Digital content marketing is constantly changing, and one must keep up-to-date with those changes. Content syndication is one approach that has increased in popularity over the last few years. The benefits it brings to your content marketing are many and can significantly impact its online presence.
We will tell you all you need to know about content syndication. What is it? The benefits of it and the downfalls of it. And how it will fit in your approach to digital marketing.
What is Content Syndication?
It is the process of publishing your content on a third-party platform. People involved in writing to video-making all look into some form of content syndication. We all consume content that is syndicated but creating for syndication is a different ballgame.
There is an important difference between content syndication and guest posting, even if they seem similar. As indicated above, syndicated content is republishing a piece of content as it is with permission. On the other hand, guest blogging requires the content writing of a completely new piece.
The main goal of content syndication is to help your web page content reach a larger audience through third-party platforms. It can help grow your brand awareness further than you possibly could on your own.
Content syndication is usually done in one of three ways. The content goes on the syndication website as it is. Or the content could be edited into a shorter version for publication. And lastly, it could be an excerpt or summary linking back to the original content.
What is The Difference Between Content Syndication And Guest Posting?
There is one major advantage that content syndication has over guest posting is that it is scalable. A piece of content published on your blog or website can be syndicated to various platforms. On the other hand, guest posting, once published, is rarely republished anywhere else.
The reposting potential allows you to take advantage of the same content multiple times. Compared to this, guest posts aren’t similarly extensible. It is different if those platforms are associated with an excellent list of content syndication sites.
What Are The Benefits of Content Syndication?
There are many ways that syndication can benefit your platform. Some of the most prominent ways content syndication helps your brand are as follows:
One of the major advantages is it helps build your brand awareness further. The contribution of blogs and articles to third-party sites can greatly increase the awareness of your brand for an industry.
Secondly, it can be comparatively cost-effective when compared to a full marketing campaign. Even when the syndication is paid, the potential audience reach and opportunity for lead generation make it highly cost-effective for you. The content syndication platform, on the other hand, gets free content.
The third benefit comes in the form of backlinks. Content syndication implements the policy that content should be credited and linked to the original post. These have a direct effect on the frequency by which the original site appears in search results.
And the last major benefit that content syndication gives is that it greatly increases the range of your audience. This broader reach is particularly of interest to content creators looking to expand outside their niche.
How to Successfully Create Content for Syndication?
The benefits may make content syndication sound like it is heaven-sent for content creators. But it is only possible if one takes the right approach to content creation tailored to reap maximum benefits from syndication.
The wrong approach to syndication can result in far more harm than the good that can be reaped. It can create the impression that you are publishing duplicated content. It can even damage your brand reputation and negatively impact your SEO.
But there are things that you can do to avoid falling these downfalls associated with content syndication.
Creating Worthy Content
Make sure that your content is worthy. The highest-rated syndication platforms have standards that need to be met. Ensure that the blog writing or article writing you’re doing for content syndication provides quality, depth, and relevance to the topic.
Beyond meeting the standard of the syndication platform, make sure that your content stands out. Furthermore, it should serve your overall brand goals.
Choosing The Right Platform
The creation of content that is worthy is not enough if the choice of platform is not right. Bad platform choices can lead to the downfalls associated with content syndication. Find the right fit for your brand.
A good rule of thumb to follow is to focus on platforms that have larger audiences in comparison to yours. These can help you increase your reach and improve your reputation by association. The impact goes both ways.
Using The Right Methodologies
This section gets a little technical. However, it is important to ensure that search engines do not flag your content as plagiarized. There are three ways that this distinction can be made.
The first is through the Rel=canonical tag in the URL of the syndicated content. This tag highlights the fact that this is a syndicated page when a search engine crawl scans it. Furthermore, it allows you to avoid the situation where the syndicated page is marked as the original and the original as a copy.
The other way to do it is by using a Meta no-index tag similar to the previous one. However, it is different in one major way. It removes the syndicated page from being indexed altogether. This method essentially makes it so that your content is the only content that shows up, and both do not compete.
The third way is through backlinks. This method essentially connects your original content via a link on the syndicated post that must be clicked to read the content fully.
However, the best way to ensure content syndication doesn’t cause duplication is to use the two tags mentioned above.
Tracking The Metrics
To create content that can successfully be syndicated, one needs to evaluate and make changes accordingly. This tracking of metrics is necessary to ensure that your syndicated content gives you the benefits that your brand is looking for.
You should be paying attention to certain metrics so that the quality of leads is maintained. Engagement, qualification, conversion, and win rates are good indicators of how well your content syndication strategy is working.
Making Improvements
It is important to remember that no strategy is set and forget. On the contrary, any strategy should be constantly evaluated and improved upon. In addition, the demands and requirements of content syndication change with time, and that change should reflect in your strategy as well.
Track your metrics and see how well your approach is working, and then make changes accordingly. By making constant improvements, you scale up the scope of content syndication for your brand.
Final Thoughts
Content syndication can help you reach a much wider audience within your niche by taking advantage of well-established platforms. Syndication can help your content grow, whether it is blogs, articles, or any other written content. But it goes beyond just the written word.
Content makers working with the visual medium can also greatly benefit from content syndication. Any and all content, if presented the right way, can benefit from this approach.
So, create worthy content, find the right platforms, and get syndicated.