Are you a digital marketer looking to broaden your reach and get your content seen by more people? Content syndication may be the answer!
Content syndication is one of the most important elements in modern growth marketing. It’s an everlasting trend, and the process changes with time – but not for its importance to SEO. So, what exactly does ‘content syndication’ mean?
Content syndication entails republishing your content on other sites, therefore, increasing its exposure. It’s a great way to consistently distribute content across multiple platforms; an easy and effective strategy for any business looking to build their brand awareness, engagement rate with customers, or simply maintain momentum from day one.
In this article, we’ll cover content syndication in detail to help you decide if it’s right for your business or not! We’ll focus on the advantages and disadvantages of content syndication, how it works, why you should consider this strategy as part of your business’s marketing plan, and how you can successfully syndicate your content.
What are the Advantages of Content Syndication?
It’s Cost-Effective
It’s a cost-effective marketing method that can help you generate leads and engage with potential customers. There is plenty of opportunity for lead generation, too, and if not enough money exists in your budget to fund an entire campaign, then this might just be what you need.
Third parties also stand to gain from freebies passed their way. Content syndication is the best way to get free content for your site without having another expense or putting in hours of work.
Builds Brand Awareness
Nowadays, content syndication offers an excellent way for consumers and companies alike to build their brand awareness. Content that is contributed to third-party sites can establish you as an industry leader within your niche while also enhancing credibility with those who view it!
For instance, one single article can help put out your brand and reach clients who may be interested in what they see on third-party sites that link back to yours.
Saves Time
Content Syndication offers more engagement with your audience, reaching them quicker and easier than if they were coming from a source where there may be fewer followers.
For third-party websites, they don’t have to spend time creating new content. Instead, they can use already existing content and focus on generating traffic.
An Effective Lead Generation Tool
If you want to generate more leads, especially if your company’s original site isn’t generating enough traffic for its own needs. It helps get traffic back to the original source.
Link Generation- Backlinking
Content syndication is an effective method for generating quality backlinks. When you syndicate your content on third-party platforms, they link back to your content- which is the original content.
Backlinks from other sites help your original web page rank higher in search engine results, and this leads to more organic traffic for you.
What are the Disadvantages of Content Syndication?
Spammy Syndication Sites May Ruin Your Online Authority
There are a few downsides to content syndication, but the most major of these is spammy sites. These can ruin your reputation if you’re syndicating on those pages and end up linking back there too.
It would be best to always research any website/platform where you want your work seen.
Negatively Affects Your SEO
One downside of the practice is that your original SEO might suffer because Google may treat any third-party site you publish on as if they were actually posting new information instead of just linking back to yours – which means they outrank your site.
In some cases, replicated material might be treated as duplicates meaning both versions rank lower than expected, or your site gets the lower ranking.
It’s Challenging to Convert a New Audience
The best way to get leads is by syndicating content. Not only does this generate quality traffic for your website, but it also helps build a new audience of people who have not seen your work and are likely to become conversion candidates.
The downside though? It may take time converting these new visitors into buyers because they are interacting with your content for the first time.
What Type of Content Can Be Syndicated?
Many types of content can be repurposed on third-party sites. These include;
- Blog Posts
- Articles
- Social Media Posts
- White Papers
- Video Content
- EBooks
- Infographics
Where Can You Syndicate Your Content?
Think of your content syndication strategy like any other marketing campaign. The key to its success will depend on what tactics you use, for instance, where you republish your content.
Consider syndicating across multiple platforms or networks so that anyone interested can find them easier – this will definitely increase potential audience reach.
Here are some of the most common syndication outlets;
Syndication Networks
Content syndication networks are a great way to help your blog posts, videos, or photos reach a bigger audience. Syndicating with these sites is easy and helps you distribute your work across large audiences by placing links from them on other blogs in their network of websites that cover similar topics.
There are many websites that allow you to syndicate your content. If an author’s blog is not enough exposure for them, then this might be the perfect outlet.
These sites will often take whole or partial articles from other writers and publish them under their own name with no changes made except adding more bylines to show off all contributors involved with the piece on the site’s page.
Blogging Sites
Blogging sites are an excellent option for syndicating your articles. These social media-style websites allow users to create their own blogs and give you great control over when and how often to post, so it’s an excellent option in terms of accelerating your blog traffic- not forgetting the fact they already have an audience.
Social Media Platforms
Posting to social media is a great way to get your content in front of new people. Many of the top networks have an option to publish directly onto their platform.
You can consider LinkedIn Publishing Platform or Facebook’s Instant Articles, which not only give you access to discovery features but also analytics so that you can optimize posts accordingly.
The most popular syndication outlets include;
- Outbrain
- Medium
- HubPages
- Slideshare
- Taboola
What are the Different Ways You Can Syndicate Content
There are various approaches you can take to syndicating content, but there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The type of publication that will work best for your audience depends on what they want and need from their news feeds.
