Optimizing Your Site For Foreign Languages

My online business has recently started receiving unsolicited orders from clients in a couple of foreign countries, so I’ve decided to create translated websites for each of those countries to see what the demand is like. The problem is, I’m not sure exactly how I should optimize these sites properly so they’ll rank in the foreign language search engines, especially since I don’t speak either language! Any advice?

Dave’s Answer:
First off, congratulations are due for deciding to take the step into the foreign language internet! I think you’ll find that, once you’ve gotten over the language and cultural barriers, marketing your business online in foreign languages is actually easier than in English, since there’s less content online in other languages, and therefore less competition.
Depending on which countries you’re aiming to target, there will be different search engines for which to tailor your SEO strategy – for instance, in Japan Yahoo! is the most popular search engine, while in China it’s Baidu. Each search engine has slightly different rules – Yahoo! likes a higher ratio of keyword density to Google, for instance – but there are three simple rules that will help you to rank across all search engines: Keywords, Location, and Links.
Keywords: Your first step before you begin to build your translated websites is to work out what your foreign language keywords will be, as these are the fundamental building blocks of your SEO strategy.
There’s a simple three step process to this: Translate, Research, Analyse. First off, take your list of English keywords and translate them into the foreign language. You can use a dictionary for this, but you will get better results using a native speaking translator, as sometimes the most effective keyword can be slang term, an adoption from English or any other term. For example, the literal translation of ‘weekend’ in French is ‘fin de semaine’, but this is only used in French Canada – in France, they use the term ‘le weekend’.
Once you have your translated keywords, brainstorm a list of alternatives by searching for synonyms in a keyword research tool such as Wordtracker, and by checking the websites of competitors in the local market to see what terms they are using. You can either do this yourself using Google Translate, or outsource to a translator or multilingual SEO professional.
Last, but not least – analyse. Use the relevant keyword research tool for your search engine to check what levels of traffic each keyword receives, and decide on a list of both long and short tail keywords. For instance, if you are selling baseball caps to the French market, you might use short tail keywords such as ‘casquette’ and long tail keywords such as ‘vêtement hip hop Paris’. You should now optimize each web page on your site for no more than two keywords, by including the keywords in your page titles, introductory paragraphs and Meta Data.
Location: Most search engines – Google in particular – now place a lot of emphasis on location when ranking search results. So, if we take the aforementioned example of your business wanting to sell baseball caps to the French, then it will help your rankings greatly if you have a French country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) such as www.yourcompany.fr hosted on a server in France.
This may not be financially feasible, however, so you can also create a subdomain off your main site for the French language – in this case, you should use the Google Webmaster Geotargeting tool (or the geotargeting tool for the appropriate search engine) to set the location of your French pages as France.
In either scenario, it will also help to have location pages within your site. Let’s say that you have done your market research and discovered that the greatest demand for baseball caps in France is in Paris, Marseilles and Lyon. In this scenario, it will help to have separate pages on your site optimized with region-specific keywords such as ‘acheté casquette Paris’ or ‘acheté casquette Marseilles’.
Links: The final essential element of SEO is to gain back-links to your site. Google in particular relies heavily on evaluating the number and quality of back-links to a website when judging that site’s relevancy.
The easiest way to get back-links is to find out what the respected online directories and catalogues are in the local internet and posting business profiles there, with a link back to your site – for instance, www.pagejaune.fr (the Yellow Pages) or www.lesannuaires.com in France. Alternatively, you can write content that is related to your topic (for instance, an article ‘How to choose the right baseball cap size’), translate it using Google Translate and post that article to article directories in the local web, including a back-link to your site.
The more complicated (but also more effective) version of this strategy is to pitch expert articles to respected blogs and websites in the local web, offering original content in exchange for a back-link. This increases both your back-link ratio and your brand exposure, but it requires both language skills and experience in writing and public relations, and is an activity best undertaken by multilingual online PR professionals.
I hope these tips have been of assistance – and good luck on your forays into e-commerce in the foreign language internet!

Gmail Labs Get Search Feature

The point of a laboratory is to facilitate testing.  The average chemist might not get too far if he was just presented with a jumble of beakers, however, and similarly, Gmail Labs has been getting pretty messy.  A new feature promises to fix that issue.

