Content Syndication- The Ultimate Guide 2021
To reach the target audience marketers are implementing various tactics in the digital world. Email marketing, content marketing, and account-based marketing are some of the widely applied methods. Among all the marketing techniques, content syndication is floating on top nowadays. However, because of the method of implementation, marketers are confused about the functioning of content syndication and how does it work.
Some of the commonly asked questions about content syndication are-
- How does content syndication work?
- What types of content can be syndicated?
- How is content syndication different than content duplication?
- Who produces content for syndication?
- How the page appear on third-party sites?
- How does it impact SEO?
- Why does content syndication matter?
- What are the categories to choose the right syndication provider?
These are genuine questions for any marketer trying to venture into content syndication to reach the target audience. We at Valasys Media, a B2B marketing firm, often get such questions while the client approaches us for content syndication.
To kill all the confusion associated with content syndication, we have written the blog post that will serve as a complete guide for content syndication. No matter at which level of expertise you are standing at, we have tried to include answers from basic to advanced level queries.
To start with
What is Content Syndication?
Content syndication is a process of re-publishing your proprietary online content to third-party websites. The main aim behind content syndication is to appear in the search result of the target audience. It helps to boost the content visibility and reach the target audience with accuracy. If done correctly, content syndication can help you enhance the subscriber count exponentially, without spending any resources on content creation.
In context with content on third-party websites, people often present us with the query of guest blogging versus content syndication.
Just to be clear, guest blogging and content syndication are two different methods entirely. A guest post usually helps in boosting the domain authority and buildsthe credibility ofa website. There are other advantages as well, but you have to agree with the fact thata guest post is not a scalable digital asset.
The latter one is scalable and you get to pick up a content piece from your website and publish it multiple times.
Talking of re-publishing the proprietary content, the next step is to select a third-party website.
How to select a third-party website?
It is one of the key deciding factors for the success of your marketing strategy. To achieve your goal, you should research the presence of your target audience on the website, has good domain authority, high traffic, and provides a canonical link to the original articles.
For example, if you are into a B2B marketing domain, the probability of meeting your target audience on LinkedIn is quite prominent when compared to other social media channels. In this case, it is advisable to syndicate your content on LinkedIn.
The same goes with website selection, if you are involved in software production so you should select websites that talk about the latest innovations in technology.
When you are done sampling your niche websites, approach the specialized content syndication players in the business who hold experience in helping their clients to achieve the best possible result.
For example- Valasys Media has a database of clients and customers in 120 sectors including IT services, Finance, Healthcare, Insurance, and Manufacturing, and many more. Having a diverse database ensures the placement of content in front of the right audience.
An expert tip- Before you approach a site for syndication, make sure the target site is into the business of content syndication.
You can verify it by visiting the target website, check whether all contents are originally published or have attribution as well.
The syndicated content is usually pointed with an attribution message stating- The blog originally appeared inthe “name of the website”.
Trick: You can search with the keyword- ‘originally appeared on’ with the name of the target website.
Once you are sure that your target site is a part of a syndication network, then select and send a few best-written and shared content pieces. Most of these sites provide the contact information of their editors on the websites themselves. You can mail the editor and pitch your content along with a few proofs.
Selecting the right content is always a tedious job because the definition of the right content is quite variable. Many a marketer struggles with the selection of content piece, whether they should select a blog post or a case study.
Considering the importance of content in the whole content syndication process, the next sub-heading is-
What are the criteria to select content for content syndication?
Every syndicator, you come across, is equipped with its own set of proprietary tools. On the other hand, every retailer has its own set of a proposition regarding the types of contents that it accepts. However, in general, you can syndicate the following types of content-
- Product descriptions
- Blog posts
- Case studies
- E-book content
- Manuals
- Product demonstration video
In case syndicators have certain rules regarding content, they are likely to inform you before the implementation process, or take care of the issues by themselves. Different syndicators offer different services, however, most of them often publish core, enhanced, general, and rich media content.
Related to content re-publishing, this one is a widely asked question
How content syndication is different from content duplication?
This one is a fair question and the answer to this query is more interesting. Google has formulated certain norms to flag a content piece as duplicate and another one as syndicated.
I would like to start with what is duplicate content as per Google-
Content is considered as duplicate if any block of content matches, or is appreciable similar to the content of another domain or even the same domain. When content is duplicated to boost the search engine ranking, Google would automatically flag it. However, there are instances when Google does not flag copied content as malicious content. For example- store items, linked items, and printer-only versions of website pages.
Even if today, you do a Google search regarding some news story, you will find similar contents on various news websites and such contents are not flagged as duplicated ones.
Primarily, they are syndicated content. It is not new in the content marketing world and the ritual has continued for years. To stand clear, syndicated content should not be confused with spinning. Content is syndicated when a third-party website re-publishes a content piece. The content can be published in link format, full content piece, a part of it, or even a thumbnail. In such a scenario, syndication sites are not taking any credits.
In fact, they are citing the original author and giving them credit. The original publishing website gets to maintain the ownership of the work and the site is offering a creative license to repost the content. Hence, no Private Label Right is violated.
Google’s take on content syndication: If you are syndicating your content on other websites, the search engine will show the version of the content that it thinks appropriate for users in every search. And the version may not match your idea of content appearance. And this may result in outranking the original content on the search engine.
To make sure that the syndicated version is not treated as on original content, you should implement a rel=canonical tag and NoIndex.
rel=canonical tag:
When you tag content with the rel=canonical tag, you are providing a link of the original content source to Google. This, in turn, reduces the probability of content duplication.
The rel=canonical tag enables google to decide which version to show in case of duplicate content instances. The tag also benefits the original content with all the links and traffic that the syndicated network attracts from the syndicated copy.
Expert advice: Always ask the publishing sites to use the rel=canonical tag, besides attribution and a backlink to your site.
NoIndex:
The NoIndex version of your article on the syndicated network tells Google and other search engines to keep the syndicated version out of the index. This, in turn, will solve all the queries associated with content duplication.
Final Thoughts:
Content syndication is one the best content marketing strategies to reach the target audience, and convert the audience into leads. Moreover, if you are syndicating the content on your website, you are serving your readers with fresh content without losing them to any other website.
Once you start getting a platform for syndication, make sure you do it regularly. At least once a month. This will provide you will ample exposure to the new set of audience. And while you do so, make sure to check for content duplication and rel=canonical tags. One of the best-kept secrets about content syndication is- great writing. It is usually said, the longer the content the best chance of getting placed. What none will mention to you is the quality of the content. Make sure you are presenting the best of the information to your readers. This will help build loyalty.
