Here is another useful – well at least I hope so – SEO tip from yours truly. If you go through the necessary steps and time to set up an RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) feed, it will only help you if people actually use it. In short, you need to give some thought to marketing your RSS feed.

An RSS feed is potentially a powerful marketing tool for any site. Imagine a scenario where other sites automatically publish your content. Think of how much bigger the audience will be for your content. If a lot of sites pick up your feed, the numbers could be staggering. The problem, of course, is how you get people to publish your feed on their site. Well, you need to get their attention. Yes, marketing your RSS feed should be another part of your overall marketing plan.

The first step in marketing your feed has to do with your site. Simply put, you need to let people know you have a feed and they can use it. It is important to understand that RSS feeds can be used by individuals as well as other sites. My Yahoo is a popular add on to all Yahoo email accounts. My Yahoo has a tool that allows users to add RSS feeds to their page. Bingo! If you are serious about kicking out an RSS feed, you need to put text on your site showing people how to add your feed to their systems.

Once you have covered your site, you need to consider how you will get notice of your feed out to the web at large. There are two excellent ways that come to mind. The first is optimizing your feed page to obtain search engine rankings. You want to optimize for your subject area in combination with words like news, updates, tips or whatever is appropriate for your situation. Once you have rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN, people will naturally start picking up your feed because they are searching for it.

The second method for promoting your feed is through articles. Simply put, you should publish articles in the big article directories anyway to promote your site. In your author byline, however, you will make a small change. Instead of blabbering on about your site, you can include text indicating the reader can get a feed for more articles from your site if they like what they have read so far. This is a slower approach, but one that pays off over time.

Starting an RSS feed makes sense for just about any site on the web. While this is true, you need to keep in mind that you will also have to market your RSS feed for it to reach its true potential.

If you have additional questions or would like more online marketing tips, please contact me and I will be more than happy to help. I can be reached at 208.598.0084 or matt.shifley@yahoo.com.