Greg Bullock, a software engineer at Google, explained the problem on the Gmail Blog.  He wrote, "Have you ever found it just a little bit tricky to find what you were looking for on the Gmail Labs Settings page?  Scrolling was ok when there were a handful of Labs, but now that there are over 50 it's another story."

Next, Bullock continued, "A lunchtime discussion made us realize that having to rely on the browser's search function or endless scrolling makes it hard to find the Labs features you want.  So another Gmail engineer named Manu [Cornet] and I decided take an afternoon and address this.  The result is an addition to the Settings page which filters the visible Labs as you type."

A Classified Way to Drive Business to Your Website

There are more than 105 million of them in the United States. Worldwide, there could be at least 250 million of them. Them, according to statistics from the Nielsen/Net Ratings service, is the number of active Web surfers. 250 million in the whole world? The figure is more than the populations of Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and a few non-English speaking countries combined. That's a lot of them!

With so many active surfers around, you would think Webmasters and site owners have an easy time attracting them. Actually, they face an uphill battle to bring visitors and, more importantly, consumers to their Web sites. And a Web site without traffic is like a store built in the middle of the desert. You could have the greatest products and most attractive Web design around, but they're worthless if no one visits them.

There is one way, however, to turn your Web site into an oasis of business, a way to drive as much traffic to your site as your server can handle: a classified ad.

More on that later. First, all Web builders and site owners should know the basic and time-tested ways to attract traffic to their Web site. The key to all of these methods is to attract the right Web surfers. You want what experts call "targeted visitors," or people who are actually interested in what you're selling. To guarantee that this happens, you should follow this checklist of Web traffic golden rules:

Step 1: Optimize your Web pages.
Webmasters in the know take the time to set their meta tags. These tags, or codes, are hidden keywords in the Web page that tell search engines like Google and Yahoo exactly what your site is all about. A meta tag, for instance, could be "designer handbags," "sporting equipment," or whatever else you happen to be selling. These keywords tell the search engine to direct all handbag or sports shoppers to your site.

Step 2: List your site with every search engine out there.
For this step, you simply need to surf over to Google, AltaVista, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines. Click onto their customer service page, where they allow Web builders and site owners to manually submit their site addresses.

Step 3. Spice up your site with interactive features.
With articles, newsletters, offers, promotions, and discounts, you give your targeted visitors a reason to stay at your site once they find it. More importantly, you give them reasons to come back and tell their friends about the site. Word of mouth is one of the best, and cheapest, forms of advertising on the planet.

Step 4. Exchange banner ads with friends and with other companies that you do business with.
Banner ads are those eye-catching designs at the top and bottom of Web pages. They're like the billboards of the Internet superhighway. But with these online billboards, a simple click transports the Web surfer directly to your Web site.

Step 5. Exchange Web links with friends and business associates.
This, Webmasters and site owners, could be the most important way to drive Web traffic to your site. All of the major search engines rank sites by measuring how many links come to and leave from your Web site.

So links are a way to measure how worthwhile and how legitimate your site is. The better this measurement, the better chance your site will have to show up well in Web surfers' searches. In other words, these links could be the difference between your site being listed on page 20 of a Google search results, or on page 1.

Building better Web links and search engine results-that's where classified sites come into play. Some of the most savvy classified sites on the market now offer Web links in their ads. These links lead right to your business' home page.

Not only are these links convenient one-click ways for more customers to reach your site. They also boost your search engine rankings.

Of course, for business owners, classified sites have so many other benefits, too.

• Unparalleled exposure. Classified sites are like online malls. Not only will you get exposure from shoppers coming specifically to find your goods. You get "spill over" attention from shoppers who came for another item but then start browsing through all of the other ads in the classified "mall."
• A new arsenal of Web sites. Having online classified ads is like setting up multiple new Web sites across the Internet. Unlike your own original site, these classified ads come with low-cost IT support, security, and advertising.
• Incredible growth opportunities. Businesses and individuals selling on online classified sites pull in more than $1.95 billion a year, according to the statistics firm Kelsey Group. That figure does not even include money from eBay.
• Money for nothing. As valuable as classified sites are, many of the best ones charge very little or absolutely nothing to set up your ads.

Add up all of these numbers-250 million active Web surfers in the world, $1.95 billion in classified sales, and $0 cost-and your Web business is sure to come out in the positive.

