XML at a glance: Can you trust trusted feed?
Ten ways to tell if trusted feed services are right for your business.
Trusted feed services (otherwise known as XML feeds or branded names like Inktomi's Index Connect and Ask Jeeves/Teoma's Index Express) will immediately get your entire site indexed (assuming your site is indexable). Plus, you're paying on a per-click charge, so you're only paying for motivated traffic.
Despite the advantages, XML trusted feed services are not for every company. Nor is it the perfect panacea for an already unspiderable site. Here are some ways to decide if trusted feed services mesh with your search marketing goals:
1. Your site has 500 or more pages.
Size does matter with trusted feed services. You'll need to have at least 500 pages to qualify. If you miss the mark, and have a smaller site, consider services like Inktomi's Search Submit or Fast's PartnerSite (where you pay on a per-URL basis).
2. Your inner pages are sales-based, all with distinct ROIs.
Trusted feed services give companies something that few spidering search engines guarantee: Every single page of your site will be indexed. If you have separate product pages (for instance, an ecommerce site or catalog site), XML trusted feed services are ideal.
In fact, Wine.com turned to Inktomi's trusted feed services when Google wasn't spidering their site (see the Search Day article, "Secrets of Successful Search Engine Optimization"). This strategic move helped Wine.com gain 12,000 click-thrus a month (and saved them when they had a mere one page in Google).
If your site is more informational in nature (for instance, think of a finance information site with product upsells), trusted feed could still be a strong option - even if you do not have a per-page ROI. That's because pages with strong information tend to naturally position well. If your informational landing pages all have strong product or service calls-to-action, you could benefit from additional (and motivated) traffic that converts.
3. You want to guarantee that all your pages are indexed.
XML trusted feed allows you the peace of mind to know that your entire site will be regularly indexed. Google (and other search engines) try to index your entire site. However, the only way to guarantee that all your pages are in any particular engine is to pay them money and make it happen.
Know that there is a difference between getting your site *indexed* and having it position well. The search engines will not boost your positions just because you're paying them on a per-click basis. The only thing that will do that is to make relevant, spiderable content.
4. You are willing to spend the time (or hire a company) to maximize your Title and description for conversion and positioning.
There are many excellent technology-based companies who are masters of trusted feed technology. These companies will get you set up with ease and provide you with an interface to track your success and clicks.
However, uploading your URLs is only half of the trusted feed battle. Just like with any other SEO campaign, you can't really "set it and forget it." Nor, is it smart to let technology work its magic without a human maximizing the results. The most successful trusted feed campaigns have a dedicated account manager monitoring your click-thrus and changing your Titles, description and keyword container accordingly. This "hands-on" approach will reward you with an increase in positions, qualified traffic and conversions.
5. Your inner pages are content rich.
"At the end of the day, it's all about the content," said Dennis Buchheim, Director of Search Marketing Solutions for Inktomi. "Low quality content will not position as well."
It's a common misconception that people can "pay off" the search engines and push horrid content for strong positioning results. It doesn't work. Yes, the pages will get indexed, but that doesn't mean they are guaranteed to position well.
Strongly performing XML pages are based in keyphrase-rich content. As a general rule of thumb: If your pages don't position well in Google, you will still have issues with your trusted feed. If your pages aren't focused around a particular keyphrase theme, you will have positioning issues with your trusted feed campaign. It's as simple as that.
6. You can budget approximately 25 cents per click and this makes sense to your ROI.
If you have a catalog site and you've been paying $5.00 a click for a #3 position for "graduation flowers," a starting CPC of 25 cents is a bargain. However, if you have been paying just five cents a click for your keyphrases, trusted feed may be more expensive than it's worth.
7. You are willing to "pre-pay" for your indexing.
Paying a starting rate of 25 cents is quite a deal for some catalog marketers - until they realize that the search engines want that money up front. Unlike Overture and AdWords, who charge your account at the end of the month, XML trusted feeds are prepaid. That means you should prepare to spend at least $1,000 a month - and that's for a smaller business. If you have a brisk ecommerce site, prepare to shell out $5K or more each month. Remember - these are all targeted click-thrus, so your money is well spent.
Not knowing the monthly spend is a hard pill for marketers to swallow. That's why some search engines allow you to place your site in a "test" area for a short time. After the test, you can see how fast the clicks fly and extrapolate a monthly budget.
8. You constantly have "fresh" content and Google's 28-day crawl cycle is simply too long.
Imagine this: you run a limited-time sale and create a special landing page promoting the sale. If your page upload doesn't magically correspond to Google's crawl cycle, your page won't hit their index until after your sale. And by that time, the sale is over; it's too late.
With a 28-day crawl cycle, marketers can't rely on Google to spider fresh content. Trusted feed services, with their 48-hour crawl schedule, allow you to upload special sale pages, blast them throughout the search engines and immediately see positions.
9. Search metrics are extremely important to you and you want to know click-thru and keyword data.
If you're metrics-minded, XML is truly for you. You'll gain keyword intelligence, page-positioning information and what URL's got the most clicks. Plus, since there is an approximate 48-hour refresh rate, you'll gain almost instant feedback on any new page you upload.
10. You have a large number of keyphrases that are relevant to your pages.
Traditional SEO copywriting optimizes for two-to-three keyphrases per page. Working additional keyphrases into the text often dilutes the effectiveness of the main keyphrases - and can actually cause positions to decrease.
XML trusted feed allows you to include relevant keyphrases not found on the landing page. For instance, if your page is focused about "online banking services," but "free checking accounts" is also relevant to the page, you can add "free online checking accounts" to the keyword and content container. This way, you can get positions and click-thrus for additional keyphrases.
Remember - this isn't a way to hearken back to the bad old days when keyword tags were stuffed to the rim with poor keyphrases. You never want to do anything to mislead your prospects.
If you abuse this privilege and stuff the containers with borderline keyphrases that don't quite apply, you won't convert your prospects. They'll hit your landing pages, discover that the page isn't relevant to their needs, and immediately surf away. And they won't be happy that they wasted their time on a page that didn't give them the information they needed.