News readers are back again!

No I don’t mean that Moira Stewart is coming back onto our screens, though I do think she’d make an ace guest presenter for never mind the buzzcocks, I mean that RSS feed readers are once again hot property in SEO and a major source of new clicks for popular topics.

RSS Feed Readers have been with us for years and have had a few surges in popularity, the original WAP phone explosion, the introduction of Mac OS X with its dashboard reader widgets, and then the release of Windows Vista with the sidebar have all prompted a wave of clicks from Really Simple Syndication feeds (bet you never knew that acronym ;) ) the latest wave is driven by mobile, again, this time in the form of blog readers specifically focussed on the atom feeds from various blog platforms out there.

The Android Marketplace and App Store is stuffed full of high quality reader programs like Pulse, which allows fans of particular blogs and pages to get their updates as they happen, but how can you leverage this for more clicks to your site? Can we make RSS a proper part of Mobile SEO?

Making your Blog RSS Really Successful:

1. Make your feed compatible with all readers: Google’s Feedburner property offers a simple route to check that your RSS feed is compatible with all readers, size is a major factor, so don’t try fit your entire blog history in one feed, break it down and allow for archives, you want traffic to your site, not just people reading on their own programs!
    
2. Split the information you give out to the users carefully: Whet the appetite but don’t quench the thirst. A short paragraph is enough to get readers hooked, but don’t give away the results unless they click. Likewise for blogs that contain photos, let them read an intro to the story and see one photo, they’ll click for the rest.
    
3. Give stuff away! Downloads and giveaways are an excellent source of both visitors and loyalty. Even if it’s just a printable PDF or a wallpaper, the fact that you’re making a show of it being a giveaway it'll gain traffic. Promoting through your blog is a no-brainer and you can even tie this into your email marketing to increase clicks from that activity.
    
4. Have a content rich mobile site: it’s a myth that mobile sites have to be cut down versions. Phone users are quite happy to use their phone in place of a Kindle, tablet users are even more happy to have a proper amount of content and functionality (Vimeo take note!) so don’t restrict your mobile data, just move it around a bit! 
    
5. Promote your favourite RSS reader and your feed: Pulse does a very good job of finding feeds from just a domain, but just in case you should promote your feed clearly and also tell users which App they need. This minimises any compatibility issues and you can work with the look and feel of the feed program to ensure your blog always gives a high quality experience.

So don’t delay, fix up your RSS today!