The Importance of Blogs to Get Prospective Visitors and Better Ranking

August 29th, 2010 by admin No comments »

Blogs are definitely the notable gifts of the rapidly evolving Internet world in the last decade. Always dubbed as the online journal, blogs or web logs are the most effective platform for people to post entries regarding their personal accounts, interests, and views in a chronological order. Their effectiveness has gone beyond that in recent times with the growing popularity of search engine marketing. Web logs as the website content management systems are now equipped with the most sophisticated features like comments, trackbacks, sharing with social networking websites, RSS feeds, etc.

Since search engines adopt the approach of indexing, categorizing and ranking a web page, blogs with keyword-rich and original content can hold a significant position in a particular search engine optimization campaign. Having a blog for your company can be beneficial to attract potential customers in the form of frequent readers. It gives your business a personalized space over the Internet. However, sincere and smart efforts are the prerequisite elements to capitalize on the potency of web logs.

When you’re owner of a blog, following are the search engine optimization benefits that you can enjoy.

Well-Organized Content: The majority of the web log software applications come equipped with the ‘category’ feature that facilitates the task of grouping posts in accordance with themes. The categorization of various blog posts can not only help your readers to find their desired information easily but also the search engines that interpret and index your content effortlessly. As a result, a better ranking on those topics is very much likely in your case.

Search Engine Friendly URLs: Almost all blogging service providers offer clutter-free and search engine friendly uniform resource locators (URLs), thereby making the task easier for search engine robots to locate and crawl your posts.

RSS Feeds: The presence of web feed formats like RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can help you to distribute to your blog posts to a larger customer base and enhance your link popularity as well. This web publishing tool is equally effective in disseminating audio and video content in addition to text. Having the RSS feeds can enable your users to receive updated content from the web log automatically. There is also additional benefit in the form of RSS search engines that will regularly include your web log content.

New & Updated Content: Everybody loves freshness. Content is not an exception. Frequently updated information on your web log will be favorably received by both search engines and readers, resulting in recurrent visits. It also stamps the authority of your website.

Building of Strong Community: A blog can pave the way for an effective interaction among like-minded individuals through ‘comments’ and ‘trackback’ features. Consequently, a strong user community can be established. Loyal members of this community can also lend a helping hand in publicizing your blog as well as website on other web logs, forums, and social networking websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

Plenty of Widgets: Nowadays, blogging software is filled with many useful widgets and plug-ins that make sharing info with other online platforms easier. All these features can boost the number of inbound links as well as traffic. You can see numerous social news and social media sites receive a major chunk of content from blogs.

If you’re yet to fully utilize the potential of blogs in the promotion of your online business, it is high time you resorted to it. Happy blogging!!!   

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Google Analytics – The Popular Tool to Track Website Visitors & Plan Strategies Accordingly

August 28th, 2010 by admin No comments »

Webmasters and Internet marketers alike need to monitor their website traffic closely in order to manage and position the site features, products or services accordingly. An in-depth analysis of site traffic is necessary for effective planning and implementation of strategies to accomplish desired business objectives. There are numerous website analytics tools available on the cyberspace.  But, Google Analytics rules the roost because of its simple user interface, free availability, brand support and numerous sophisticated features. Some of these powerful features of Google Analytics include:

With Google Analytics tool used for your website, you can easily track your site traffic and events. You can actually track your traffic in terms of a wide array of parameters such as total visits, unique visits, time spent on website, page views, average page views, visitor loyalty, bounce rate, etc. This is not all. Some additional and valuable information is also provided in the form of types of operating systems and browsers used by visitors, their depth of visit, screen colors and screen resolutions used by them, network configurations and many others. Various events recorded by the tool include videos, music and flash players, and downloadable files.

Another masterful feature of Google Analytics is its ability to provide data on traffic sources, i.e. the origin used by a particular visitor to enter your website. Various sources may take the form of organic searches from search engines, sponsored listings, direct visits and banner advertisements.

