The format for the site submission has changed in the free Yahoo web submissions http://submit.search.yahoo.com/free/request . At first it allowed you to submit your site to it using the free submission form. This was normally the home page, and you would hope that their spider would crawl the rest of your website from there. Some webmasters have found this inadequate and have submitted other pages that Yahoo failed to notice otherwise.

More recently Yahoo allowed you to put in a text document with a list of URL’s to simplify the submission process.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Yahoo also allows RSS feeds of your website, Atom feeds, or a text listing of urls in this submission form. What does this mean? What will Yahoo do with the links in the RSS feed?

The text list of URL’s was obviously an effort to simplify the process for Yahoo to find all the pages in a website, as their documentation describes. But the RSS? Will they just add this to their database of RSS feeds for RSS searches, or will they follow the links with their spider to evaluate all the pages listed?

I have been working with Google Sitemaps since they came out. (Google uses their XML-formatted Google Sitemaps to help discover all the pages in a website, as well as to evaluate what pages have changed recently.) I am wondering if this is Yahoo’s response to the Google Site Maps. Does anyone know?

If I was them, then I would use RSS feeds to evaluate changes in the website. This has more information than the list of URL’s, since it also has descriptions and date changed. They have all the right information. If this is the case, it would be advisable for webmasters to have a RSS feed for their whole site to submit. That way Yahoo could just check the feed and know what pages to re-crawl, or what pages have been added.

It could be just as possible that this is just a field for us to submit RSS feeds, in addition to the other pages in your website. If this is the case, then we may need to submit both the feed and the home page of the website.

For myself, unless I find out differently, I am going to submit both. I intend on having a Google Sitemap and a RSS feed on all my future websites. I think it is safest to help out the search engines in any way possible. If they want information on what files have changed, I want to be proactive in giving it to them.

In addition, for those who have the coding experties, it is advisable to automate pinging Yahoo when your RSS feed changes. This is a standard blogging technique.

If you use movable type, the following article will help you configure your Yahoo to be automatically notified of a change in your RSS feed: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001490.html . There is an alternate way, for those who dont use movable type or standard blogs. Lets say you want Yahoo to know about the RSS feed for http://www.yourwebsiteurl.com and have the RSS file, myRss.xml. You could automate (or even use a web shortcut) to make the following HTTP request: http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping?u=http://www.yourwebsiteurl.com/myRss.xml

For more information, see the official Yahoo documention on RSS here: http://publisher.yahoo.com/rssguide

I have a quick question to ask you… “do you know How-To set up your own BLOG and RSS Feed so you Too can take advantage of all the benefits Blogs and RSS(Real Simple Syndication) have to offer you and your business?” If you answered NO, your not alone. I didn’t either at one time, but that didn’t stop me from finding out How-To on my own. So basically, what I’m trying to say is by the time you finish reading this article you’ll be a master at setting up your own Blogs and RSS Feeds in a matter of minutes by simply following my simple ‘Step-by-Step’ instructions below. With that said, Buckle Up, put your thinking cap on, grab yourself a beverage and get ready to learn… “HOW-TO Set Up Your Own BLOG and RSS Feed In Less Than 5 Minutes…” Now lets go to Step #1.

Step #1. Go set-up an account with Blogger.com. This is probably the easiest part of all, which is simply setting up an Blogger.com account at http://www.blogger.com. Go there right now. It will take you to Blogger.com’s homepage. Once there, you’ll see an orange arrow pointing to the right that says…”Create Your Blog Now” … click on it. That’s Step #1.

Step #2. Creating your account with Blogger.com. If you thought Step #1 was easy than Step #2 will be a breeze. Simply select a Username and Password that you’ll remember followed by your Email Address.(You don’t have to use your primary email address, you can use a Free web-based email account like Hotmail or Yahoo! if you like. Your choice.) Then check the box that says “I accept the Terms of Service”. Now proceed by clicking on the orange arrow that says… “Continue”. That’s Step #2.

Step #3. Naming your Blog.(Very IMPORTANT!) Now, depending on what your Blog is about your going to want to use your target ‘Keywords’ within the name of your Blog, its description and the URL. And there’s a good reason for this simply because this is what the Search Engine spiders are going to see first. They’ll first see them within your Blog name which is at the top of your Blog that your visitors see, they’ll see them within your description of your Blog and then they’ll see them within your Blog URL that you choose.

Why is this so important? By using your ‘Target Keywords’ within those areas I just outlined, thats what the SE’s will use to index your Blog under so when someone does a search for those target keywords, guess whose Blog will pop-up within the results depending on your competition? That’s right, yours! The SE’s will also use those area’s I outlined for your SE listing within there results index. Here’s an example for a quick ‘Case-Study’ for you.

This is one of my Blogs I have. Go to: http://internet-marketing-tactics.blogspot.com You’ll notice my Blog title, description and URL all have the ‘Keyword Phrase’… Internet Marketing Tactic. To take this a step further, I want you to go visit these search engines MSN, Yahoo! and AlltheWeb and type in “internet marketing tactics” within there search boxes so you can see where my Blog sits within those SE’s so you can see the importance of having your Target keywords within those area’s I mentioned earlier. MSN ,Yahoo!, AlltheWeb. In the MSN SE results my Blog is #1 for that keyword phrase, in Yahoo! I’m #11(not bad) and in AlltheWeb I’m #18. Of course these positions will very in time but just as long as you get the point of why you need to use your target keywords within those 3 areas.

Lets move on. Now, your last step for Step #3 is to simply type in the ‘Verification Code’. Once you’ve done that, click on the orange arrow below that says… “Continue”.

Step #4. Choosing your template. If everything went well in Step #3 and that Blog name you chose isn’t taken you should be looking at a bunch of Blog templates Blogger.com offers. Simply select the one you like most and then click “Continue”. CONGRATULATIONS! You just created your first Blog and completed Step #4. You should now be looking at an orange arrow that says… “Start Posting”. Click on it and it’ll take you to where you can start posting whatever it is you want. Now that you have set-up your Blog your probably wondering… “where does RSS fit into this formula?”

Step #5. Locating your RSS Feed URL. What can I say, I always leave the Best for last. Assuming your still within the Blogger.com ‘Posting’ area you’ll notice a bunch of tabs at the top labelled, Posting, Settings, Template and View Blog. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab. This will take you to a sub-menu with a bunch of other options. Out of all those options click on the one that says… “Site Feed”. And there it is. It should look something like this: http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml This is the URL you’ll want to use to promote your RSS Feed with to the RSS search engines and directories so that everytime you make a post, the RSS SE’s and directories will be ‘Automatically’ notified and updated with your latest information bringing your Blog more exposure to your target audience.

Now that you are armed with this information that I just revealed to you, you should have no problem setting up and getting the MOST out of your Blogs and RSS Feeds.

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