What is Content Syndication in Marketing?

What is content syndication?

Content syndication is the republishing of content from your website on another site. This process can be controversial for some, because when it is used incorrectly, it can lead to potential duplicate content penalties. When you use it well, however, it can help attract more attention to your original content, boosting traffic and brand reach.

Content Syndication BrightEdgeHow can content syndication help me?

There are a number of ways to use content syndication. You can repost an entire article, a paragraph or even just a headline. This second posting is done on a more popular website with the goal of increasing the number of people who see your content. Your headline, paragraph or article would then attract the attention of these readers, drawing them back to your website to read the rest of the article or see what else you have written.

Increasing authority

Since your article was published on a site that receives more traffic than your own, you can also increase domain authority. The readers who regularly view the hosting site have already established trust with this site. By posting your content and encouraging people to visit your original site, the host site helps to build your credibility, which can then help increase your lead generation.

Content SyndicationHow do you do content syndication?

  1. Select a website that has the audience and traffic rates that you want to attract to your website. It should target the same ideal audience as your own site while also having more authority than your personal web property.
  2. Choose some of your highest quality content to syndicate. It should be on par with the quality that is typically seen on the host site. At the same time, do not repost all of your best work. You want some material to be fresh on your website for when new visitors arrive.
  3. Decide how much you want to syndicate. This will depend on your goals for the syndication process. If you want to grow traffic, you might only repost a headline or paragraph. If you want to build brand awareness, you might repost the entire article.
  4. Avoid duplicate content penalties. There are a number of options for avoiding Google penalties.
    1. A canonical tag is often the preferred means of avoiding problems with content syndication. This tells Google that this version of the article is just a copy and lets the search engine know where the original is.
    2. You can also put a NoIndex on the copy, so that Google does not ‘read’ the reposted version.
    3. You can also use an attribution link, as some host sites do not want a NoFollow or canonical tag. The attribution link should generally be enough to let the search engines know that this version of the article is a copy.
  5. Track your traffic rates from your syndicated content to get an idea of how successful your efforts were. Another helpful metric might be Share of Voice to determine its impact on brand awareness.

Content syndication can be a valuable tool in the marketer’s toolbox when working to attract attention to content and improve the brand’s reach and reputation. If you decide to use this method, always follow the steps precisely to avoid incurring penalties.

Related materials

<< Back to the SEO Glossary main page

Related Resources