We’ve recently added RSS feeds to the ad listings on the Ad Diner. This is a great feature for visitors who use RSS and want to keep an eye on new offerings, but only a small fraction of internet users actually know what RSS is. If you aren’t familiar with it though, it’s worth taking the time to give it a try. It might dramatically change the way you use the web.

The problem with the web.

Every now and then something comes along that solves a problem most people didn’t realize they had. People got along fine before the remote control was invented, but these days no one would buy a TV without one.

I follow dozens of websites, and each of them adds new content in varying frequency. Some of the more popular blogs update several times each day, and many of the smaller sites only update every few weeks, if that often. I could waste a lot of time checking all of these sites every day to see if they have updated, and even then the less frequently updated sites tend to get forgotten about. Often a lot of valuable and interesting information gets lost in the shuffle.

Some websites have tried to solve this over the years with email reminders and newsletters, but if you sign up for too many of those you’ll end up with a cluttered and unusable mailbox.

RSS helps solves this by providing a better way to check and read all of your websites in one place.

Okay, what is RSS?

RSS stands for either “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication,” depending on who you ask. An RSS feed is just a file on a website that summarizes the site’s most recent content, with links to the original articles on the site. An RSS feed by itself isn’t particularly useful—it’s just a list of recent articles on a website. It’s when you use an RSS “Reader” that feeds become indispensable.

(Above: The front page of CNN.com and the contents of the accompanying RSS feed. Notice how the RSS feed offers the same information as the links on the front page. I actually prefer not to use RSS to follow major news sites like this because the sheer volume of content tends to overwhelm everything else I’m following, but they all offer RSS as a way to follow the news as it happens.)

An RSS reader (sometimes called an “Aggregator”) is a computer program or a website that checks all of the RSS feeds you tell it to and combines them together in one list. It keeps track of what you’ve read, and lets you know when something new is added. All in all, it’s a lot like using email—you have an inbox, you can sort articles by author, title, or date, you can flag stories you want to read later, and if you fall behind and just want to give up, you can mark everything as read. You no longer have to check to see if sites you read have updated, because the reader checks for you.

What do I need to get started?

First, you need a reader.

There are lots of different RSS Readers available, although most function fairly similarly. On the Mac, NetNewsWire, Vienna, and NewsFire are all good options. More recent versions of Apple’s Mail program also function as an RSS reader. On Windows, FeedDemon is a popular choice. There are quite a few cross-platform options as well, such as RSSOwl and BottomFeeder.

For people like me who have multiple computers they use on a regular basis, a web-based option might be better. Bloglines is a fairly popular web RSS service. For people who already use Google services such as Gmail or Google Docs however (and who doesn’t?), Google Reader is an excellent choice. Google Reader uses the same user account as the rest of your google services, and is available anywhere you have internet access. There’s even a special version for the iPhone and other mobile devices.

Some of the non-web RSS applications such as NetNewsWire and FeedDemon will synchronize with a Google Reader account, so you can still check your feeds when you’re away.

Then you need something to read.

Take a look at your favorite websites and see if they have feeds available. Not every site offers RSS, but most do. Just about every blog will have one. On most modern web browsers an RSS logo will appear in the address bar of a page that has an RSS feed. If not, look for the RSS logo on the sites you visit:

Take a look through your bookmarks. You might find some sites that you found something interesting on, bookmarked, and then promptly forgot about. See if they have a feed and subscribe to it. Most bookmarks are clutter you’ll never look back at, but a feed is a potential source of new information.

Some sites do interesting things with RSS. Craigslist doesn’t just offer feeds for each of the category listings on the site, you can also subscribe to a feed for a particular search. If you listen to podcasts on your iPod or other MP3 player, you’re already using RSS in a specialized way. Podcasting software just uses RSS feeds with links to audio files to handle updates.

