WordPress websites are designed to be compliant with the search engine, and you need not do anything extra to make use of the SEO features. All WordPress themes are search engine optimized that make it easy for search engines to crawl websites for discovering content. Moreover, whenever you publish any post or page, WordPress sends an automatic notification to Google and other search engines. However, to perform the advanced SEO functions, you must make use of WordPress plugins that open up a new world in front of you.
It needs no reiteration that content is king and for good SEO you must publish original and useful content that the audience finds engaging. Publishing quality content is just the basic requirement in marketing, but it will not serve the purpose of SEO unless you support it with proper distribution strategy. You have to promote it intelligently so that it spreads through the mass of audience you are targeting. To fulfill the purpose of creating more engagement with the content, you must team up with other publishers to syndicate content so that your content is wired to related digital contexts and gets much more exposure. The easiest way of using syndicated content is to use the RSS feed feature built into WordPress, if necessary with the help of proper plugins. Read on to know how to use RSS feeds for better SEO prospects.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS) – what is it?
RSS is nothing but an XML based format suited ideally for distributing content. It is possible for webmasters at Sherman Square Marketing to create an RSS feed that contains descriptions and headlines of accurate information. You can create RSS feeds on any subject and topic of your choice and use it as content on your web page to improve search rankings. It is great of way of creating new content without having to spend much time on research and resources for creating original content. You have access to ready-made content, and you can use it with the permission of the original publisher and give them due credit. As long as the content quality is good and the feeds show up in the page code of your website, the search engines spiders would crawl and index it as fresh content, and this would eventually push up the search rankings.
Another attraction of RSS feed is that it keeps you constantly in touch with the audience who receive information automatically about the updates. It eliminates the need for the visitors to keep track of website updates that now they come to know as soon as it happens.
Syndication enriches the content repository
Maintaining a steady pipeline of content that is required to keep website content refreshed can be a challenging task because it needs time, money and resources. To facilitate content refreshment at regular intervals and to avoid any gaps, syndicating content and using RSS feeds to distribute it is an easy and highly efficient way to add value to your website. By using the powers of WordPress, you can implement RSS feeds on the subject or topic of your choice in the form of news, articles or posts. It widens your access to new content that becomes a part of your content repository. Fresh content would attract more traffic to the website and keep visitors engaged for the longer duration.
The SEO benefits
RSS feeds not only help in audience engagement and driving more traffic, but it also gives more exposure to the brand and your business. By adding new relevant content to your business niche, many new keywords also come within your reach. It increases the chances of gaining more attention from search engines, which is necessary to improve search rankings. There is no doubt that RSS feeds add value to SEO campaigns and is often among the most recommended advice of SEO professionals.
RSS display is part of WordPress default setting
The WordPress platform has a widget built into it for accommodating RSS feeds. You can make use of the feature to display RSS feeds. There are many options included in the widget that enables users to present the feeds in more convenient ways. It allows selection of elements you want to display as well as the number of items you want to include in the feed. Being selective about the elements, you can maintain an uncluttered and smart look without overcrowding. You have limited options when using the default RSS widget, and to widen the choices of customizations you must move on to use WordPress plugins that give almost endless opportunities.
Turning to WP plugins
Once you discover the RSS benefit by using the default settings of WordPress, it is natural that you might like to widen your reach by accessing more features that allow better customization and become inclined to use WordPress plugins. The plugins not only offer more options but also allow better control for conveniently managing multiple feeds. You can even import complete articles from some external RSS feeds that you like. Some plugins have the feature of allowing the audience to subscribe to any content of their choice and some others allow customization of RSS feeds and speedy import.
The plugins that allow fast import of feeds and provide better customization options use short codes thereby doing away with the utilization of any graphical interface. It gives so much flexibility to webmasters that they get addicted to the plugins. Not only you can add many different RSS feeds but also the WordPress editor screen helps to position it just in the way you want. After you install the plugin, go to the page or post where you want to insert the RSS feed and then it needs just some clicks to complete the process.
Maintain the ethics of content syndication by acknowledging the role of the contributor whose content you must use with due permission. Syndication thrives on mutual trust and respect and is necessary for adapting the best SEO practices. RSS feeds enrich the content profile of your website by adding more value to it.
Author bio: Gus Barnes is a writer and SEO expert. He enjoys a professional relationship with Sherman Square Marketing, a SEO agency. His fondness for writing has turned him into a blogger, as he writes on different topics in SEO and other online marketing techniques. Traveling is what he likes most.
