Can Syndicated RSS Content Improve Search Engine Rankings?

About RSS-Feeds and Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) · Index · Part 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · Expand · Web Feed

Will fresh content pulled from RSS feeds improve your search engine ranking?

1. No, at least not significantly. RSS content is duplicate content by definition. Every text snippet imported from RSS feeds can be found on other web sites too. Chances are other sites carrying the same RSS content will almost always outrank you. Optimizing on-page factors is pretty tricky, if the page is dynamic (pulling its content from RSS feeds).

However, you will see some traffic from search engine users using keywords or quoted phrases found in RSS feeds you've syndicated. Most RSS feeds phase out older content, and your page reflects these changes, if you don't cache the RSS feeds forever. So most probably a (scanning) search engine user landing on your page will not find the content s/he is interested in. You'll find those visits summarized in the '0s-30s' column of your 'visits duration' stats.

Dilution of keyword density is another factor you must take into account. Simplified, search engines determine a page's topic by keywords (along with other on-the-page factors) and weighted inbound links (off-the-page factors). If you don't publish filtered content from various RSS feeds to balance a page's keyword density, your pages lose their initial topic sooner or later, which makes the efforts put into optimizing of off-the-page factors obsolete.

2. Yes, but indirectly and not to a great degree. If your site provides an outstanding surfing experience to your visitors, and fresh on-topic news pulled from carefully selected RSS feeds do improve a site's value, some of your recurring visitors will link to your site. Non-reciprocal inbound links do help with search engine ranking. Almost unknown, visitors bookmarking your pages can improve search engine rankings too (example).

Duplicate Content Filtering and Search Engine Penalties