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How To Get Deep Links with RSS Feeds

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Relevant backlinks to individual pages

There are a number of online syndication services that will display an RSS feed as a web page. These will typically contain deep-links to pages on to the originating website, which is a valuable source of backlinks.

I originally wrote about this on the Digital Point Forums back in September of 2006, and later created this Lens based on my research, and I will be updating it to include new information as I discover it.

Last updated: October 2008

Recent Updates

28October, 2010
Removed some dead services: FeedBees, FeedBomb, FeedBoy, FeedMad, FeedSpider

14 October, 2008
Added new sections for Life Streams and Feed Aggregation
Added: FeedAgg, FeedBees, FeedRaider, Jumptags, Swurl and Zimbio.
Removed: Feeds2Read, FeedDirectory, TheRSSNetwork, Blog-Directory-Submit and AllFeeds.

22 May, 2008
Removed BlogLines.com
Added Feedest.com

8 July, 2007
Removed FeedFury.com because it uses nofollow tags.
Removed Squidoo.com because the feed view isn't Search Engines friendly.
Note that Blog-Directory-Submit.com now requires a backlink.

16 April, 2007
Added www.DayTimeNews.com, www.RSSMix.com and feedjumbler.com.

6 Feb 2007
Added www.Feeds2Read.net, www.RSS-Spider.com and www.FeedBoy.com.

Advantages of RSS Syndication

  • Each syndicated page is updated automatically, either periodically or on request, so the content is always fresh
  • The page title will (usually) match the title of the feed, and therefore contain the same keywords
  • Sometimes the URL will also include keywords from the feed title
  • RSS feeds contain snippets of text, which get displayed on the syndicated page
  • This means that the majority of the content on the page comes directly from the RSS feed
  • Each link within the RSS feed will be displayed using the title of the item as the anchor text
  • All links are one-way, i.e. better than reciprocal links

What You Need

Before you begin...

The primary requirement for this technique is to have an RSS feed on your website. This is special file written in a variant of XML, which describes the most recent pages from your website. Each entry should have a title, date, URL and a description.

The best RSS feed to have is one while is updated automatically whenever you add something to your website. Blogging packages usually provide this functionality, so all you need to do is find it.

If you're looking to syndicate your entire Lensmaster account, and promote all of your Squidoo Lenses, you can get your very own Lensmaster Feed from SquidUtils.com. Don't forget to syndicate your SquidCasts and Plexo modules too.

Make sure that you don't include the whole post or article in the RSS feed - only put the first 300 or so characters in as the description.

For more information, have a look at the Understanding RSS lens, by Seth Godin.

Basic Syndication Services

Turn your RSS feeds in to deep back links

Here is my list of top syndication services, that provide real backlinks to individual posts, in alphabetical order. Each is accompanied by a brief note.

Certain types of syndication services have been moved into separate sections further down the page.

  • DayTimeNews.com
    No registration required, just an email address.
  • FeedAgg.com New
    Each feed gets its own page, but it's worthwhile signing up and bookmarking the ones you submit so that you can find them again. Also remember to tag your feeds, and add any relevant 'lenses'.
  • FeedCat.net
    This has the look and feel of FeedBurner, and gives you some very nices stats about readership, etc. They will ask you to install a widget on your blog, and warn that your submission may be deleted if you don't.
  • Feedest.com
    Requires registration. Once you've submitted your feeds, remember to tag them!
  • JordoMedia.com
    This moderated directory of feeds requires no registration. Really high quality feeds may get picked as the Editor's Pick of the Day.
  • Jumptags.com New
    This is technically a social bookmarking site, and links are usually nofollow. However, you can also submit RSS Feeds which will be presented on their own pages with dofollow links. You'll need to manually make them public after submitting.
  • RSS-Feeds-Submission.com
    This is a simple directory of RSS feeds, categorised by subject, and with a full preview of the feed. Requires backlink from your blog before submission.
  • syndic8.com
    Requires registration. Theoretically, none of the feed pages should be parsed by search engines, but I have seen Google count them as backlinks.
  • Technorati.com
    One of the biggest and well known blog directories. Every feed gets its own page, can be tagged and has dofollow links.
  • Zimbio.com New
    A little different from the others, Zimbio will take each of your posts and create an article from them, and then add them to a 'webzine'. You should periodically login and check that they have been submitted to the right ones.

Life Stream Syndication

A life stream is an aggregation of your activities from all your various social networking sites, including bookmarks, pictures, tweets and blog posts. While not specifically designed for syndicating your feeds, many of them will accept RSS and republish any new items.

Another important feature of these services is the social aspect - connect with your friends, and your items will be shared with them. Many of them also have groups or communities that you can join. More sources of back links, and potentially some traffic too.

  • BlogCatalog.com nofollow
    Each of the feeds you add to your profile will get their own page, but the backlinks are nofollow. Requires link to them from your blog.
  • Bumpzee.com
    This will show the most popular entries for each of your blogs, but only if you install their widget on them.
  • FriendFeed.com nofollow
    New items appear on your profile page when they are published, and your friends will also see them in their streams. You could treat this as an aggregation service, and syndicate the feed elsewhere.
  • MyBlogLog.com
    Owned by Yahoo! this service will create a page for each feed you submit. This site makes good use of tags.