These include;
- Duplicating the entire content
- Summarizing the content
- Use an excerpt- like a paragraph to guide the reader to the original site
- Restructure- It’s not enough to simply copy and paste content; certain formatting is necessary for it to be reputable. Here are some of the ways you can restructure your content;
- Syndicate important information only
- Create a different piece
- Focus on a different keyword
- Include only the heading and caption
How to Syndicate Content- A Step to Step Guide
While most marketers dream of the day they can release their work and watch it take off, there’s one thing you should know before doing so: successful distribution means working hard.
It takes time for your content to gain traction with audiences across different channels; this may not happen right away, which is why we recommend putting in long hours at first.
As any good marketer knows, to achieve sustainable success, you need an edge over others by using unique ideas or strategies such as this step-by-step guide on how to syndicate your content successfully.
1. Create Quality Content
A well-written article is a powerful tool for any marketer. But it doesn’t start and end there – you have to make sure the quality of your work covers up all other shortcomings for this strategy to be effective.
To create high-quality articles that people will want (and need) on their website or social media page, first things first:
Ensure relevance by staying true to what interests them most at the present time, then dive deep enough into those topics until they feel satisfied as if someone else did this research beforehand. Maybe even learn about something new yourself, then give readers as much information as possible without compromising its readability.
2. Find Appropriate Content Syndication Websites
There are three main types of syndication sites;
a) Free Syndication Sites
Free content syndication sites can be a great way to share your work with the world for free. However, you’ll need to find publications that are willing and open about accepting this type of material to get some exposure online.
The most popular free syndication sites include; Huffpost and Business 2 Community.
b) Paid Syndication Sites
There are a variety of sites designed for content syndication, and they all charge you per click. The problem with these, however, is that there’s an over-reliance on clickbait headlines which produces extremely high bounce rates and lack of user engagement (or worse: negative sentiment) – the complete opposite of what we want. Some examples include Taboola and Outbrain.
c) Owned Syndication
Being your own syndicator is always the best bet. LinkedIn and Medium are great examples of such platforms that give you complete freedom. Here you can publish your content without the need to contact editors or negotiate terms.
These platforms allow for your original work with an attributive “originally published on” line at the bottom linking back to where it was initially published online.
3. Use the Appropriate Syndication Techniques
Don’t forget to use the proper content syndication methods. It’s crucial that your work doesn’t get discovered as plagiarized, so ensure you’re using appropriate methodologies for success.
Here are some tips on how to index syndicated content;
Rel=Canonical Tag
Using the rel=canonical tag will let search engines know that a particular page features syndicated content.
Noindex Tag
Why does it matter whether or not syndicated content is indexed?
You might be thinking, “What difference does noindex make?”
Well, for starters, the meta tag ensures that your original work will always remain authoritative in Google’s eyes. Why do you need another page competing with you on search engine results when all they can show are your own words.
The whole point behind using this technique was so you could avoid having two versions–one official and one copied-and to ensure that your original content stays at the top of Google’s rankings.
4. Evaluate Your Content’s Performance
To create high-quality leads from your syndicated content, you must evaluate and optimize it. This includes measuring how well the work is being received by readers with metrics such as;
Conversion Rates
It is the speed at which qualified prospects convert across what you sell. Conversion rates can be tracked by measuring how many people click through from an ad and become a lead, sale, or customer.
Engagement Rate
The more engagements you get, the better! The number of leads that can be connected or interacted with by a sales executive is what we call “engagement rate.” You want this number to stay high so that the leads you’re connecting with will convert into customers and revenue for your business.
Win Rate
The win rate is the percentage of times you convert an opportunity into a customer. You can measure this by looking at how many opportunities have resulted in sales or leads for your business, then dividing it with all available possibilities.
Qualification Rate
Qualification rate is one way of measuring how well your content performs. It refers to the percentage of qualified leads that become sales-ready customers over time with marketing efforts.
Content Syndication vs. Plagiarism vs. Guest Posting
Is Content Syndication Plagiarism?
A lot of people wonder if syndicated content is the same as plagiarism.
Now, you’d be thinking that since both terms describe copying another person’s work- why don’t we just call it “content theft?”
But there are some key differences between these two concepts: while plagiarized articles take original information from websites and publish them unaltered (often with no mention at all), syndicates typically specify which post comes originally by including language like “published originally on this website and on this date, and perhaps by this author.”
Content Syndication vs. Guest Blogging: What is the Difference?
Guest blogging is a technique in which you publish original content on third-party sites. Content syndication, however, is simply using your existing published work and republishing it elsewhere for wider distribution.
Please reach out to me (admin@huntersarticlopedia.com) for such content.