It Really Is Simple RSS

 by: Tony Dean

I have 'Googlebot' coming to my site every day since a month ago I put up my first news feed, since then I have put up yet another.

I never used to see 'Googlebot' much before, so it goes to show that if you want to be noticed by the search engines, you need to put up a 'news-feed'.

All this re-submitting to search engines every month nonsense is just that, nonesense! I don't really think the search engines care for you to submit to them in the first place, I think that now they like to find your site on their own. Some pundits have claimed that nowadays to submit your site at all to the search engines is counter-productive and you should not do it. They say that there is much better value in allowing the search engines to find it via a 'link-back' from somewhere else.

'News Feeds' are now providing that 'link back' that every site owner needs. If you run a web site and you have still not got a 'news feed' you are being left behind in the race, first to get listed by search engines and secondly to get a higher ranking - my sites ranking has gone up very much higher in Yahoo and Google, since putting up my first news feed, and guess what, it was within about 36 hours of putting up that first 'news feed' that Googlebot discovered it was there! It did not take it long! The same with Yahoo, but a little bit later, like two days after Googlebot.

'News Feeds' are readable in a software called a 'News Reader', these are usually free to download and use right away to look at some of the feeds that are out there. There are directories for feeds which you can visit and get some addresses of some suitable ones to read each day, some of these feeds are more like 'blogs' in that, they change the contents several times a day, which gives a feed a 'fresher' feel to it, and which the search engines like to see. They also would like to see web site owners re-freshing there web site contents on at least a daily basis, it does help with ranking.

It has been slated that the next incarnations of browser will be 'feed' compatible, they will be reading 'news feeds' as well as viewing web sites. When this does happen the 'information revolution' will be really turned full on! Any one, even you, can set up a 'news feed', it really is simple, and if you don't set one up, you are going to be like the only person in your street who does not have television or radio, you are going to miss out on the 'information revolution', big time!