Adding a feed to Google Reader is simple. (see below) Click the “Add a subscription” button, and enter the page you want to subscribe to. Reader will try to find the site’s RSS feed. Most other readers are similar.

Our ulterior motive:

Obviously we hope you’ll subscribe to the Five and Dime RSS feed, and if you’re reading this coming from the Ad Diner, subscribe to one of our feeds there.

First of all, let’s make sure everyone understands what SEO is exactly. Search Engine Optimization is anything you do to create or add features to your website to get higher rankings on search engines. And of course, search engines are the websites where you look up information online to find other websites that have the information that you are looking for. The most commonly used search engines are Google and Yahoo.

Along with the website where searches are carried out, the phrase search engine can also refer to the actual company (Google or Yahoo for instance), or the computer program that does the searches. For this article, we are lumping these three areas all together, we don’t feel that we need to distinguish between the different components for our illustrations.

How do search engines work?

Let’s first talk a little bit about how search engines work. A common phrase used when talking about search engines is “algorithms”. For some of us, we remember algorithms from math classes from high school. (Not that we necessarily understood them, but we remember them.) An algorithm by definition is a set of rules or a process that govern calculations or other problem-solving operations. Why is this important? Because search engines use algorithms to get information about your website.

Some people assume that when they submit their website to a search engine for review that someone, somewhere is going to sit on a computer to review their website and decide how it should be placed within their lists. But, if you think about the millions of websites that are out there, you begin to realize that this is an impossibility.

So the search engines have developed programs to review your site. We refer to this operation as their algorithm. They develop proprietary algorithms and, like the Coca-

Cola recipe, these programs are highly guarded secrets. They don’t tell anyone how they work for obvious reasons… first of all they spend a lot of money developing and refining their programs. No sense giving that away to their competitors. The second reason this information is held close to the vest is that it helps keep people from “gaming the system”. (More on that later.)

So if someone is not personally reviewing the site, how does the search engines get information? They send what is known as a “spider” or “bot” (robot). A spider is a program that runs to visit your website and collect information. It doesn’t view your website like people do, it actually looks at the source code. (If you ever want to look at code on a website, you can look under the “view” heading on your browser and drop down to “source”.) It takes this information back to its home where the algorithms go to work, in essence cataloging your website and deciding what is relevant.

Relevance is a key word in search engine optimization. The more relevant your site is to search parameters, the higher up on the list it will go. And this is probably the number one thing that you can do to get better placement for your website. In fact, when you are designing your site you should put together a list of key words that people will likely search, then use these words in your copy.

Taking the copy a step further, don’t just think about key words, but think about key phrases. If someone types in “Chevy Corvette” in their search, you will get better placement if you have the words “Chevy” and “Corvette” next to each other, rather than “Chevy” on one page and “Corvette” on another. In addition, repetition is good within a website. Use those key phrases in different areas.

Metatags: Do they work?

So what about metatags? Metatags are words and phrases placed within the code that aren’t necessarily included in the copy on the site. (You don’t see these at all when you look at the site.) At one point in time, these metatags were picked up by the search engines and used as part of the list placement. However, this created a lot of issues where people were using metatags to move their placement up on the search engines, regardless if their site was actually relevant to the phrases.

The bottom line is that very few search engines use metatags for placement in today’s world.

“Gaming the system” is a phrase that pretty much can translate to “cheating”. When someone creates a website that tries to fool the search engine algorithms, it is gaming the system. Although there still is some of that going on, the search engines are a lot more sophisticated than they used to be. It is tougher to pull a fast one on the search engines, and if you try, it can have

adverse effects.

BMW’s German page was removed from Google’s search results after alledgedly writing content that didn’t fit Google’s search protocols. They said “sorry” and Google eventually let them back into their system.

Paying for rankings

So how about these companies that claim that they are going to put in the metatags that are going to help you get higher rankings? There are certainly some “do’s” and “don’ts” in the metatag world, but I would be wary of anyone claiming that their metatag usage is going to make your site jump to the top of the results list.

