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RSS feeds seem to be the breakout technology for the year. With
more users turning to them for driving traffic to their site,
it’s no wonder that a trail of RSS feed spam is following in the
wake. A careful editing of your RSS feed could make the
difference between being classified as genuine content or RSS
spam.

RSS search engines are just beginning to pick up steam. As more
RSS feeds become searchable, the number of visitors will
increase and spam is sure to follow. It is an unfortunate side
effect of free communication. While RSS users can typically
unsubscribe to feeds they deem as spam, browsing with keywords
in an RSS search engine is where the problem arises.

RSS spam largely consists of three main types most often found
in the RSS search engines. The first type is keyword stuffing.

Keyword stuffing involves filling each RSS feed article with
high-value keywords for a specific topic. The articles are not
intended for human visitors, but instead for search engine
robots to direct traffic to a target web site. This RSS spam
technique is nothing more than an adaptation of the typical
keyword-stuffed web page, often banned by major search engines.

The second type involves RSS feed link farms. These RSS articles
often contain very little content, if any, other than a simple
keyword. Their main attraction is the feed title. Clicking the
feed title takes the user to a blog containing tens or hundreds
of other blogs and RSS feeds, each directing to more links
within the farm. The goal of this type of RSS spam is to trick
the user into clicking advertisements or directing them to a
product web site.

The third type is the creation of fake RSS feeds. These appear
as legitimate, but often duplicated, article content. Whether
they provide value or not is certainly debatable. These feeds
are usually created in mass, using automated scripts, and appear
similar in nature to the link farms. By attracting the users to
seemingly valuable content, they hope to gain advertisement
clicks or product web site traffic.

Your RSS feed might happen to fall into one of these three
categories. While you may currently be experiencing increased
traffic from the RSS search engines, these directories are
working on filtering out the RSS spam techniques. However, you
can still take advantage of RSS feeds and their power by
following an RSS-friendly guideline.

Refrain from using automated scripts to create online content
used by your RSS feeds. Instead, write your own original
thoughts, product descriptions, and reviews. It takes a little
more time, but the search engines will value this content much
more highly, your visitors will appreciate the unique content,
and the subscription count to your RSS feed will grow. It is
also important to keep your feed updated with changing content
as opposed to using a static feed, which remains the same.
Search engines value dynamic feeds and will likely rank you
higher as a result.

There are tools and services available, which aid in keeping an
RSS feed updated with your changing content. Such services
include FeedFire for converting your web site content to a
periodically updated RSS feed or software such as FeedForAll for
creating and editing RSS feeds.

A successful RSS feed is very much the same as a successful web
page. It may take a little more time to digitize your thoughts,
but the end result is well worth the effort. By avoiding the
tricks in RSS feed spam, you can help make the difference in
quality of feeds and enjoyment in your readers.