Improve Your Websites Performance

How well is your website performing? Are you satisfied with the amount of customers who view your website? Do you get enough business through your website? By reading this article you will be in a position to do something about all three questions.

It's all very well having a nicely designed and appealing website for your business but it's of no use if you don't get the customers to visit it. The number one term you will find associated with this is search engine optimisation. You will find endless sources on the Internet telling you to optimise this and optimise that but what does it all mean?

Search engine optimisation simply means making your website as friendly to search engines as possible. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN provide your business with the ability to reach a huge amount of customer's, they are by far the most successful method to boost sales for your business. If your website is nicely optimised then you will have a greater chance of appearing higher up on the search engines.

Most customers will type in a phrase into the search engine and view the first couple of websites that it finds, they will usually be successful in finding what they were looking for on the first page of results. Statistics show that customers very rarely look further than the first page (90% don't look past the first page) so what good is it if your website was on page 10? This is where search engine optimisation comes in, it will give your business a greater chance of being on that first golden page in the search engines.

There are many methods that all contribute to a higher ranking but some are more influential than others. The first factor is having a well built website. This is a standard feature that all website design companies should offer.

The second method is keywords. Keywords are the words that are associated with your business, the idea is to include these words in your website so when a customer types in a phrase in a search engine, your website is more likely to appear. Keywords should be chosen carefully to target the correct market for your business. It's no good targeting the word "Fruit" if your business sells website design.

The third factor that contributes to a high search engine ranking is back links. This simply means a link from someone else's website to yours. The more links you have to your website the better. Search engines view your back links as a sign of popularity and obviously the more popular you are the more successful you appear.

One of the best methods for this is to submit your website to online directories, not only will you get a back link but you are also likely to get a lot of customers coming to your website from that link. Make sure that you select trusted directories and one's that can relate to your business, there is a chance that you will get penalised by search engines if you sign up to link farms (websites that collect lot's of spam and poor quality links).

Finally, having a website that is constantly updated also gives you a boost in terms of search engines as they like to see fresh content. This is also likely to draw customers back to your website as they know they are likely to see something new. This in turn will boost the amount of traffic you get to your website which will also help in gaining a higher search engine rank.

These are just some of the methods in which you can improve your website performance, there are many other factors that contribute to a high search engine ranking. Most are an on-going process so it is very beneficial to your business to continually try to improve your performance as there is always someone competing against you for that top spot

10 Reasons To Submit Your Articles To Ezines Directory

Getting your product or service delivered to your targeted audience is one of the most important success factor in internet based business. There are many technique to deliver your content to your targetted audence. Submit good articles to high traffic ezine directory is one of the technique which is relatively simple and affordable for build up your online business. Below are lists the benefits.

1. You'll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher's home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe.

5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don't publish your articles.

6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your income.

7. You could allow e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your advertising could multiply all over the internet.

8. You will get your article published all over the web when you submit it to an e-zine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site. They'll allow their visitors to republish your article.

9. You'll gain people's trust. If they read your article and like it, they won't be as hesitant to buy your
product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits.

10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in an e-zine. You could agree to run one of their articles in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run yours in their e-zine. It's a win/win situation.

The above list is a great start if you are thinking of starting a business on internet. It is relatively simple and very affordable.

