Part 5 of my 12 link building steps includes one of the simplest mistakes people make when having a blog is not having a burned RSS Feed. An RSS feed is your blog syndicated as a newspaper or article, and a burned RSS feed is kind of like having a publisher/marketer marketing your blog out on the internet. RSS feed stands for ” Really Simple Syndication”. It is the equivalent of having a newspaper delivered to your front door, except it appears in the reader of your choice i.e. Google Reader, Friend Feed, and even Email. So, what does that mean to you? Well, newspapers normally get passed around, and in ye olden times people would say, ” Hey, did you see what was in the paper the other day?” Same applys here. Google reader allows you to “share” what you are reading, and ironically enough every time you post to your blog it creates a link to the post itself.
The most common mistake people make is they never actually “burn” the feed that allows this to take place. Thus, no sharing, no links, just some words on a page. So, the way you go about burning your feed is by using Feedburner. It is by Google for Google, so it must be good right!
How to Set Up Your RSS Feed in Feedburner
1. If you do not have a FeedBurner account create one. If you already have Google account simply go to Feedburner and click “Claim your feeds now”.
2.Type in your feedburner username/password that you created . Then click “Next”
3.Type your feed address you want to burn and it will be http://yourdomainname.com/feed, or http://www.yourdomainname.com/feed , then click Burn a feed right this instant.
4Add your Feed Title, this can be whatever you want ( You will be able to change this later, but I always try to use my keyphrase, or phrases in the title) Also, add your feed address, and here I like to add my keyphrase as well.
5. Click next when you come to the screen ” Want to Dress it Up a Little”
6. Check the boxes under ” Get more Gusto” and click next
7. Under your feed title you can click edit and change that name, or url, if you dont like it, but stick with one after this if you can. If you are using a social media icon with rss feed, or feedburner feedsmith plugin this is now your feed url, you will need to change it.
8. Under the optimize tab I suggest setting your feed title/description burner, and also, under the Publicize tab selecting “email subscriptions, and activating it this lets people subscribe by email, and if you are using a service like Aweber, you can have it managed through that as well.
Now you are set, and can poke around in Feedburner, and see all it has to offer. Friendfeed can also burn your your Feedburner feed, and allow for even more sharing, but it might be phasing out.
Check out other Phoenix SEO tips coming soon!