Feed Aggregation Services

Feed aggregation is about combining feeds together to create a new super-feed as well as crawlable webpages based on your posts. You can also submit these new feeds to other syndication services for even more exposure.

  • FeedJumbler.com
    Another service that merges RSS feeds. Provides multiple formats, including Javascript for embedding in other pages. No Registration.
  • FeedRaider.com New
    pending review
  • RSSMix.com
    Specify multiple RSS feeds, and it collects the items into a single HTML page. The page you create will be blank to start with, but it will build up over time. No registration required. Helps if you bookmark the feeds you create so that search engines discover them.
  • Yahoo! Pipes New
    Yahoo! Pipes is a very sophisticated system for manipulating RSS Feeds. One of the easier things you can do with it is merge several feeds into a single one.

    To learn more, visit my Guide to Yahoo Pipes.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

More Ways To Get Links

There are many important strategies to link bulding - RSS Syndication is just one of them. Here are some more:

RSS directories to submit your feed to
A list of RSS directories that allow RSS feeds to be submitted to them, sorted by Google PageRank.
Free SEO friendly directories
These directories are 100%: SEO friendly, free, non-redirect, non-reciprocal and general. If you are looking for getting backlinks, free and on good web pages, this is the right place!
How To Get One-Way Backlinks
When you have just created new website, you will want to attract people to visit it. One of the most important tasks for any webmaster is to build up the number of links to the site from other websites.
Text Link Ads - Smart Link Marketing
New to link buying? Text Link Ads is the perfect tool for any linking campaign, and they've put together a $100 starter kit that will help you hit the ground running.
Text Link Ads

Text Links for Sale

on eBay

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Services Pending Confirmation

These remaining sites will theoretically appear in search results, but my test pages haven't been indexed by Google yet:

More RSS Feeds

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RSS 2 HTML Scripts

There is a service from www.rss2html.com will turn any RSS feed into a webpage. Theoretically, all you need to so is create a link to it, and once it's been spidered you'll have another set of deep back links. Social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Yahoo My Web are both excellent for this.

There are dozens of site that use this script, all of which can be used for this, if you can find them. You can even download the script for your own website from www.feedforall.com.

However, tests I've done so far haven't shown this technique to be effective yet. Search engines just seem to avoid them...

Comments

If you know of an RSS Syndication service, then please let me know and I will add it to the list. Or, if you have any questions about this, then you can post those here too.

  • crazy_anna May 14, 2012 @ 9:48 pm | delete
    omg you just made rss and backlinking so much simpler for me. amazing lens with very pertinent information and amazing tips <3
  • carolm456 Mar 17, 2012 @ 3:00 am | delete
    I think I understand RSS now, but notice you don't list feedburner - is there a reason for that? I'm wondering, because Feedburner seems to be the rss that is most often recommended.
  • webdesigndublin Feb 18, 2012 @ 4:44 am | delete
    Great lens to tap into the power of rss
  • akarki Nov 25, 2011 @ 3:17 pm | delete
    i start to understand the rss phenomenon, maybe soon i will be able to use it.thanks for leading me there...
  • JoeSteinbeck Sep 6, 2011 @ 11:43 am | delete
    I don't use RSS feeds very often, but they could be more useful than I thought
  • gypsyman27 Jul 20, 2011 @ 10:31 am | delete
    Good lens for getting to know RSS Syndication, there is a lot of information to sift through however and an example would help. Or is that possible? See you around the galaxy...
  • Cumberland Jul 7, 2011 @ 7:28 am | delete
    Another useful lens. Thank you.
  • BizTycoon Jun 15, 2011 @ 8:22 pm | delete
    I completely appreciate your insight. I had never considered the RSS feed as a way to acquire links. Bravo!
  • Psycho-Gamer Jun 9, 2011 @ 3:50 am | delete
    This is FREAKING AWESOOOOMMEE
    its been a pain in the ass to drive free traffic to my lenses...i hope this will wotk
  • TonyGaylord Apr 29, 2011 @ 2:12 pm | delete
    RSS backlinks are great if you know how to do it right. Personally building deep backlinks is a good start for getting free organic traffic for search engines. Great lens BTW! What is backlinking
  • greencurator Mar 14, 2011 @ 11:12 am | delete
    Rss is a convenient way to reach our readers and vice versa. Thank you for sharing your directory of reliable rss directory.
  • BuyBestNiche Feb 28, 2011 @ 2:17 pm | delete
    Thanks for this. I was looking for RSS feeds submition service, Really great, I've bookmarked and favorite this lens. So I can check it back later. Will come back to submit RSS feeds to all of these directories. This actually exactly what I was looking for. This was very helpful.
  • lravidlearner Feb 14, 2011 @ 12:52 pm | delete
    Very helpful list of RSS syndication services. Blessed by a Squid Angel ~
  • Bea_Gabrielle Jan 30, 2011 @ 9:18 am | delete
    Thanks for this. I've bookmarked your lens so I can check it back later.
  • JeremiahStanghini Jan 26, 2011 @ 2:25 am | delete
    Well executed lens! I've bookmarked it and will come back in the morning, so I can go and submit RSS feeds to all of these directories. :-)

    With Love and Gratitude,

    Jeremiah
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thefluffanutta

I write about what I know, and I build tools for Lensmasters at SquidUtils.com. Read more about me on my Lensography, and follow me on twitter. more »

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