newsfeed service

how to link back to stories

[benihana]

Hi
I have a newsfeed service available from my site. some simple cut and paste code on any website will request the three most recent headlines from our database. currently the three headlines in the newsfeed link back to my home page, where the full stories are available. there is also a link with the site name at the bottom.
my questions are:

1)is it less benificial to my link development (in terms of PR) to have these four closely grouped links than a single link would be?

2)after their 15 minutes of fame on the front page, the news stories are archived into static html pages. would i be better setting a delay on the newsfeed so it requests yesterdays stories, and then have these linked back to the static pages? then i would have links to four different pages of my site, rather than 4 links to index.php.

the type of news we cover is rarely abosolutely time critical and delaying the newsfeed until the stories have been archived shouldnt be a problem.

thanks

[chiyo]

Is it javascript? In this case you wont get any spidering benefit at all, or PR benefit, according to conventional wisdom which seems sensible.

If its not javascript, I would suggest that links go to the permanant home of the news item. Try to find a way to publish the news in its permanant home (archive) at the same time as your "current news page", and then make the link to its permanent archive home. My feeling is its best to have 3 links with the headline with nice keyword stuff linked than 4 links to your homepage, you alreayd have a link to your home page yes? It means new pages will be continually freshbotted.

[lorax]

I'd link back to the news stories themselves rather than to your homepage. Your current setup means an extra click to the content and instinct says get rid of it.

As for dealing with the dynamic stories and the static pages I'd write the static documents immediately as well as keep them in the db. Once thier 15 minutes are up - trash them from the db and leave the static pages. Use the static pages for your news feeds.

[benihana]

thanks for the input.

yes it is javascript, and your right - ive just realised im not getting any benefit in terms of link dev. :(

i would love to be able to generate static pages on request but i didnt write the db (im just getting started with php/mysql). the static pages are generated via a cron running every night.

im gonna try to get the feed to show a stories from the past few days, 3 at a time at random and link them back to static pages.

will also have to find a way round the javascript so i can actually get some benefit from this :)

thanks

ben

[lorax]

Switch to XML/RSS datafeeds. Much better.

[benihana]

> Switch to XML/RSS datafeeds. Much better.

any pointers to good links for how to get started?
ta

[lorax]

There's plenty of info out there but these should give you a good starting point:

[webreference.com...]

[xml.com...]

Have fun!

[benihana]

thanks very much.

i think im going to need some coffee....:)

[lorax]

LOL

It's not as hard as it seems though XML - when considered in it's entirety - is a rather large animal and can be intimidating. Just stick to the RSS vein and you should master that portion relatively quickly. You will, of course, need to work with XML but it shouldn't be too bad. Good luck.