What NOT to do with RSS

Everybody is hot on using RSS to increase their traffic, promote their sites and do their marketing. Why?
Well, it's newish - at least within the internet marketing segment. Not as new as it was a year or so ago, of course. Getting significant results is a little harder as the competition increases.
With the profusion of blogs and spam blog-pinging to attract the search engine spiders to index static pages, the utility of this approach has been seriously impaired by unscrupulous overkill.
Pinging every 3 minutes is - even to an idiot - absurd - or at least it should be. Why not just scream, "I AM AN AUTOMATED SEARCH ENGINE SPAM PROGRAM." Lovely footprint, very hard for even a seriously brain-damaged bot to identify.
Still there are a lot of sites with RSS feeds that are real feeds being produced as pages change and new content is added. So, yes, RSS feeds still work. Maybe not as fast and maybe they are less powerful than they were, but RSS remains a valid and increasingly necessary part of site promotion.
Techniques do get abused and the early rapid response tends to decline as a result. If people were a little clearer about what they're doing and why and how it all works, the frenzied search for new approaches could, perhaps, be a little less daunting. And if the quick buck artists were less successful at misleading people into doing things that are bad for everybody in the long run, then . . . but that's how it is, was, and apparently will be forever more.
One thing about a real feed - it's for more than getting bots to index your pages. If that's all you want then you can stop reading here.
For the remaining readers (if any), consider the single most critical element of any marketing or website promotion effort. You can have the most magnificent site, the greatest ever-changing content, beautiful and valid feeds in all formats -- and very little in the way of traffic. Unlike the search engines who have all those lovely spiders we are so hot to gain the attention of - most blog/RSS search engines and directories do not send out bots in search of RSS feeds.
Nope. You have got to submit to them. I know. I've done the smart thing - submit to a bunch - and the incredibly unspeakably stupid thing - letting the submissions slide because, frankly, it's a horrible boring tedious and extremely boring (did, I mention how boring it is?) job. That's not a very pretty admission, but there you are. I have a limited ability to tolerate severe boredom - even when I know I'm hurting myself.
And if you don't do the submissions, you won't get the traffic you could have. And that means fewer conversions, sales, opt-ins or whatever it is your site is about.
Ah, but there are answers to this problem. RSS submission services exist and so do RSS submission tools. In fact here's a new (still in beta) service that allows you to submit to 17 blog/RSS search engines - with more promised - for free. It's called FeedShot and you can find it at www.feedshot.com.
Now with FeedShot you need to enter each feed individually. However, with a tool like RSS Submitter you can enter from 3 (in the free evaluation version) feeds to an unlimited number in the SEO version. RSS Submitter then submits automatically to over 70 blog and RSS search directories and can also be used to do additional manual submissions with auto-form filling.
This tool is the purest gold for the serious RSS feed marketer. It works, it's easy to use and it saves you incredible amounts of time - and eliminates that nasty boring tedious repetitive work. Check it out and download a free evaluation copy through www.MarketingWithRSS.com/rss-submitter/
Just to be clear here you should realize that you can create and use RSS feeds without ever using any of the ping sites. RSS feed updates are noted by RSS readers/aggregators which check feeds for new content either on demand or on a schedule. RSS/blog search directories also check on a regular basis. Users find your feed through these directories. Again, if you want visitors, then no matter how you do it, you've got to submit.
Obviously, if your feed is produced by a blog, you'll want to notify ping sites when your content is updated. But you still need to submit the feeds. And you can also submit your blog URL to a whole host of pure blog directories, but that's a different subject.
The people who use RSS readers/aggregators in addition to or in place of a browser are the real target group for RSS marketing. When you consider how and what you want to market with RSS, keep in mind that this group tends to still be made up of relatively affluent, early adopters with some technical sophistication, a taste for new technology, a low boredom threshold and a keen appreciation of the value of their time. And don't forget to submit.

