Blogspot On-page SEO Part 2: Why You Should Ditch The Blogspot Default Feed

Aim: Explaining why the Blogspot built-in feed system is rubbish and how to replace it with a better alternative such as FeedBurner

This is the second part of the Blogspot On-page SEO series. In part one of the series I talked about the importance of including H1 and H2 tags into your posts; something the Blogspot platform misses out on (the post can be found here in its entirety). In the second part of the on-page SEO series I'm going to explain why the default built-in feed Blogspot offers is rubbish and why ditching it for a better feed service such as FeedBurner (for free) is much better for your SEO and subscribers.

A feed is a stripped down version of a blog which is rendered by a news aggregator such as FeedBurner (using XML or RSS code). In essence, a feed is used as a means of delivering regularly changing blog content to an active visitor, keeping them in the communication loop. So why is a feed so good?

• It provides fresh information to visitors (who subscribe), encouraging their return.

• It alerts visitors with new content as an alternative means to email and newsletter.

• Provides another form of content delivery in addition to the blog itself.

• Allows syndication of content from your blog to another blog (with your permission of course!). All content syndication means is that a particular post you've made can be posted on another users blog if they so wish. A link is usually situated at the bottom of the post crediting the original blog, which in this case would be yours.

• Can help with SEO and your ranking in search engines when using unique, original content you've made yourself.

So you might be asking, what is FeedBurner and what more does it have to offer than its equivalent counter-part the Blogspot default feed?

FeedBurner is a web feed management provider launched in early 2004 by a bunch of guys from Michigan University. FeedBurner provides custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, pod-casters and other web based content publishers. The beneficial services is has to offer are many including traffic analysis, automatic email responders for subscribers and an optional advertising system where you are able to implement Adsense for extra money. It was taken over by Google in 2007 and now an entity that they own.

You can access your particular blog feed using this URL template, changing the section underlined to your own specific Blogspot URL:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml

What do you think? I found it to be very messy, bland and not something I would like to read an article from. This is what you call clean code or a stripped down version of your blog page. By using FeedBurner you could potentially have a feed looking like this:

Here is how you can create your own FeedBurner feed for free and add it to an existing Blogspot blog:

1) Navigate to www.feedburner.com and log-in using your Blogspot (or Gmail) email and password. If your having trouble, you can always register a new account as it doesn't really matter.

2) There should be a box asking you to enter a blog or feed address in the corresponding input box just below. I always use the following format when making a new feed http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml but I now believe they also except your normal blog URL also.

3) Now that you have created your new feed, navigate to the 'Blogspot Dashboard' and then go to 'Settings;->'Site Feed'. In the input box labelled 'Post Feed Redirect URL' copy and paste your newly made FeedBurner feed.

4) You should now have a fully working FeedBurner feed implemented on your Blogspot blog, congratulations!

This is unfortunately the end of the Blogspot On-page SEO Part II workshop, I hope you have found this article very helpful. If you have any questions or problems please post them in the comments area; I will try my hardest to answer any of your comments and get back to you. Please subscribe to Blogspot SEO via feed or add us to your Google Friend Connect.

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