This popular tool also offers content on the landing pages where your visitors get into the site for the first time. These pages may be the home page or any other internal pages. Similarly, exit pages used by visitors to leave the website are also tracked. Other helpful contents consist of summary on site navigation and pages with the highest visits. You’ll also find an increase in return on investment (ROI) being monitored by the tool. Tracking of your goals is possible as well. Just specify the particular areas of improvement for the online business and get reports on their progress.

Google Analytics is well-known for the generation of customized reports quickly in 5 different formats. Simply search the desired information and send it to your clients in no time. This specific feature comes in handy for internet marketers. If you seek to follow the activities of the visitors for some particular areas of your website, then there is the advance segment to server your purpose.

Yet Another advance feature is the presence of filters that purify and tailor-make data to deliver precise results. Make use of any of the two forms of filters, namely predefined and customized.

Google Analytics allows owners of newfangled as well as existing websites to create multiple profiles. However, there is limitation on the number of goals in each profile. If you have many goals, it would be advisable to opt for new profiles. The tool also supports XML, PDF, TSV, and CSV for MS Excel formats to enable data export. It is possible to straightway mail the reports in the given formats by means of this web analytics application.

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Telling Impact of Social Networking on Current Online Business Scenario

August 27th, 2010 by admin No comments »

The identity of business and its various stakeholders has undergone not one or two, but several noteworthy transformations in the last decade due to the constant evolution of the Internet and web technologies. Gone are the days when companies were exclusively relying upon brick and mortar businesses. If you own a company, but don’t have a website, you’re missing out on the boundless potential of additional sales and marketing channel. Online mode of running business has reached such a height that was unimaginable a few years back. Innumerable websites are nowadays selling everything – ideas, information, leads, products and services. So, if you’re setting up a new online business or already have one, you should know how to make the most of it.

Like any form of business, on-line business feels the necessity of a well-planned advertising and promotional campaign to attract potential customers to your offerings. You can undertake a campaign in many different ways. However, no campaign will taste success without considerable attention to social networking websites that witness enough users to surpass the population of many countries. What is the specialty in them?

Online social networking websites are innovative web-based services that allow individuals to find friends and maintain relationships with them through the sharing and talking of common interests, views and beliefs. Though their number is increasing every year, the most prominent websites that can leave a lasting, positive impact in your online business include Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn, PhotoBucket, Digg, StumbleUpon, Orkut, Yahoo and blogging sites like wordpress.com and livejournal.com.

The recent findings of a survey of more than 1,500 executives establish that companies having a good presence on these networking sites become 25 percent more innovative than companies with a zero presence. Online networks can assist you in employing the right people, formulating the right strategy to promote your products or service, and targeting the right customer base. In addition, the telling impacts can be felt in business areas like research and development, operations, sales, marketing and customer service.

Online social networking sites can help you to:

- Monitor and understand the range and effect of your brand

- Know what your targeted customers desire and plan your actions accordingly

- Come up with creative business ideas by sharing them with like-minded community members

- Have good recommendations from users regarding your new product features

- Garner votes of user communities on new features so as to assist you in further development of products or services

- Promote and talk about your offerings through your own blogs

- Involve in a comprehensive online discussion with your customers

- Foster relationships between your company’s products and their users

- Launch cheap and effective viral marketing through videos on user-generated websites

- Recognize loyal customers who add other fellow members into your group or community

- Create company events to get maximum publicity

- Provide excellent customer support through support forums where customers can resolve their own problems by interacting with other customers online

So, enhance the visibility of your website on social networking websites and experience a rapid promotion of your products or services with a very little investment. Your business is sure to prosper from on-line networks.

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SEO and Web Development Go Hand in Hand for Overall Success

August 27th, 2010 by admin No comments »

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has forayed into the world of web development with astounding success. It has carved its own niche with a growing number of SEO experts who make websites search engine friendly through innovative online promotional techniques. As various factors on the site itself determine the success of your optimization campaign, you must pay careful consideration to the process of web development. After all, search engine optimization and website development are dependent on each other.

While developing your website, you must write authentic code. Irrespective of what language you use for coding (HTML, XHTML, or any other language), make sure that it fully complies with the existing standards. Therefore, it is highly recommended to test your website on the W3C Validator (http://validator.w3.org/). This website is very simple to use. Just enter your website’s Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) in the box and find a list of errors on the site.

