Boost Your Web Site Traffic with an Rss Feed

Contributed by Deb Powers

Boost Your Web Site Traffic with an Rss Feed

Not long ago, I read an article about how to boost web site traffic using various methods. The author had experimented with adding RSS feeds to his web site to increase the content available to his readers. After a few weeks, he noticed that the traffic on those pages that carried RSS feeds was increasing - but his customers were leaving his site to read the rest of the articles on the originating site. His conclusion? RSS Syndication is not a good way to increase traffic to your web site.

My immediate first thought was - of course not! You did it backwards! The secret to using an RSS Feed to bring traffic to your web site is to syndicate your own content and make it available to other web sites, that then link the title and blurb back to YOUR site.

Create an RSS Feed as a web site traffic booster

First a few definitions and facts about RSS to help you understand the process. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and that's exactly what it is. There are several different versions of RSS, but the bottom line of all of them is the same - a way to easily allow others to publish items that appear on your web site.

By creating an RSS Feed and making it easy for other webmasters to link to, you give them an easy way to advertise your web site with content that's updated as often as your update the feed. Updating the feed is easy, too. You can use ASP to update it dynamically, or use a content management system that automatically updates the feed when you add new content, or update it by hand. I won't go into details about how to create an RSS Feed here.

Instead, you can find an excellent, easy to follow tutorial on building an RSS feed at http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175271. For the record, it's so simple that even if you have only the most basic HTML skills, you can have a working RSS feed on your web site in less than fifteen minutes.

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