[sixty6]

Originally Posted by DarrenC

Basically yes.

I'll give you a better example - my clients have special offers and late holiday deals - I have created an RSS file which includes these special offers - I want other websites to add the RSS feed to their website so 1) I can promote these special offers and 2) I have links going back to my late deals page.

The advantage for someone who adds the RSS feed is that they are going to get content - I just need to look would this have a negative impact on the SEO of my website?

Well I think it helped me during the Redscowl Bluesingsky SEO Contest because I had an Aggrevated Blog which was updated like every 2-3 hours and a lot of other websites took my RSS Feed and gave a link to my site.

I think it's a good idea, good luck with it!

[Johan007]

RSS feeds link to your deep content so in theory if you lack deep links then this the best way to achieve them.

[sixty6]

Originally Posted by Johan007

RSS feeds link to your deep content so in theory if you lack deep links then this the best way to achieve them.

Yeah, that's true. I got so many of my posts indexed by Google (around 700-1000) after they indexed my 2 RSS Feeds and 2 Sitemaps!!

[yfs1]

Originally Posted by DarrenC

Basically yes.

I'll give you a better example - my clients have special offers and late holiday deals - I have created an RSS file which includes these special offers - I want other websites to add the RSS feed to their website so 1) I can promote these special offers and 2) I have links going back to my late deals page.

The advantage for someone who adds the RSS feed is that they are going to get content - I just need to look would this have a negative impact on the SEO of my website?

I find in this situation you are going to run into one of two groups of people - Webmasters who know some SEO and Peiople who just created (or had someone create a site)

In order for this to be successfull (lets face it, you are getting 95% of the benefit) you will need to have answers ready for both the groups. Those that are SEO knowlegdable are going to hesitate to use it as not only is it basically an advertisement but they are going to worry about ridiculous things like PR leak and the like. The ordinary webmaster will need instruction on not only what RSS is but how its used etc...You can expect them to be really hesitant to put a piece of code on their site which essentially they do not control.

If you are succesfull in getting webmasters to add the feed, it will be a great win for you as from your example they seem to be really targetted feeds but I think you might find that the only way to get those interested in content to use the feed is to actually make them short travel articles with a link at the end which makes the sale.

I love RSS and all the posibilities but the reality is it can be a bit of a hard sell unless its 99% informational.

PS - I wasn't sure if you were originally asking how you would do it from a coding perspective or from the perspective I addressed

[etech-racheal]

Yep, RSS feeds is a great way to generate backlinks to your site.