What is Content Syndication? An Introductory Guide

Could recycling your content be the key to building brand awareness and unlocking new opportunities online? Content syndication is the practice of getting the most out of the content you create by re-publishing your most helpful information on third-party websites. 

In today’s cluttered digital environment, getting the right amount of attention to your crucial blog posts and articles can be difficult – no matter how great they might be. Your views could remain low even with social sharing to help you and SEO. 

Content syndication is one of the most cost-effective ways to give additional reach and impact whatever you create. The concept isn’t entirely new, either. Since 2017, more than 65% of successful B2B marketers have used content generation as a core lead generation tactic. 

Let’s explore the realities of content syndication. 

What is Content Syndication? The Basics

Content syndication is the practice of working with partners, publications, and other third-party entities to publish the same piece of content in different locations. It can include recycling everything from articles, videos, and infographics, in different environments. 

This method of business growth has grown increasingly popular in recent years because it helps improve brand awareness with minimal initial output. You can even reach customers you might not find using your promotional channels. What’s more, with content syndication, you get a win-win situation. The publication you work with brings high-quality content to publish, while you benefit from getting your brand in front of more people. 

Though the practice might seem similar to guest blogging – there are some key differences. With guest blogging, you produce an entirely new piece of content specifically for one publication. With syndicated content, you take the same amount of content and place it on other platforms. Usually, syndicated content also includes a backlink to the original piece. 

How Does Content Syndication Influence SEO?

One of the main things companies worry about when it comes to leveraging syndicated content is the impact on SEO. Google is not a fan of duplicated content, which is why it’s so important to be original with your pieces. However, syndicated content isn’t classed as the same as duplicate content in Google’s eyes – if you do it correctly. 

The key to using syndicated content correctly, without damaging your SEO standing, is to make it evident that the piece is syndicated. You can include a link to the original article and ask the third-party publication to use a canonical link. 

The references included within your syndicated content will be helpful too. Each publication will have its guidelines and requirements regarding connections, so you’ll need to discuss them when choosing your partner. However, referencing your content within a syndicated article can improve traffic and SEO rankings. 

Including internal links shows the search engines that your website is an authority, with lots of helpful information. Ultimately, if you index everything correctly on your partner site, your content syndication strategy should improve your rankings, not harm you.

How Do You Syndicate Content Correctly?

Syndicating content effectively can take a little practice because you must figure out which companies to partner with and which content to re-publish. To begin with, you’ll need to find the right partners for effective content syndication. You’ll want to prioritise popular, high-ranking and authoritative websites that have already reached your target audience. 

Take the time to research the partners you might want to work with and learn about their audience and the strategy they use for syndication. You’ll need to follow the guidelines provided by the partner carefully to ensure you’re not going to get into trouble with the publisher. 

A few quick tips to follow when it comes to syndicating content include:

• Re-publish high-performing content on bigger websites: Your best-performing content should always be reserved for websites with more authority and a higher readership than your site. Since readers can consume all of the content you’re producing on the other side, there’s little incentive for them to come back and check out your website. However, if you’re appealing to a broader audience, you’ll be more likely to see better results. 
• Syndicate old content on similar authority websites: If you want to focus on a more niche group of customers, you can consider syndicating older content to smaller, more focused publications. This will usually allow you to experiment more with different types of content syndication. Smaller companies are more likely to allow for a more significant number of contextual links, too, to improve your authority. 
• Guest publish then syndicate the content on your own site: Sometimes, you can improve your content syndication efforts by posting fresh and original content on a prominent site, like Medium. After a while, depending on the publications and its guidelines, you might be free to re-publish that content on your website and share it with your social media channels. This can be an excellent way to use syndication in a different direction.
• Be picked up by content syndication websites: Usually, if you take the title of a recent article from a significant publication and type it into Google, you might see it’s been picked up by several small publications. You can improve your chances of smaller companies picking up your content by letting them know they can share the post at the bottom of your article, provided they offer a backlink. 
• Make the most of useful tools: There are various content syndication tools and services out there to help you improve your chances of content syndication. You can publish content on sites like Busines2Community, Taboola, Outbrain, and many others. This can be a good idea if you want to spread your reach as far as possible.

Remember to Make Your Content Valuable

Remember, above all else, if you want other companies to be willing to share and promote your content on your behalf, you’ll need to make sure it’s valuable. Providing key statistics, takeaways, opinions, and tips in your content will make it more “stealable” in the eyes of other publications. 

Developing the most valuable content possible will also help you increase the sharing potential of whatever you create.