Never forget to incorporate the <title> tag on each and every web page. The title must always be in the active voice instead of the passive one. So, make use of the subject on front and center only.

Your homepage must have a Meta Description tag incorporated in the following manner: <meta name=”description” content=”a short site description”>. There are also many other Meta tags such as keywords, author, rating, etc. But, they are not so useful due to their over-copiousness. The Meta Description is what really matters from search engine viewpoints since it comes out as your site description in their search results.

Make optimum utilization of various HTML tags for their actual intent. For instance, never generate headings simply by enlarging the fonts of a paragraph. There are <h1> and <h2> headings tags for this purpose. Making use of the original tags can help the search engine robots to interpret the site’s content in the desired manner.

The use of frames in web development is not highly favored by search engine robots. Hence, steer clear of them altogether. Similarly, never use images and graphics for headings. However, you can still use images for other purposes only after specifying an ALT tag for each one of them. As some browsers don’t support all the image formats, the presence of ALT tags with the alternate text can help visitors to identify the images in case of their invisibility, i.e. some text is displayed in place of the invisible image. Images having ALT tags are also indexed by search engines quicker than those with no tags.

Your website URLs must be search engine friendly too. Always use words instead of digits to describe the path to inner pages. For instance, http://www.websiteexample.com/?topic=234&id=5 is not as good as http://www.websiteexample.com/services/seo-services. Dashes must take the place of underscores all the time. You have to edit your site’s .htaccess file to change the structure of URL.

An outdated content and design of your website can drive away potential visitors as well as search engine spiders. Therefore, keep the site up-to-date at all times. Though this task seems to be the toughest one, it is the most vital aspect as well to ensure repeated customers and spiders.

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HTTP Error 404 and 301 – Tips to Understand These Status Codes

August 27th, 2010 by admin 1 comment »

As an Internet-savvy individual, you might have come across HTTP error 404 and 301 very often while requesting a web page. Have you tried to understand the reason behind such errors? If no, this article will help you get a complete understanding of them. We’ll also learn how to fix them for good.

HTTP 404 Meaning

An error 404 is one of the numerous Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) status codes like 100, 101, 200, 201, 202, 301, 401, etc. It takes place when an Internet user requests a web page that does not exist. As a result, the user receives the “404 Not Found” or “Page Cannot Be Found” message. Explaining HTTP status codes, these are used to offer information pertaining to the position of a request made to the server. The code for displaying any normal web page is 200, but you don’t see it.

Here, the question arises why this specific “404” is used. To your surprise, each digit of the 404 bears a particular meaning. The beginning ‘4’ points to an error on the client side, such as a wrongly spelt out uniform resource locator or URL. The ‘0’ in the middle signifies a syntax error and the last ‘4’ belongs to the class of 40x indicating a particular fault.

HTTP 404 Fixing

The prevention of 404 is quite straightforward. Simply analyze the error log files present on the server of website. These logs can make your task easier by providing the problematic documents that are bringing forth the fault. In the majority of instances, an incorrectly spelt URL or a broken link causes this problem.

As the error 404 can drive away visitors, many webmasters go for the idea of making the proper use of this page and customize it to guide visitors to the home page or other important web pages.

HTTP 301 Meaning

On the other hand, the error 301 takes place when the requested web page has been permanently moved to a new URL. So, you will be promptly redirected to that new location after the display of “301 Moved Permanently” message. This HTTP status code should be mentioned with the location header.

According to RFC 2616, clients having link-editing abilities must renew all the references to the requested URL. The response is cacheable unless specified differently. Except when the response method was HEAD, the entity must comprise a brief hypertext note to the novel URL(s). If a request is of any kind except GET or HEAD and the 301 code is displayed as a result of this request, the permission of the user must be sought by the client system before redirecting the page. The use of HTTP 301 is helpful from the search engine standpoint as Google will assign the PageRank of the old page to the new one if it comes across this status code.

HTTP 301 Fixing

As far as fixing this error is concerned, your server must respond to it by including an alternate URL for proper redirection of the page. If the server is unable to return an alternative URL in response to the code, you’ll understand that either the software of the web server is faulty or the redirection of the web page is not done accurately by the webmaster.

