Is submitting RSS feeds very useful for SEO?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by uleesgold, Mar 2, 2012.

  1. #1
    uleesgold, Mar 2, 2012 IP
  2. PPCoach

    PPCoach Peon

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    #2
    You might see some results, may as well give it a go. Try building a podcast as well, and submitting you're podcast feed to podcast-specific RSS directories as well.
     
    PPCoach, Mar 2, 2012 IP
  3. Sam Gilmore

    Sam Gilmore Peon

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    #3
    There are some important tracking and measurement issues to consider when implementing RSS:

    • You should be tracking reads by embedding a uniquely-named 1-pixel gif within the <content:encoded> container. This is known as a “web bug.” Email marketers have been using web bugs to track open rates for ages.
    • You should be tracking clickthroughs by replacing all URLs in the <link> containers with clicktracked URLs. You code this in-house or you could use a hosted ASP service like SimpleFeed to do this for you. (Incidentally, Feedburner offers imprecise counts based on user’s IP not on clicktracked URLs)
    • You should be tracking circulation (# of subscribers). Again, you could use a service like Simplefeed or Feedburner, which categorizes visiting user-agents into bots, browsers, aggregators, and clients. Bots and browsers don’t generally “count” as subscribers, while a single hit from an aggregator may represent a number of readers. This number is usually revealed within the User-Agent in the server logs… for example Bloglines/2.0 (…; xx subscribers). Today, tracking readership from clients is an inexact science. Hopefully in the future, RSS newreader software will generate a hashcode from the subscriber’s email address and this hashcode would then get passed in the User-Agent on every HTTP request for the RSS feed.
     
    Sam Gilmore, Mar 5, 2012 IP