Thursday, November 21, 2013
How To Increase Traffic To Your Blog Using Your RSS Feed
Did you know there’s a really simple way to start growing traffic to your blog (or other sites) right now that’s free, and that most people are currently under-utilizing, if using at all? RSS (“Really Simple Syndication“) is a common form of XML that allows your content to be distributed far and wide, and attracts links and traffic back to your site.
You can also pick up subscribers who subscribe to your feed through RSS reader software, and are then immediately notified as soon as you publish new content (you’ll notice our own RSS Subscribe to Feed button in the right-hand margin).
As with any other aspect of content marketing, to get the real benefit of RSS, you firstly need to ensure your content has the right level of quality in order to attract attention in the first place and provide real interest and value to your readers. Get that right, and the rest falls into place naturally …
The good news is that if you’re following my content tree methodology, and have a blog post as the root of the rest of your content, an RSS feed is automatically built into WordPress (which you’ll find at /feed on your blog, eg. http://yourblog.com/feed). That means you can get started with this immediately …
However, RSS feeds aren’t just restricted to WordPress – you can create one for any type of website where you are adding new content regularly. Sites like YouTube, Facebook and Hubspot all provide individualized RSS feeds that you can use to further syndicate your content and promote your business.
So let’s look at the first of two free but powerful ways to get your RSS feed out there right now and working hard for your business … it’s information you can take advantage of immediately.
As with any other aspect of content marketing, to get the real benefit of RSS, you firstly need to ensure your content has the right level of quality in order to attract attention in the first place and provide real interest and value to your readers. Get that right, and the rest falls into place naturally …
The good news is that if you’re following my content tree methodology, and have a blog post as the root of the rest of your content, an RSS feed is automatically built into WordPress (which you’ll find at /feed on your blog, eg. http://yourblog.com/feed). That means you can get started with this immediately …
However, RSS feeds aren’t just restricted to WordPress – you can create one for any type of website where you are adding new content regularly. Sites like YouTube, Facebook and Hubspot all provide individualized RSS feeds that you can use to further syndicate your content and promote your business.
So let’s look at the first of two free but powerful ways to get your RSS feed out there right now and working hard for your business … it’s information you can take advantage of immediately.
Submit Your Feed To RSS/Blog Directories
The following represents what I consider the current top 15 RSS directories you should submit your RSS feeds to. I’ve added notes where appropriate, along with current Alexa and Google PR information.
Registration is mostly required for these sites in order to submit your feed, but I’ve added an appropriate note to the sites where you don’t need to register.
Technorati
Alexa: 1,609
Google PR: 8
After registering and logging in, click through to your profile (click your username on the menu bar) and then go to the My claimed blogs section, and click to start a blog claim.
Blogdigger
Alexa: 20,144
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
Feedage
Alexa: 8,444
Google PR: 6
After registering, confirm your account before submitting a feed.
Feedcat
Alexa: 28,772
Google PR: 6
Plazoo
Alexa: 25,944
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
RSS Network
Alexa: 35,482
Google PR: 6
No registration required.
Ice Rocket
Alexa: 15,376
Google PR: 6
Requests your blog’s URL rather than RSS feed – after adding, add http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080 to Settings > Writing > Update Services (in your WordPress dashboard) to ensure they are pinged each time you publish a new post.
URL Fan
Alexa: 93,467
Google PR: 5
As well as adding your feed, add http://rpc.urlfan.com/ping to Settings > Writing > Update Services to ensure they are pinged each time you publish a new post.
RSS Micro
Alexa: 33,864
Google PR: 5
Gave an odd error on trying to submit, but might have been a temporary issue.
Codango
Alexa: 32,759
Google PR: 5
No registration required.
BlogRollCenter
Alexa: 35,164
Google PR: 5
Feedgy
Alexa: 40,157
Google PR: 4
No registration required.
NewsIsFree
Alexa: 84,132
Google PR: 4
After registering, click Feeds on top, then Add Feeds in the left-hand margin, though submission didn’t actually work when I tried it, just came back with ‘Nothing found’ error – possibly a temporary issue.
FeedSee
Alexa: 28,028
Google PR: 2
No registration required.
FeedListing
Alexa: 28,073
Google PR: Unavailable
No registration required.
I’d recommend to simply spend an hour or so (it shouldn’t take more than 4 or 5 minutes on average per site) submitting your blog’s feed to each of the sites above … it’s work you only need to do once, but stand to benefit from for a long time to come.
Any sites I’ve missed or any suggestions? Let me know below …
In my next post, we’ll look at the second way to increase traffic to your blog using your RSS feed(s), taking full advantage of what RSS offers in order to promote your business and raise your online visibility on auto-pilot.
By Steve Shaw
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