Maximize Your Brand’s Reach With Content Syndication

Building a successful blog often feels like scaling a mountain. You’ve invested the time and effort necessary to build a website you’re proud of, but your subscribers remain perched on the summit above. Every step forward brings a new challenge — bottomless canyons of ad spend, scrambles for views and clicks, and uphill battles with search engine algorithms.

Of course, just as seasoned climbers have found ways to conquer Everest, you too can reach new heights with your content. You just need the right strategy and approach.

Enter: content syndication. With content syndication, you can make the most of the time and effort you’ve already poured into your blog, sending an avalanche of traffic to your website. More traffic means more opportunities for potential customers to engage with you, and when the time is right, purchase from your business.

Let’s dive into what content syndication is and the important role it can play in your digital marketing strategy.

What Is Content Syndication?

Content syndication involves republishing the same piece of content (articles, infographics, images, or videos) across multiple websites. The goal of syndication is to expand the reach and visibility of your content by presenting it to wider audiences on third-party websites, publications, and platforms.

Content syndication is a key piece of building awareness and funneling leads into your pipeline. And although 60% of marketers measure success by sales, this is surprisingly not the primary goal of syndication.

Instead, content syndication plays a crucial step in the sales process because it allows you to generate greater awareness and fill your pipeline with qualified leads. That doesn’t mean that content syndication doesn’t deliver monetary benefits. By increasing organic traffic and reach, you can decrease spend on paid awareness campaigns and build authority with potential leads, making them more likely to purchase.

Important note: Content syndication is not the same as guest posting. 

Guest posts, or guest blogging, require a writer to create original content for an outside publication. In contrast, content syndication refers only to duplicate content shared across different websites. Content syndication also differs from recycling content, since in the case of syndication, the original content remains largely unaltered.

Examples of Content Syndication

If you’re active on any social network, you’ve probably consumed syndicated content at some point in time — maybe even today! 

If you’ve ever read an article on Huffington Post, for instance, chances are it was syndicated by a content creator or brand in order to tap into the 126 million readers who visit Huffington Post each month.

Other places you might see syndicated content include:

• News aggregators, such as Google News, Apple News and Flipboard
• Social media networks, including Twitter, Reddit, or Facebook
• Content recommendations networks, like Taboola or Outbrain, which display recommended articles or videos at the end of webpages
• Industry-specific platforms, such as TechCrunch or Mashable, that syndicate content specific to their niche
• Email newsletters that syndicate content, often internally, in order to drive traffic back to their website and keep subscribers engaged

Benefits of Content Syndication

In addition to increased reach and visibility, content syndication provides brands with the following benefits:

• Enhanced brand awareness: Sharing your content to multiple high-traffic platforms opens the door for new audiences to discover your brand.
• Improved search rankings and SEO: Content syndication produces backlinks to your own website or platform. This improves the authority and credibility of your website in the eyes of search engines, resulting in better search rankings.
• Increase backlinks: When your content is shared on a reputable third-party site, it will also be attributed to your website as the original source, which creates a quality backlink. Search engine algorithms use reputable backlinks to determine a site’s trustworthiness.
• Increased efficiency: Syndication saves time and effort by extending the life of your existing high-quality content. This reduces the need to commission new content for each platform.
• Cost-effective marketing: Rather than relying on paid advertising, you can increase your return on investment (ROI) by leveraging your existing audience and distribution channels of content syndication partners.
• Community building and engagement: Sharing content on various platforms allows you to connect with different audiences and encourages interactions, comments, and social sharing, which can lead to increased audience engagement and participation.
• Authority and thought leadership: When your content is syndicated on reputable platforms, it enhances your credibility and establishes you as an authority or thought leader in your industry.

Possible Drawbacks of Content Syndication 

Although content syndication has many benefits for SEO and has the potential to drive more organic traffic and more leads to your site, there are some possible drawbacks to consider.

Duplicate Content

If we know one thing about Google, it’s that they do not like duplicate content. Google’s algorithm seeks to provide the best search results possible, and for that reason, duplicate content is often suppressed.

Syndicated content is not considered duplicate content, but you must make it clear to search engines that your content is syndicated to maintain SEO for your site and the third party.

To avoid issues, it’s best to link back to the original piece of content and clearly state that the content is syndicated. You should also ask the third-party publication to include a canonical link — an HTML code element used to indicate the preferred version of a web page when multiple versions exist. 

When establishing a relationship with a syndication partner, clarify how they approach canonical links.This ensures everyone is on the same page and reduces the likelihood of your content being flagged by search engines.

Cannibalization of Traffic

Content syndication presents an opportunity to access a larger audience, thanks to the increased authority and visibility of well-established websites. But in some cases, this can work against you and result in the syndicated content “outranking” the original.

For example, if the Huffington Post republished your article, that syndicated version may appear higher in the search results than the original post on your blog. This would divert visitors away from your website, defeating the purpose of syndication.

Since there’s no surefire way to control the Google algorithm, this is always a risk with content syndication. However, one workaround is to ask the publisher to insert a canonical tag. This HTML code directs search engines from the syndicated post to your original, so the version on your site is the one that shows up on search engine results pages (SERPs). Ideally, this should lead to higher clicks to your original content and more traffic for your website.

