To ROR or Not to ROR
Posted By Melanie Prough on April 3, 2009
There is a great deal of mystery surrounding the actual use of the ror.xml feed. I did some heavy investigating and have decided that ROR (Resources of a Resource) is like a “Sales Pitch” for the engines that use it. For the engines that do not it is still a sitemap/content link and a feed….we all know feeds are hot.
So how is a ROR feed a “Sales Pitch”? It is a fully disciplined interface to describe everything in and about your site in greater detail than the sitemap.xml. Ideally the engines can better comprehend your content for the purpose of accurate indexing. It can be used to describe, pages, directories, images, events, podcasts, blog entries, products, schedules, and anything else. It even helps describe your sitemap and its location if you like. ROR is commonly accepted for all engines even though it was originally created by Google.
How do I make and install a ror.xml feed? I suggest until you get a real feel for the language and format that you use a generator. You can Google it, there are many. I use up8.org. Then you upload the file named ror.xml to the root of your site. After the file is uploaded insert the following link meta tag to make it live.
<link rel=”alternate” type=”application/rss+xml” title=”ROR” href=”/ror.xml” />
That will give you a standard content ROR sitemap. I would suggest checking out rorweb.com, they are the “Authority” on ROR. They have examples, utilities, and advice.
Then if you get the hang of it there are places to submit, product feeds, for example.
There is no harm is making the crawling of your site as accessible as possible. Wouldn’t it just be nice if the engines told us what they used, of exactly what they wanted? Maybe, but not as much fun!
By: Melanie Prough
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