As mentioned earlier, there are some companies that claim that they will add your name to hundreds (if not thousands) of search engines. Our advice is to pick the top three* to five search engines and do it yourself. It certainly doesn’t hurt to submit your site to more search engines, but we would be surprised if you get much value out of it.

If your site is new, or recently revamped, do submit your information to the main search engines. But, to be quite honest, if you have any kind of presence already, the spiders will find your site without a new submission.

And what about companies that guarantee your placement on the first page? Read the fine print. If you put enough descriptors in the search, eventually they’ll get you on the first page. But how many times are people going to search for your company name, including the company’s president’s name, the town he grew up in, and his favorite drink?

So what are some of the other real tips to move up in the rankings?

We already talked about relevance as probably the primary key to get results on your search engine marketing. Another factor that most search engines take into consideration is tied into relevance, that is, how relevant is your site to the rest of the online community? In other words, are you a player?

The only way the search engines can make this decision (remember, its all algorithms, not people making decisions) is to look at how many people are actually looking at your site, or referring people to your site. That can be sort of a catch-22, how can you get people to refer to your site if they aren’t finding it in the first place?

The answer is to find other ways, besides search engines, to get people to hook up to your site. This can be done with referrals, getting people to link to your site from their site. One of the best ways to do this is to generate publicity through online press releases. We like our clients to get online news stories with links to their sites. Of course national press is great, but most local news sources also have their websites with local information.

The common exchanging of links is also a way to get referring sites to find your site. Some are done more tactfully than others, as a marketing company we advise using good judgment on these types of referrals. It is more important to maintain brand equity than to get a few extra links to your site. But if you can get other sites, especially popular sites, to put a link to your site, it also helps get your search engine ranking up higher.

People on blogs also can link to your site. There are big companies that pay individuals to get their names and links on blogs, although there are some “gaming the system” issues with this, and if it’s not done correctly, it can create a backlash.

A problem with referrals could arise if your site is linked from what is referred to as “link farms”. You’ve probably seen them when you typed in a wrong domain address, these are pages with no real content and simply links to other sites.

Paying for placement

So can you pay to get placement? Yes, and you should look into it. There are two ways to pay to get your site viewed. One is to pay for advertising, typically banner ads, on other sites that link to your website. The strategies and purchasing of online advertising is still evolving, but it is getting more established and the pay per

click model is still a major way to purchase online advertising.

The other way to pay for getting your site viewed is simply to participate in the search engine’s paid results. This is a lot simpler, and may be cheaper, than most people realize. These are the “sponsor results” listed on the side of the search engine results. You “bid” on key words that you want to own. When someone types in those key words, you are placed in relationship to how much you bid. For instance, you can “bid” 25¢ for key words. If no one bids more than 25¢, you get the top placement. Let’s say if someone bids 30¢, they move ahead of you on the ranking.

If someone is at 10¢, they are below you.

The price is per click. Just because your listing comes up on the page doesn’t mean that you are going to pay that amount. What it does mean is that if someone clicks on it and is directed to your website, you then pay.

The other part of the equation is that you decide a limit per month on how much you are willing to pay. For instance, you can decide that you never want to pay more than $50 a month. Once you hit that amount, your listing is taken down until the next month.

The downside to this scenario is that there is some worries about your competitors clicking on your link to raise your monthly bill. There are some safety measures in place to keep this from getting out of hand, but a little of that might occur.

Search engine optimization is clearly an important tool to use to get your website ranked higher on the searches. But be wary of companies that have their secret ways to improve your rankings, it’s probably more snake oil than actual legitimate processes. And last, but not least, remember to be relevant. Not a bad suggestion regardless of whether you are trying to get better search results or looking for a new business philosophy in general.

* Not sure who the top 3 search engines are? In order, Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the top search engines by total hours used.

Contact Randy Gunter for reprint permission. randygunter@gmail.com