Search engines are always on the move to improve their own algorithms and combat search engine abusers. Google, for one, has recently begun cracking down on feeder sites that falsely represent a website as being more popular than it really is.

How does this all work? For starters, feeder sites are generally static webpages that consist of some auto-directing code, or a hyperlink that redirects users to another webpage. The whole concept of a feeder site is that it produces an abundance of inbound links to the host site (the website that implemented the feeder sites). The greater the number of feeder sites, the more inbound links to a website, which translates into popularity of the website. Why? Because search engine algorithms generally assume that if a website has many inbound links, other third parties must be linking to the website. If there's a lot of third parties linking to the website, that means the website must be a popular attraction. Popularity means that the site is highly relevant (since so many people are visiting it), so it should be placed at the top of the search results.

This approach worked for a short period of time, but search engines are getting smarter. Not only do the search engines know how to detect feeder sites and differentiate them from normal third party websites, but they automatically assume that the users of feeder sites are bad people, and are penalized. Penalization in the search engine world usually means that the website is banned from the server. Getting banned from Google could be a problem, and could harm your online marketing presence greatly.

So the solution? RSS feeds. The technology behind blogging is the next best way at building feeder sites. RSS feeds consist of actual content that can be uploaded quickly and frequently. This technology is used by many news and online resource sites to quickly post new content to their servers.

Search engine crawlers currently catch feeder sites by looking at what is posted on the site. Feeder sites are normally static. Which is a major giveaway to the bots. RSS feeds help because they are constantly updated, and keep each of the feeder sites fresh. On top of that, the fact that content is actually posted to the RSS feeds means that the site is actually relevant, and it is. If you run a consumer electronics business, and you manage 5 feeder sites to your page that talk about the newest and best electronics of the month, you are providing Internet users with valuable information, whether or not that is your priority.

So why not just pull RSS feeds from anywhere off the Internet? Because search engines are smarter than just looking for feeds. They need to be relevant. If you're running a consumer electronics business, and your feeder sites are whipping out 100 feeds a day about dinosaurs and monster cars, chances are it's not going to help much more than using a static site. Either way, it's irrelevant, and it's not going to help.

So the moral of the story? Use RSS feeds that are relevant, and you're pushing your website up in the search engine ranks without pissing off the big guys.