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Google Maps Boosts Your Local Traffic By Giving You Profuse Local Leads

June 24th, 2010 by admin 2 comments »

With the World Wide Web jostling to get into virtually every home on the face of this earth, business proprietors have already started exploiting the web for maximal exposure. In the quest to reach utmost number of prospective customers, business owners are keeping no stone unturned to get their trade detected online. In this context, Google Maps are also utilized to its maximum potential.

Splurging in Google Maps activity will surely bring your site much needed attention and other business profits. Google map is essentially a web mapping service application which is provided by Google Inc. for free and is known to influence numerous map based services. It can be thought of as a way of administering or supervising the whole planet’s data geographically. Registering in Google Maps require you to fill in all the required segments with keyword rich descriptions and other details pertaining to your business such as images, services, payment procedures, opening hours, etc.

It is imperative to make sure that your descriptions are not overloaded with keywords as it will give an appearance of spam to Google. Even though no business enjoys monotony in this cut throat competitive world; folks have to sweat it out if their industry is a highly competitive one. A worthy secret behind improvised rank on Google Maps is the testimonials and reviews that contented clients write for the listing. Also make sure that you list yourself with the local directories; this elevates the strength of your profile.

Prior to the popularity of Google Maps, people used to concentrate only on Search Engine optimization. But with the spotlight on Local business search brightening, the same people have realized the significance of optimized use of Google Maps. Google Maps utilize a technology wherein they capture the IP address of a customer who is searching for a local business and show it the nearest business locations. People who think that since their business is not an online one, Google Maps can not help them. Nevertheless, this is entirely a sham as folks now days exploit Google Maps to stumble upon businesses nearer to their location despite the consequences of the trade being an online or an offline one. The foremost step for business entities is to set up their own website and optimize it aptly. This assists in enlarging of their online presence and their businesses getting escalated exposure.

Google Maps permits web visitors to scrutinize various maps such as traffic, simple map, terrain map or satellite map. With Google maps, you can virtually search for anything on the face of this earth, find local hot spots, review businesses, find alluring properties in the market and you can also edit any location you see. People are turning to the World Wide Web for everything; ranging from finding baby sitters to 3D architects. This is the best feasible way to get instantaneous local leads which will see your business bloom. It is imperative to follow recommendations put forward by Google such as removing duplicate listings, etc.

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The Significance of Video Promotions and How to Make Them More Effectual

June 24th, 2010 by admin No comments »

In this era of fast paced lives, avant-garde gadgets and the almighty World Wide Web, it has become virtually impossible to live without the assistance of internet in our day to day lives. In this context, more and more businesses are joining the web bandwagon to acquire maximal exposure and attention. This deed is best handled by internet marketers or search engine optimization experts. They are really capable of driving long term quality traffic to their client’s website.

We have always known that visuals and displays are more appealing than written contents.  Thus, in this scenario marketing websites with the help of video promotions has made a concrete effect in reaching out to prospective customers. The impacts of video promotions are deep rooted and lasting as

  • A majority of the folks take pleasure in watching something rather than reading it.
  • Information is perceived swiftly when in visual form rather than when it is in text form.
  • Since nobody wants to waste time, everybody loves visuals which are straight to the point.
  • Human emotions are stirred by catchy video promotions with a bright concept.
  • Videos intermingles illustrations, voice over and music to produce a concord message which is short, effective and straight.

Let us discuss some trouble-free techniques and methods which should be applied to video promotions to make it more effective and appealing; not to mention more ROI!

