RSS, or Really Simple Syndication is a way of aggregating content and distributing it out o multiple websites. It was originally intended to be used by news sites providing content to other news sites via newsfeeds. E-Commerce marketers have recently been exploiting this tool as a way to get backlinks, which effectively boosts a sites position in search engine rankings. Backlinks are basically incoming links from either another webpage or search engine. Creating RSS syndication is not always easily when using traditional HTML websites. WordPress has become very popular as a website creation tool partly because of its inherent ability to create RSS feeds. For a marketer to utilize RSS for massive backlinking, there are two main kinds of sites to submit a website to: either an RSS directory or an RSS aggregator.

Marketers are submitting multiple entries into RSS directories, tagging each submission with targeted and catchy titles and keywords. Each submission to an RSS directory boosts a page’s rankings. RSS aggregators are websites which group together RSS feeds from multiple sites and combine them into what is known as a single feed. This one new combined feed can then be submitted to RSS directories which essentially doubles the number of backlinks. Each time a site is updated, the RSS feed submissions are updated and all these efforts work together to increase links and boost a site’s rankings.

RSS feeds in and of themselves do not add to a site’s rankings. Rather, it is the careful and strategic targeting that adds to the massive backlinking using this tool. Marketers are analyzing Google Trends and picking up on keywords and topics and then incorporating those keywords into the RSS feeds which will in turn drive traffic to the site via all the backlinking that takes place behind the scenes. Revenue generation on the internet is dependent on advertising which depends on consumers clicking on advertisements on websites. Advertisers want to expend resources on sites that are popular, because they want their message to be spread across a vast base as possible. Internet marketing is a numbers game and anything that can boost a site’s rankings is effectively increasing the amount of money that they can lease webpage space to for advertising. However, Google has again revolutionized the internet space and changed the game forever. Today, it is not merely a numbers game but a numbers game on good websites. It is not merely enough to be massively linked, but a site needs to be linked by other respectable and viable sites. This is where SEO, or search engine optimization becomes crucial. SEO basically sees how many other websites are linking to another website and judges, or rates the value of the linking sites. This is where targeted efforts by marketers to spread their site via RSS feeds really adds value. Marketers are able to target specific RSS feeds and get put on distribution lists of relevant topics that internet consumers are currently reading about. Being on relevant desirable sites adds even more value to the backlinking process.

RSS feeds are only going to increase in popularity. In today’s age of distributed user generated content, being able to get the “word” out can truly mean adding to a site’s bottom line. Users like RSS feeds and readers because they allow users to follow their favorite websites and blogs and be constantly updated with information and news that is relevant to them. With RSS feeds already having a high adoption rate and new web development tools like Squidoo and WordPress having integrated RSS tools, this technology will only become more prevalent. Internet marketers will continue to use RSS feeds to drive massive backlinking to boost their site’s rankings and being able to draw more revenue.