RSS Ego Searches

Ego searches are free and simple searches designed to monitor blogs and news portals for mentions of your company, product, competitors or other specific keywords. Conducting ego searches not only allows you to stay informed, but also allows you to maintain a strategic advantage over competing companies. A number of new Internet services are freely available that make these 'ego searches' painless and easy.
Dynamically created keyword based RSS feeds, update in your RSS reader or news aggregators, each time new information containing the keyword appears in the searched resources. The dynamic feeds match requests against new information, as it comes online in real time. The following free services allow for RSS feed ego searches.
Google News
Simply conduct a keyword search of Google News and then click the text that says "RSS" then save the url of the RSS feed in to your news reader. Every time a new article with that keyword appears in Google News the feed in your RSS reader will automatically update.
http://news.google.com/news
BlogPulse
Find out what is being said about your products, company or your industry in the blogosphere. Conduct a keyword or url search on BlogPulse. Click the orange RSS icon above the search results and save the feed in your reader. Each time the keyword appears in a blog indexed by BlogPulse you will receive a new item in your feed reader. Another feature of BlogPulse is it will graph the keyword occurrences, providing a picture representation so that trends can be easily visualized. Hovering over the lines of the graph will provide details of actual blog mentions.
http://www.blogpulse.com
PubSub
Search on a keyword, then save and add the feed to your RSS reader using the icons provided. Optionally with PubSub you can direct your search to only alert you of posts in specific areas of interest includin g Press Releases, SEC/EDGAR Filings, Newsgroup Posts, or Weblog Entries
http://www.pubsub.com
Technorati
Create watch lists, by entering the search term add item to the watch list and then scroll to the bottom click the blue RSS icon to obtain the url of the RSS feed that can be added to your reader. Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere. In order to setup a watchlist you will have to create a Technorati account.
http://www.technorati.com
Ice Rocket
Simply search Ice Rocket then click the RSS 2.0 button to obtain the url of the RSS feed that contains your search term. Add the url to your RSS reader or newsaggregator.
http://www.icerocket.com/
Find Articles
Traditional media channels can even be monitored using RSS. FindArticles routinely scans magazines and publications for keyword mentions. Conduct a search then click "RSS Alert" to obtain the url to the RSS feed. Add the feed to your reader to receive instant notification of new articles.
http://www.findarticles.com/
NewsTrove
NewsTrove indexes millions of news articles from a myriad of sources. Build an RSS feed on any topic imaginable. Enter your search words in the search box. Click 'Search' click the orange XML icon on the right side of the search results page and save the feed to your news reader.
http://www.newstrove.com
BlogDigger
BlogDigger monitors the blogosphere and generally what is said daily in the blogs. Conduct a search on Blogdigger and click the orange XML icon to retrieve the url of the search feed. The feed should then be added to your RSS reader.
http://www.blogdigger.com/
DayPop
Conduct a search and click the icon on the right that says XML, save the feed to your RSS aggregator. Only the most recent search results will appear.
http://www.daypop.com

Yahoo News
Conduct a search then click "view as RSS" in the right column save the feed in your aggregator. The feed will check Yahoo news for mentions.
http://news.yahoo.com/
Overall, ego searches are an excellent way to stay informed and maintain a strategic advantage over competitors. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage. Keyword RSS feeds can be used to monitor key phrases for trademark abuses or monitoring the effectiveness of a specific press promotion.
Although they sound daunting ego searches are simply good business sense.

RSS... and WHY Its Being Considered The Newest Player In The VIRAL Marketing Game

I have a quick question to ask you... "Are you sick and tired of hearing about RSS(Real Simple Syndication) and how it can take your online business to New levels with VERY little effort on your part?"
If you answered 'YES' to the question above then stop reading this article Right Now!
If you answered 'NO' then your going to love what I'm about to reveal to you about RSS and WHY its being consider the newest player in the VIRAL marketing game.
But before I do I think its important you understand the mechanics of each(RSS and VIRAL marketing) and what there role is so there's no confusion.
RSS by definition -- RSS stands for 'Real Simple syndication or Rich Site Summary' and is used to syndicate news or information and is usually associated with Blogs because blogs use an RSS feed to distribute their content.
Next...
VIRAL Marketing by definition -- is any form of advertising and/or marketing techniques that "spread" like a virus without you having to do anything.
Now that you have an idea what the two mean and the roles they each play it's now time to tie it all together.
I have another quick question...(As you can see I like to ask questions.) "What do all website owners and portal sites need on a 24/7 basis to keep their visitors/readers coming back day after day?
If you answered 'Content' then give yourself a pat on the back because your absolutely Right!
And what do RSS feeds contain that update on a 24/7 basis?
CONTENT! Whether its News related or Articles.
And where do website owners and portal webmasters go to find these much needed RSS feeds?
You guessed it... 'RSS Directories' where hopefully You submitted your RSS feed(s) to.
The great thing about 'RSS Directories' is they are all categorized making it easy for whomever is looking.
And if your RSS feed catches their eye, guess what? They'll add your feed to there website where You'll gain all that FREE exposure at their expense.
Now, just imagine if 100 or 1000 website owners picked up your RSS feed.
Your traffic to your website would start to Explode effortlessly without you lifting a finger.
And the cool thing is all you had to do was set it up once.
The more 'Quality' RSS feeds you have out there the more opportunities you have of getting picked up by webmasters.
Do you see Now how RSS is being considered VIRAL? And this all happens while your sleeping.
It gets better So hold on.
Do you publish your own Content/Articles?
If you do you are also in for a real treat because guess what other directories are starting to incorporate RSS into their directories?
That's right, 'Article Directories'.
By submitting your articles to the TOP 'Article Directories' the same effect will happen as I outlined with 'RSS Directories'.
Remember this, people come online primarily for Informat! ion that will help solve a particular problem they are dealing with.
Websites contain 'Information'.
Website owners need Fresh 'Information' on a 24/7 basis to feed their readers needs.
RSS feeds deliver content, whether its News related or Articles, on a 24/7 basis or whatever frequency the website owner chooses.
How can you take advantage of this Right Now if you haven't already?
Simply set up a Blog at Blogger.com -- www.blogger.com -- and start posting to it on a Daily basis with your Articles, Product Reviews or News related postings related to your target audience.
Then go submit your Blogs RSS feed to all the top 'RSS Directories'.
Here's a link to a list of Top RSS Directories that you can submit your feed(s) to.
Go to: www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
Once you've done that you'll want to Ping your Blog to get the Search Engines to come visit and start indexing your Blogs pages.
You can do this by using this Free service called Ping-O-Matic.
Go to: pingomatic.com
Well there you have it in a nutshell.
I hope you see the true Power of RSS and more importantly... "WHY Its Being Considered The Newest Player In The VIRAL Marketing Game".
The only thing left for you to do is... Take Action!