  • Time is an important factor as a lag of few seconds can also divert a potential customer to other site. It must be remembered that the video should be simple, short and straight.
  • According to a recent survey folks decide whether they are for or against your product in the very first seconds of the video. So the benefits of your products and services should be presented in a flash.
  • It is also imperative to choose the fonts and sizes of text involved in the video promotion.
  • Undoubtedly videos should be catchy and appealing but should also communicate a clear message to the viewer. Very complicated and flashy graphics can move the viewer’s attention away from the main motive.
  • Submit it to different video hosting sites such as Youtube or metacafe.
  • Remember to name the video in concord with keyword relevancy.
  • Always bring into play anchor text if you are linking the video from another site.
  • It is clever to  fashion a Google video site map.
  • Sharing your video online on social networking sites like face book, twitter, orkut, myspace, etc. This will encompass large number of masses linking to your video.
  • It is imperative to proffer your contact details at the end of the video.
  • You can also use video submission software which keeps tab of reviews, comments, etc.

The significance of video promotions can be effectively gauged from the recognition earned by names such as Youtube.com, metacafe.com, dailymotion.com, vimeo.com, howcast.com, etc. Such is the craze of these sites that millions of users visit this website every hour. Amazing isn’t it!

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Implausible power of Press Release

March 17th, 2010 by admin 6 comments »

A press release is a written communication directed at the news media to announce something which is worthy of being called a news. As we all know that publicity is a cost effective marketing instrument and it builds strong credibility. There are a lot of companies which are new to the industry and in order to gain edge over their competitors they need to build their credibility through publicity. A well written, descriptive and informative press release can work wonders for your business (service or products) and can eventually lead to remarkable increase in sales and expose your company to the crowd.

Webmaster acknowledges the power press releases restrain and bestow enough importance on them. There are various issues as to how effective a press release can be. Generating vital contacts with preferred media companies will gain you an edge. The procedures involved in releasing press releases are different with different sites and one should ensure correct know how of the system. Also make sure that the media company has a gigantic human traffic on it.

Success of a press release depends on numerous factors: -

  • Sturdy and revealing headline
    It should grab attention of the readers and possess relevancy to the content
  • Well written, accurate, brief and succinct
    Proper grammar and spelling add to the professionalism. Precise facts and brief statements are loved by everyone as it does not waste time and conveys your messages directly and to the point.
  • Contact Information
    Recognition and exposure will come through truthful contact information
  • Distribution
    Distributing your release to the right audiences makes it more effective.

The various ways in which press releases benefit the concerned website are as follows:-

  • They help in rushing traffic to your website
    With added links to your website the press release is bound to get noticed and refer interested web users to your site. Persons who want more information about you or your business will definitely click on links provided inside press releases.
  • Brand Promotion
    Press releases highlight your business in more than one ways and once an individual go through your press release, he/ she will definitely like to enquire more about your business and thus your brand building process gets a high.
  • Augmented Credibility
    Trust is an important aspect when it comes to company customer relationship. With the right press release you will tickle their faith bone and they will soon realize that you are an expert in the concerned arena and will fancy you as their favorite.

There are many things which can be added to press release to make it more interesting and enjoyable. Some of them are:-

  • Offering bonuses, freebies etc
  • Discounts and sales
  • Fundraisers
  • Contests and winners
  • Achievements
  • Opening newer avenues
  • Selling niche products

The afore said things are sure to raise the credibility bar a little higher every time you make public a press release. If taken proper care, everything will fit into place and in no time you will be reigning in people’s hearts and minds. It’s high time that every business shares its success story with the public via press releases.

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Must follow tips to get High Ranking for your Websites

March 17th, 2010 by admin 5 comments »

Every single day millions of folks log into search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask etc. to get information on their preferred topic. When a user types in specific search terms, search engines display the results in the search engine result pages (SERPS). Thus it is of utmost importance for webmasters to understand and apply exact strategies so as to claim higher ranks in searches and attract organic traffic. Getting higher ranks in searches need hard work and toil. Understanding the concepts governing search engines and the way they rank a web site is utterly imperative as understanding these principles will gain you an edge and you will start dictating alcoves all over the web pouring numerous visitors to your website on a daily basis.


