Blogs and RSS - Why Do I Need This Stuff?
If you've been under a rock for the last year or so it'spossible you might not have heard about blogs and RSS feeds.If you're like most of us, you've heard the buzz but mightnot've known what to make of it or what to do with it.Here's some answers.
First RSS feeds. RSS, depending on who you ask, stands forReally Simple Syndication. This is a technology that enablesyou to bring fresh, constantly updated material (feeds) intoyour site. The attraction of this is obvious. Sites needcontent, the fresher the better. Search engines love newcontent, hence the excitement about being able to pipe inextremely targeted feeds directly into your site. Theimplementation of this is not as difficult as one mightimagine, and the choices for content are ever-burgeoning.You can find a feed for almost anything, and if you can't,you can create your own and syndicate it all over the web.The possibilities are mind-boggling. End-users must have thecapability to read these feeds, but there are free feedreaders all over the place and the new generation ofbrowsers will have this built in.
Blogs. Nominated as one of the top words of 2004, they wereprominent in the election (can you say, or want to, HowardDean?) and they have become more a of web-household item.Blog software is ridiculously easy to use, and free. But whydo I need one, you ask. Well, for me, it boils down to onething and one thing only: search engines love blogs!! I haveblogs that have higher (and much more quickly acquired)PageRank than sites that have several hundred pages ofcontent! Why is this? Think about it: the very thing searchengines love most, fresh content, is the very nature ofblogging. Most blogs, at least commercial ones, are very ontopic, keyword oriented, and frequently updated. Themarketing piece concerning blogs is still in it's infancybut growing fast. There is little more powerful these daysthan a content blog hosted on your own site that is updateddaily. I have blogs that get more traffic than the site theyare sitting on! Think about this. It'll be worth it!
Blogs and RSS feeds are the next big thing that's alreadyhere! Don't miss out on the possibilities they offer!
Keith Thompson is the webmaster at Internet Marketing Here &Now, where you can find all sorts of information regarding RSS feeds!