RSS Provides Multiple Opportunities to Share Your Information

RSS content syndication is a relatively new member of the internet marketing family of campaign options. And, it seems as though new uses for RSS content are coming about very quickly. This is possibly due to recent changes in the way that major search engines like Yahoo! and Google want web site owners to advertise.

It seems like it shouldn't matter to the search engines - the way you choose to market your website. But, it does when your link popularity begins to fall due to too many links on irrelevant web directories, etc. With RSS content syndication, you will not face that problem. And the better your content, the better the chances of increasing your standing with the search engines (not to mention your site visitors).

RSS feeds are no longer just appearing on the large news sites in order to show the latest headlines. They are appearing on internet-enabled cell phones, PDA and other mobile devices. The reason this is possible is the simple XML format used to produce the RSS feed. By using RSS syndication to spread the word about your site, you are now using one of the best advertising methods for reaching the "non-traditional" web browsers installed on these mobile devices.

Anyone familiar with web directory will understand the approach recommended for RSS syndication that I will term "many doors." The many doors approach means that you are providing several different headlines for the SAME article! If you have done directory submissions, or worked with a directory submission service this is what you provided for anchor text and site descriptions.

So, you can see that while some level of time investment will be required... you will no longer need to generate huge numbers of SEO content in order to "trick" the search engines. As a matter of fact, you will probably want to concentrate your efforts on providing a few high-quality relevant articles that will gain and keep the attention of your site visitors.

You will need to generate content an update your website frequently if you want your RSS content syndication technique to be an effective form of marketing. Why?

The answer is simple, but often overlooked by those publishing RSS content for syndication. When site visitors become accustomed to looking at an RSS feed for teasers about new information they can use, and they notice that there have not been any new additions for a while they stop looking. If you decide that RSS content syndication is a good marketing tool for your site, understand that you are committing a small amount of time in order to draw and keep your web site traffic.

How often will I need to update? That is a question frequently asked by those new to the world of RSS marketing. It really depends on a few things. If you are publishing content about developments in the stock market, your readers may expect hourly updates. However, if you are publishing content on the week's hottest new movies you could probably publish once a week and keep your readers happy. Of course, if you are syndicating RSS content about new books written on the topic of antique shoe stretches you may only need to publish content annually. This also points out another thought to consider.

If your content is so specific that it applies only to a limited group of people, then either RSS content syndication is not the right marketing technique for your web site or you need to expand your content offerings. If you find your website traffic lacking, why not try expanding your content to include a broader audience?

When you publish content on your website that you want your visitors to see, but you also want to make that same content available to others interested in the same subject area, RSS feed services provide a great and inexpensive way to expand your readership!

There are actually new search engines (Example, Feedster) that are in place with the purpose of allowing people to search for syndicated content that can be placed on their RSS feeds in order to provide a service to their web site visitors. Because there is such a service, there must be a need for this type of content! Therefore, listing your syndicated content with sites like Feedster will enable other web site owners seeking your information to find it.