Important note: Some sites, including Medium and LinkedIn, do not support canonical tags. Posts republished on these platforms will likely cannibalize your traffic.

How to Build a Content Syndication Strategy

A solid content syndication strategy can help you effectively distribute your best content across various platforms. 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to get the most bang for your buck from your content:

1. Define Your Goals

Like any marketing strategy, it’s crucial to outline what you hope to achieve from your content syndication efforts. Start with your primary goal, such as reaching a larger audience, driving more referral traffic, or lead generation.

Next, define your key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure you have a way to measure your success. For example, KPIs for tracking increased brand awareness may include page views, engagement rates, or social media shares.

2. Research Your Target Audience

Remember: Great content, whether on your site or a syndicate, starts with a deep understanding of your target audience. In addition to their needs, wants, and struggles, you must also take into account where your audience lives online.

For instance, consider the different audience demographics of Pinterest vs. Flipboard.

Pinterest caters to a young, mostly female user base that’s interested in topics like home improvement, travel, and fashion. In contrast, Flipboard is a popular source for news reports and technology insights, and their primary audience skews male.

A piece of content that performs well on Pinterest may not deliver the same results on Flipboard and vice versa. Be sure to consider these distinctions in your content syndication strategy and target platforms that cater to your audience.

3. Create High-Quality Content

To fully leverage the power of content syndication, start by hiring an experienced agency that specializes in SEO (like Growth Machine!) or a content creator to produce high-quality content for your website. You want content that provides readers with value or unique insights that appeal to their interests.

Remember that high-quality content can take various forms, allowing you to cater to different preferences and capture attention through different mediums. Consider incorporating the following formats into your content marketing strategy:

• Articles, blogs, and essays
• Images and infographics
• Videos

Remember to optimize your content for search engines by conducting keyword research. When you use relevant keywords in your content, you improve its discoverability and increase its chances of appearing on SERPs.

4. Establish Syndication Partnerships

Once your content creation process is underway, it’s time to decide which syndication platforms to contact for republishing your content. Choose channels that align with your target audience and have a significant reach.

Consider establishing an ongoing partnership with a content syndication network or publication. Ongoing syndication partnerships can greatly improve your content visibility.

Buffer has strong relationships with publications like the Huffington Post, Fast Company, Lifehacker and more. Their content is frequently featured by the Huffington Post, which has proved quite lucrative for the blog — one of their syndicated articles resulted in 6,000 extra social media shares. This kind of organic reach reduces the need for paid advertising, resulting in a higher ROI for each piece of content you publish.

To establish content syndication partnerships, follow these steps:

1. Identify potential partners: Look for publishers or websites that align with your target audience and have a good reputation in your industry.
2. Research and evaluate: Conduct thorough research on potential partners. Review their content, audience demographics, engagement metrics, and syndication practices.
3. Send a proposal: Reach out to your potential partners with a well-crafted proposal. Highlight how your content can complement their existing strategy and point out mutual benefits, such as expanding their content offerings or providing unique insights to their audience.

5. Develop Syndication Agreements

A crucial aspect of working with syndication sites is developing clear agreements for how the content will be shared. When dealing with potential syndication partners, it’s necessary to outline and agree upon the following:

• The scope of the content usage, such as the frequency and duration of syndication, including the notice period required for termination
• The specific platforms, websites, or channels where the content will be published, including the expected visibility and placement of the syndicated content
• How attribution will be handled, such as the author’s name and website, and how they will handle canonical links 
• Guidelines for brand consistency, ensuring that logos, branding elements, and links to your website are appropriately displayed
• Exclusivity agreements or limitations that may impact content distribution to other third-party sites
• Whether the syndicating party can make edits or modifications to the content
• Potential revenue sharing or payment terms for ad revenue or affiliate commissions generated
• Legal considerations, such as copyright laws, intellectual property rights, and any applicable regulations or industry standards. Include clauses on the protection of confidential information exchanged and steps for dispute resolution

6. Monitor Performance

Finally, it’s time to measure up to your initial goals. Tracking important metrics, such as referral traffic and lead generation, will provide a snapshot of how effective content syndication has been for your website.

Use this performance data to optimize your content syndication strategy and establish the types of content that deliver the best results. This will allow you to continually improve and grow your online presence and use content syndication as a driving force for your digital marketing efforts.

Ready to Put Your Content to Work?

Maximizing the impact of each piece of content you create is a crucial step in the journey of ongoing growth and success of your website. Content syndication provides a powerful avenue to extend the life and reach of your content while also offering SEO benefits.

Through content syndication, you can amplify your brand’s visibility, enhance search engine rankings, and better engage with your target audience. It allows you to break free from the limitations of organic reach and tap into the distribution channels of reputable platforms, expanding your online presence.

A killer online presence isn’t built in a day, but it is possible to join the ranks of those at the top of the SERPs. If you’re ready to outsource your content creation to experienced SEO experts, schedule a call with our team to learn how we can take you to new heights.