[Kalena] Following our successful experiment of setting up a news feed for my site, search engine marketer Dan Thies and I have joined forces to write this article to show other webmasters how they can do
same for their own sites. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let me set scene...
Being web-mistress of a resource site about search engine marketing, I'm always on lookout for new ways to promote my site. Like many other web site owners, I don't have an enormous marketing budget and must rely on my own resources to spread word about my content.
As you would expect, one effective method of promotion that I utilize is search engine optimization. This ensures search engines regularly visit my site and update my pages in their indexes. Another is circulation of a regular newsletter. But real secret to attracting more traffic is to add bucket loads of fresh content. Providing you promote this new content effectively, it can act like a magnet on your site, pulling in new visitors every single day and giving you opportunity to turn those visitors into loyal followers or, (if you sell products and services), paying customers.
Fresh content improves "stickiness" of your site too - giving visitors a reason to return to your site on a regular basis. And of course search engines reward popular sites with more link popularity and a higher search ranking. Adding new site content is one thing, but just how do you spread word about this new content and place it in front of potential visitors?
Well take my site for example. I had recently added a web log (known on Internet as a "blog") about search engine industry, which I updated daily with news and articles. I had seen similar sites having their content syndicated on industry news portals such as Moreover, ClickZ, ZDNet etc and I wanted a piece of action. Problem was I had no idea how to go about this.
A fellow moderator in ihelpyou search engine forums (Dan) told me I required an "RSS Feed" - a special file containing content I wanted syndicated - so that news sites could grab it from my site instantly. Dan offered to give me a hand to set up file and so began our quest! I'll let Dan take over from here and explain exactly how we did it and how you can set up your own news feed. Here's Dan...
[Dan] Thanks Kalena. An RSS news feed provides information about your site's content that enables other sites to effectively link to it. There are actually a few different flavors of RSS - for purposes of this article, we'll work with RSS version 0.91, which is most commonly used on web today. We'll also focus on very basic elements of a news feed, and leave advanced stuff for another time.
The RSS file itself is a fairly simple text file. Although it uses an XML language format, code will be pretty familiar to anyone who has worked with HTML to edit web pages.
Let's look at a simplified version of RSS file we created for Kalena's site:
Search Engine News Blog< itle> <p> <link>http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/search_engine_news _blog.htm</link> <p> <description>search engine news web log, tracking daily developments in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120781"> search engine optimization industry</description> <p> <language>en-us</language> <p> <copyright>Copyright 2002.</copyright> <p> <webMaster>info@high-search-engine-ranking.com</webMaster> <p> <image> <p> <title>Search Engine News Blog< itle> <p> <url>http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/senblogotiny.jpg</url> <p> <link>http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/search_engine_news _blog.htm</link> <p> <width>90</width> <p> <height>52</height> <p> <description>Search Engine News Blog</description> <p> </image> <p><item> <p><title>Google Defines Ethical SEO< itle> <p><link>http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/GoogleDefinesEthical SEO.htm</link> <p></item> <p><item> <p><title>Yahoo Offends Gay Community in UK< itle> <p><link>http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com/YahooOffendsGayCommunity InUK.htm</link> <p></item> <p></channel> <p></rss> <p> <p>An RSS feed consists of one or more "channels." A single channel will be sufficient for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120782"> majority of sites. Each channel, in turn, contains information about one or more news articles. <p>A channel consists of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120783"> following required information:<p>· Title:<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120784"> name of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120785"> channel (in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120786"> above example, Kalena's channel title is called "Search Engine News Blog")<p>· Link:<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120787"> URL for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120788"> channel's main web page (the page on Kalena's site where<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120789"> news items are displayed) <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) --><td align="top" width="10%"></td><td align="top" width="45%"><h2>What SEOs Expect From Their Clients</h2><font size="2">Written by Kalena Jordan</font><br><br><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<br> <font size="2">I've seen a lot of articles around lately about how to pick and choose a search engine optimization company. That's fine and dandy, but it often works<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar "> other way around in this industry. The most successful SEOs pick and choose their own clients. Good SEOs can spot a tire kicker from a mile off and I know of a few SEOs that quickly "fire" clients that give them too much grief.<p>Why? Because they can. Their reputation is widely known and they are constantly in demand. Many of them are too busy to spend time haggling over price or technique and why should they? Their reputation is rock solid, their results outstanding,<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120756"> ROI for their work impressive. Companies are lining up to pay for their expertise and to benefit from<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120757"> amazing income generation potential that a well-executed search engine optimization campaign can bring. To quote one of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120758"> best: <p>"I choose clients who choose me" - Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com<p>So how do you recognize top performing SEOs? Most will be regular contributers to popular webmaster or search engine forums and many will have their own newsletter or web log keeping people up to date with<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120759"> latest developments in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120760"> search industry. Some write regular articles about<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120761"> search engines and have them published in popular search engine portals and resource sites such as Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Watch, Pandia and SEO Today. Or perhaps you've seen their articles syndicated on news channels like Moreover, ClickZ or ZDNet. <p>Of course some of them are so busy, they don't have time to write articles. But if they have a good reputation, chances are people are talking about them. Of course<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120762"> opposite is also true. Want to know more about their reputation in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120763"> industry? Conduct a search for their name in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120764"> search engine of your choice. I don't mean<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120765"> name of their company either - I mean<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120766"> name of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120767"> actual person who would be responsible for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120768"> optimization of your site. If you find lots of positive references, they're a keeper. Finding negative discussions or comments? Better think twice. Can't find them at all? Then they probably aren't worth talking about.<p>Once you've located a top performing SEO, don't expect to call<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120769"> shots. Search engine optimizers have certain expectations of their clients. Let me run through a few of them. To keep your SEO happy:<p>1. Don't automatically expect a guarantee - Not all SEOs offer them. Not because they aren't good at what they do, but because offering a guarantee can give<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120770"> false impression that SEOs have full control over search engine rankings when in fact only<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120771"> engine has this. Also, while many top SEOs will offer a satisfaction guarantee, many others don't believe a guarantee is necessary because of their public track record of results and because they feel a client should trust them fully before signing on rather than relying on some piece of paper to protect them. <p>2. Don't choose by price - The most expensive SEOs aren't necessarily<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120772"> best. By<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120773"> same token, don't make<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120774"> mistake of thinking SEO is not worth much. Search engine marketing is not an "add on" or a short term ad campaign - it is a continuously evolving marketing channel that can bring upwards of 50 percent of your total site traffic if done correctly. Therefore you should allocate a good portion of your marketing budget towards it each year.<p>3. Don't assume an SEO isn't good because their own site isn't ranking highly - Remember<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120775"> old adage that plumbers taps always leak? Some SEOs are so busy helping clients that they don't have time to optimize their own sites. Also, as you would imagine, competition for rankings in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120776"> SEO industry is fierce. Just because an SEO isn't ranking highly for all SEO related terms does not mean they aren't good at what they do - maybe they don't have<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 120777"> time or inclination to compete with their peers. For proof of results, look to their client site rankings and references. <br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --></tr><tr><td>Cont'd on page 2 ==<a class="mlink" href="2-How_To_Get_Your_Web_Site_Copy_Syndicated-20757.htm">></a></td></tr></table><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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