Following are the “must follow” tips for you if you want higher page ranking for your web site: -

  1. Distinctive page titles: page titles are like “tell-tales”. They often speak volumes about what is ought to be found inside the website. It gives the web users a rough idea about what your web pages contain and are decisive factors when it comes to search engine rankings.
  2. Evocative Keyword Links: search engines engage spiders which crawl from one page to another; following links from one page to the other, indexing contents as they go. If the links they trail include pertinent keywords and phrases, the search engine heightens it page rankings. Another important point to remember is that keywords should also be included in the site’s menu (navigation) as they are highly germane.
  3. On-page copy keywords: sprinkling keywords all over the contents of your on-page copy guarantees site’s relevance for those specific words that searchers use when they come for products or services.
  4. Clean, Accessible website design: always remember to avoid flashy designs as they take time when loading and will surely piss off many users as well as the search engine spiders. Improper HTML codes, 404 errors, chaotic and stuffed designs; contents hiding behind forms are also hindrances which might whisk away search engine’s crawlers. Standard compliant website designs should be used and proper caution should be heeded to following W3C’s accessibility guidelines while designing websites.
  5. Focused Site Topic: focusing on your niche segment is sure to pay off better than involving one self in multi faceted selection. People like experts on a topic rather than jack of all, master of none.
  6. Relevant Incoming Links: the quantity of links from other sites do hold importance but the quality of links is more important. For example links from PR-5 sites will hold greater importance than 100 PR-0 sites. Also getting a relevant link from a site with extension “.org” or “.gov” is sure to prove more valuable than links from other unreliable sites.
  7. Insert keywords on images: using keywords as name of your images rather than common “DSC000” will prove worth while as images are also indexed faster.
  8. Avoid stuffing keywords: as I said earlier sprinkle key words. There is always a difference between sprinkling and stuffing. Do not jam pack your contents with keywords in order to trick search engines.

These tips and tricks are easy to implement and will surely help you in the long run. Practice the best of ethical SEO practices and your online business will soar new heights.

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RSS and its role in Search Engine Optimization

March 17th, 2010 by admin 3 comments »

The advent of advanced technologies has seen a horde of businesses foraying into the World Wide Web. Online businesses are now deeming it important to know the basics about RSS feeds. The various aspects enveloping RSS feeds like how to add RSS feeds, RSS feed search etc have now suddenly become very vital. Irrespective of the type of online business one is into, RSS feeds should be used as a powerful tool to significantly increase your business. RSS is a web 2.0 service which is a great way to get updates in your email app. The potential of social networking has made RSS service gigantic.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. The name is very appropriate as it permits a webmaster to syndicate his/her website information across the web. It was originally developed to let news service to syndicate their content by flaunting links, article summaries and headlines to other sites. News aggregators are dedicated software which makes RSS feeds possible. It has been there for years but it grabbed eye balls recently.

RSS feeds benefit SEO services in a variety of ways.  With introduction of newer technologies RSS feeds have also evolved a lot. Now a day search engines are equipped with unique feed index which crawls website with indexed atoms. A webmaster can easily export all information posted on his/her website on feeds and obtain genuine rewards. RSS feeds can increase popularity of a website by revealing contents; it is also a great way to obtain back links. Thus RSS feeds definitely help in rushing traffic to websites. Once your RSS feed is on the web it is categorized and grouped together; this trait is liked by search engines. The categorization and grouping makes sense to the search engines and adds value to your website’s relevance in the particular category area.

Marketing RSS feeds properly is a very imperative step. While creating RSS feeds, one thing should always remain in mind; the title should contain optimal search keywords. The more number of keywords in a RSS feed title, the likelihood of that feed coming up increases when specific search strings are entered. This does not means that every keyword should be stashed forcefully into the title as it will render a irrelevant look to the RSS feed. Descriptors are also a huge crowd attractor. Keeping a descriptor precise, to the point yet interesting will urge people to click on the links. Since the RSS feeds are searched by themes; while submitting RSS feeds one should group the RSS feeds into the appropriate theme. This act is sure to make your feed appear when similar themes are searched.

There are a large number of sites which will help one to submit his/ her RSS feed and get free exposure over the web. Feedage and Feedburner are two of the most efficient ones out there in the web. RSS feeds act like instant messengers when you want messages about your products or services to reach your potential customers instantly. That means whenever you launch new products or service your customers will be able to know about them. Web users have a tendency to keep regular track of the events and contents they like. Thus RSS feeds can definitely help websites gain popularity.

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