RSS feeds?

[kcheung]

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Forgive me for my naivety. I was just wondering what the impact of having several RSS feeds on your site would be? I'm guessing that because its not unique, this would be bad for your site, but then if you had several, you'd be an amagamater, with loads of content, even if its not yours. So would having feeds on your site be a good or bad thing?

[Stellar]

I'm wondering this myself..

anyone?

I'm thinking that as time goes on, Google etc are getting better at finding duplicate content. So even though a page would have content from multiple sources, they would soon figure out that is aggregation and not unique, I'm guessing. Or maybe not?

[kingoftherodeo]

Im also wondering this....

[Aspire]

I've actually got a site which is just an aggregator of a number of news feeds, which seems to do ok in the SERPS.

Doesn't make money worth mentioning, but I think I know the reason for that...

[getvisible]

I think its important to move away from the thought of duplicate content and onto the the thought of both the SEO and user benefit of refering your visitors to useful resources.

Google understands that RSS feeds are in operation and that they'd be transported around the internet. Having 50-100 words of copy referencing the source will do you no harm whatsoever.



p.s. Ken message me when you're around Tuesday .

[kcheung]

I guess the benefit of having a load of RSS feeds would be the link it gives to the provider of the RSS feed rather than to the aggregated site, i.e. the site that provides the RSS would rank higher than the site with the RSS feed, is this true?


Lee, are you flirting with me :P

[jezaff]

yeah i agree, from what ive read on googles official blogs they dont actively apply a penalty simply because they seem some duplicate content (although many seem to say this happens from their experience so god knows!). Google are interested in ensuring the sites they show arent just the same stuff repeated over and over so they try to ensure only the "right" site is shown.

From a user point of view, Id still want a page of original content with an RSS feed at the side to show up in my search. Remember google is there to provide good results to users and the people who make these decisions will be putting themselves into the position of the user. The impression I get from reading the official output is that they dont just arbitarily right off sites if they might be of use to people.

[getvisible]

Lee, are you flirting with me :P

You're my second choice but don't be too upset.

I guess the benefit of having a load of RSS feeds would be the link it gives to the provider of the RSS feed rather than to the aggregated site, i.e. the site that provides the RSS would rank higher than the site with the RSS feed, is this true?

Nah - you'll get benefit by association. Google will like you linking out to relevant sources.

Also you don't get anything for free. If you're using someone's content in a feed then its only polite to 'donate' some link love.

[Stellar]

this is an interesting thread.

the one thing that I keep thinking though is that if Google think an aggregator site ends up competiting with Google news, then they won't like it.