Here is a short overview of what you need to do in order to get your content out there for RSS syndication:

First, you will need to compile a list of the content articles provided on your website with their headlines, URL and description. From this list, you will need to create a simple XML file (RSS format).

Second, you submit the XML file to services that make RSS syndicated content available for other users.

Third, you wait for approval of your RSS feed from each of the services.

Fourth, after you are accepted by a site you need to find out how often they will update their system with your latest XML RSS feed. You then need to ensure that you are updating your information at the appropriate time!

Finally, you need to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor! This is when you will begin to see increased traffic and sales to your site.

Marketing Power of RSS Content Syndication

RSS content syndication is relatively new legitimate practice in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Marketing professionals specializing in SEO techniques are beginning to recognize the value of RSS content syndication however, and it seems that the more popular this technique becomes the more effective the results.

The value of RSS content syndication lies in the links contained within the content. This is because the big search engines like Google and Yahoo! pay a whole lot more attention to incoming links to a website than they did in the past. We'll get to content a little later, because it still counts, but it is so important to understand why syndicating content to RSS feeds across the web may make you more money and cost you LESS!

RSS feeds are appearing on websites across the internet in order to keep people up to date with the latest news or information on a particular topic quickly. And we all know that users expect quality content, but even more so they expect that content to appear immediately! And, they want to see the content. They do not want to look for the content. They do not want to link to the content. They want the content to jump off of the screen and into their brains in 10 seconds or less!

Perhaps this is why Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, came about in the first place. It's great news for web site owners too, however. Taking advantage of the huge variety and sheer number of RSS feeds that accept submissions from other websites provides a very cheap and simple way to develop more web site traffic and higher income.

Did I mention cheap? A minimal amount of time invested will allow you to not only provide a way for your loyal visitors to stay aware of your newest updates, but also to expand the awareness of the world about your services or products. I did mention cheap, right? Well, RSS content and article syndication allows you to spend some time preparing content in the standard XML RSS format and then to make it available to many free RSS feeds across the world.

If you have ever spent a large amount of money on an online marketing program - you already know the drawbacks of traditional internet marketing. Mass emails are no longer effective due to the increasing power of spam filters. Directory listing services are finding that their clients are removing their links due to retribution by the major search engine algorithms. And, Pay Per Click... well it's just really expensive if you intend to see real results.

With RSS syndication, you are never going to face any of these issues. If you can write an html file for your website, you can syndicate your own RSS content. The basic process is quite simple to master, and as you become more familiar your skills will expand quickly as well.

What's even better news for web site owners? The major search engines are not only approving of RSS syndication, they are providing RSS feeds open for submission in a huge array of topic areas like sports, entertainment, world news, travel, health and technology. There is a topic for every web site owner willing to put in a little effort! And people use their sites already, so what a better place to syndicate your content?

When you place content in an RSS feed, a link appears to your web site. This is noticed by the major search engines, and helps to increase your link popularity among the search engines. Link popularity will potentially move your site up in the search engine results pages (SERPS). Combine these two facts, and you will see that no matter how you look at it, RSS syndication will get you more traffic.

It doesn't really matter whether your additional visitors found you through an RSS feed, or if your visibility and increased link popularity allowed them to find you through a major search engine! Think about that, and you are sure to see the true benefit of RSS content.

There's that word again... "Content." RSS content is different from what you might normally expect in an SEO campaign. The reason that most web sites containing RSS feeds put them there in the first place is to provide extra information for their visitors.

Think about it, if you publish a web site geared towards IT professionals you might be providing content that is of a fairly specific nature. You may be giving information, tutorials or even advertising for a certain software package. Although this information is important to a large majority of the visitors who click on your link, some visitors may be more interested in a different area of the IT field.

Providing an RSS feed that displays the latest in the world of IT news may be a great answer. If the information found in your RSS feed is quality and relative to your visitors' interests, they will bookmark your site. Then they will COME BACK!

But what does that mean to you as the RSS syndicated content provider? It means that you will need to produce quality content - because it's your content that keeps the users coming back to the original site. As long as your content is quality, and you remain a part of that RSS feed, you will see increased new and return visitors.

And generating traffic is the largest goal of an SEO campaign, so why wouldn't you want to syndicate quality content for RSS feeds? This simple and inexpensive method of marketing your website is gaining popularity, and becoming visible now as a content provider will only mean greater returns in the future.