One of the biggest challenges of content marketing is finding ways to get your content in front of as many readers as possible.
But what do you do if you churn out an awesome piece but haven’t yet established a huge audience on your blog or website?
Fear not, because content syndication may be the answer for you.
Join us for a look at what it means to syndicate content, how it can help increase brand awareness, and ways to go about it without wrecking your SEO.
What is content syndication?
Content syndication is simply the art of re-publishing owned content on different sites. For instance, imagine you wrote a killer blog post that you feel deserves a lot more attention.
You could syndicate it by partnering with a site that has a larger audience. The site gets to publish your work for its readers in exchange for giving you credit and providing a backlink to your own site.
In the end, it’s a mutually beneficial setup for both you and the partner site. Your partner gets to treat their readers to your delightful work for free, while you get to attract more readers for your high-quality scalable content.
This tactic can work well not only for blog posts and articles but with a variety of different types of virtual mediums. You can syndicate content in the form of infographics, videos, interactive content, or any other piece of unique and relevant work.
Is SEO affected when you syndicate content?
It’s no secret that Google is not a fan of duplicate content. Luckily, the search engine also provides a handy workaround you can use to help differentiate between syndicated content and duplicate content or flat-out plagiarism.
This process is known as canonicalization and it helps Google choose just one version of otherwise duplicate content to show in its search results. Remember, for a third-party site to repost your content, they’ll need to give you credit and link back to your original post.
Asking your partner to use a canonical URL can be a great way to help simplify the process. Using internal links throughout your content can also be an easy way to increase the odds of users landing on your page, even if they come across your post on a third-party website.
What’s the difference between free and paid syndicated content?
The goals of syndicating content are to increase your readership, authority, and brand awareness. But how exactly do you go about it?
There are many different approaches, some free and some which require a bit of an investment. Let’s take a look at the various strategies you can use in each category.
What are some free ways to syndicate content?
These days, there are plenty of ways to get your content in front of a larger audience for free if you’re willing to do a little legwork.
One way to go is to create a guest post on a site with a larger audience and then republish it later on your own site.
If networking is your strong point, you can also approach other non-competing sites that share a similar audience and co-syndicate each other’s content. Here are some other DIY tactics you can use to syndicate content for free:
- Posting blog posts and articles to sites like Medium and LinkedIn is an excellent (free) way to get your content in front of more people.
- Try artfully using parts of your content to answer questions on Quora and Reddit, complete with a link to the full piece.
- Social media sites like Pinterest and Tumblr are great for sharing things like infographics and original photos.
- YouTube is obviously great for sharing videos. But you can also use tools like InVideo to turn your blog posts and articles into videos.
- Mix is an interesting approach to both sharing content and staying up to date on industry trends.
- Turn your content into a slide presentation and share it on SlideShare
What is paid syndication and how does it work?
Paid syndication is basically the content equivalent of paid advertising. In essence, you pay to get links to your content published on sites with a much larger audience than your own.
Paid syndicated content often appears as a link under a section called “recommended content” or “sponsored content.” If a user finds the prospect of your article interesting, they can click on it to be redirected to your site.
This type of setup is usually a PPC arrangement and useful for increasing site traffic but doesn’t often do much as far as SEO. While it’s possible to reach out to potential publishing partners and work out a deal directly, the easiest route to go is to use a networking site like Outbrain, RevContent, or Taboola.
These sites can connect you with major publishers like Bloomberg, CNN, MSN, and the Washington Post. Many also come with analytics tools and filters that allow you to target reputable sites with a similar target audience.
What are the pros and cons of content syndication?
When done correctly, content syndication can enhance your overall marketing strategy significantly. But like most tactics, it comes with its own sets of pros and cons.
Pros:
- It can be a great way to boost your audience.
- A bigger audience can generate more leads.
- Getting your backlinks on high-authority sites can boost SEO.
Cons:
- Beware of syndicating on spammy sites, which can hurt your credibility.
- Without correct canonicalization, your SEO could suffer if you’re tagged as duplicate content.
- Paid content requires a budget and doesn’t usually do much for your SEO.
Need a little help?
If you want to use content syndication to attract a larger audience, then it’s vital to make sure you have content worth sharing. Rock Content’s WriterAccess has got your back.
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