How Syndication Influences The Performance Of Web Content - Semalt Knows The Answer



Syndicated content sometimes gets a really bad representation in the Web content industry. As an audience gaining strategy, you expect that it should get a bit more attention. Well, this reality isn't the case.

Before we go any further, we need to understand what content syndication means. In simple terms, it is a method of republishing content on other sites to reach a broader audience. By having syndicated content, you increase your reach and brand awareness and build links and can help drive more traffic to your original article.

What's So Great About Content Syndication?

We all need some form of syndicated content on our website or the other. It will be crazy not to explore its benefits.

For example, some of the biggest and most influential sites on the web feature syndicated content. We're referring to websites such as the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and CNN.

The internet is a big and busy building like a train station at rush hour or Times Square. It is not reasonable to think that your content reaches everyone you want it to because you publish it on your website or blog.

By syndicating your content, you get your blog posts or web content (either the full article or a shortened version of it) in front of a different collection of viewers who otherwise would have never found your website.

Content syndication is a very affordable (usually no-cost) way to put your content on more viewers' screens. It is also much cheaper and quicker than having to write a whole new blog post for an advertisement third party website.

Don't Forget The Marketing In Content Marketing

Well, we are aware that some experts have warned you that syndicating content is bad. They claim it's so bad in fact that you'll end up getting dinged by a Google penalty. 

Well, this is nonsense!

The truth is Google won't penalize you for syndicating content. In the worst-case scenario, any of your duplicate content versions might be filtered out of the search results. When using the Syndication strategy, it isn't about appearing first on SERP. Instead, it's a content marketing tactic with emphasis on marketing. Because you're looking for a way to display your content to a larger group of people so that they can recognize you and visit your site when they need more similar content, by syndicating, your content is scattered around the internet. Users can then take note of your website name as well as links. This way, they came across your content without ever visiting your site, and now that they are thrilled, you begin to see an increase in your web traffic. 

Let's Show You How Marketing Works:

  • Step 1: create and promote inspirational or memorable content about your brand to your target audience. 
  • Step 2: people see your content/ad but may become biased towards it.
  • Step 3: when a need arises that your content meets, they search for your content.
Although bloggers mainly use syndication, some out of the box website owners can also use this to improve the popularity or fame of their brand and website. Here are the four types of content syndication you need to know.

1. Syndicate Third-Party Content On Your Blog

As a publisher, you can negotiate with other websites and ask for permission to use their content on your website. 

Ideally, your blog should contain at most 10% syndicated content. Considering that syndicated contents aren't original, you must display useful content that benefits your readers and is worth their time.

For web or brand owners who run multiple blogs, you are already familiar with how challenging it can be to get fantastic authors to stay committed when writing posts for you. Quite often, big writer or influencers run a tight schedule and wouldn't have much free time to spend writing a blog post just for you.

Therefore, a more reasonable request would be to ask such influencers or writers to use one of their already existing content rather than requesting a new one to be written. In addition to this being faster, cheaper, and less stressful, many influencers feel more honored with such a request.

Are you wondering if you should still feature syndicated content? Today we have discovered several websites that have featured syndicated content from some amazing experts in the past, in the likes of like Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn; Blake Irving, CEO of GoDaddy; Dharmesh Shah, founder of HubSpot; and Jeff Haden of Inc. this gives their website top-notch and highly influential contents for their reader. Also, you can consider Syndicating yourself.

If you decide to contribute guest blog posts to third-party sites, always remember to republish those on your blog. As SEO experts, many clients come to us to get their blog posts written, and upon their request, we can republish already written content that they've selected and wanted on their blog. When doing this, we link back to the original to show that we aren't plagiarizing the original content. We emphasize on seeking permission because it is crucial. We love to create original and specially crafted content when writing for our clients. However, when they request for syndicated contents, we are obligated to grant their requests.

Another amazing benefit of syndicated content is that it instantly diversifies the nature and scope of your content. It has a unique way of bringing something new and valuable to your website, and for your audience, even if other readers might have come across it somewhere on the web, it still carries the special power in your site.

2. Syndicate Your Content On Other Websites

Like we've mentioned, syndicate content is used by everyone, and another amazing place to syndicate your content with is a partnering website. 

For example, you can have your website and get content that was first published on government websites or other prominent and trustworthy websites.
When doing this, you often have two options:
  • All Syndicated Content: in this case, you do not create any new content, and you republish your content or vice versa. 
  • A Mix of Syndicated And Original Content: here, you recognize that you need some parts from your partner's website to be directly replicated on your website. However, you also create and publish your unique content on your website. You agree to a split that's acceptable to both sides. For instance, you could decide to have an agreement where for one month, you give them syndicated content; the next, it's an original piece.  

3. Publishing Content On Sites That Syndicate Their Content

By having a regular contributor to your website, you can get their content syndicated. For example, if a columnist at any magazine writes for your website, it means that they are publishing to a content syndicator.

4. Self-Service Syndication

It is also possible to syndicate your content. Your website and your blog site create the perfect condition to do some self-service syndication. Because if you're to think about it, writing the same thing twice can be considered a wastage of resources, so instead, you syndicate.  

Content Repurposing? There's No Purpose!

The truth is, as a website owner, you may not like syndicated contents, and that's fine; no one will say you're at a disadvantage. Many times, our clients want 100 percent originality in their content. But when the conditions aren't favorable, clients can opt for Syndicate content and provide their viewers with equally amazing content.




So if your first ever blog was brilliant and you now want to copy that content onto your website, why not? Saves it sure will save you the stress. What if you've seen how well a content performed on another site and you want the same thing on your site? The best way to get that done would be to Syndicate that content. 

Or perhaps you love an infographic you saw on another website, and you would love to have it feature on your website, all you need to do the Syndicate. Today, we also do a lot of syndication without realizing it; no doubt you've copied a quote or an infographic design from somewhere.

Note: you should be careful when syndicating content because the audience type may differ. Now, if you take the best content form a website and put it on yours, you need to make sure that it's something your audience would love to have. If you're not careful, you can syndicate the wrong content that would ruin your website.

Content syndication in all its forms is of incredible value to the website owner and their audience. Help your content, as well as your website, go further by syndicating contents. As a new website with a low budget, this can be the lifeline to hold on to. When put in perspective, you get quality content without having to put in the work. However, it is important you clearly state that you're syndicating a website to be on the safe side of Google. Semalt experts will help you to avoid most of the mistakes.