Feed Optimisation and Analysis via Feedburner
Everyone talks about optimising a webpage but for those that have blogs it is important that the blog feeds also be optimised. Remember that RSS feeds are not just blog subscribers but can also be a venue for the generation of new traffic. When a blog feed is properly optimised it can actually aid in the promotion of the blog/site.
One of the easiest ways to optimise a feed is by using Feedburner. To optimise the feed all you need to do is click on the “Optimize” tab and then click on the applicable service. The two most important services for basic feed optimisation are the SmartFeed and the BrowserFriendly services.
- SmartFeed - SmartFeed is simply a service offered by Feedburner that allows automatic translation of your feed into whatever format (whether RSS or Atom) your potential subscriber’s feed reader uses. Without this you will be alienating visitors that do not use the same feed format as you. The great thing about this is that you also do not need to figure anything out since all you need to do is click on the ACTIVATE button to active the service.
- BrowserFriendly - As the name suggests activating this service makes your feed more browser friendly. Raw XML feeds can be viewed in most browsers but they look ugly. When using this service Feedburner will automatically format your feed layout to make it easier to read as well as look more consistent.
Note that there are other optimisation services such as FeedFlare (for interactivity), SmartCast (for podcasters), splicers, and various burners.
When it comes to feed analysis, very important to see how well your blog is doing in terms of subscription as well as live visitors (I wonder when Feedburner and Google Analytics will be integrated…if they will be integrated), it make sure that make sure that you properly embed the Feedburner feed URL on your main page to replace the blog’s default RSS/Atom feed so that browsers with feed discovery will discovery the Feedburner feed. This is important so that all readers will subscribe only to the Feedburner feed and thus result in greater accuracy of data gathered by Feedburner to be used for your feed analysis (see “Analyze” tab).
By the way if you love Feedburner you can get a Feedburner sticker by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to:
Google
c/o I Want A FeedBurner Sticker!
20 West Kinzie Street
9th floor
Chicago, IL 60610
USA
If I’m not mistaken stocks are still limited so send you envelopes now. I just saw the tip again the other day so they must have re-stocked. Sending my envelope tomorrow!
Popularity: 31%
I have one of these stickers and I was very disappointed when it arrived and did not contain my number of subscriber.