What Is Content Syndication? Networks and Platforms To Know

By Vaibhav Kakkar | June 9th, 2023

Table of Contents

Introduction

Content marketing is a fantastic way to get leads. However, it doesn’t always produce the desired outcome within the desired time limit. No matter how many high-quality blogs you post or how many guest posts you write, the effort never seems to yield the desired results. What if one growth marketing solution could make all of that possible without requiring the expenditure of resources to produce extra content? 

Content syndication is the answer to your worries. According to projections by Curata, more than 10% of the total content produced by major firms is syndicated. 

In this blog post, we’ll learn about content syndication in digital marketing, including what it is, why it’s effective, and which networks and platforms you can utilize to syndicate your content.

What is Content Syndication?

The first thing you need to know about content syndication is that it is a growth marketing tactic. Content marketers frequently decide to repost articles that first appeared on their websites and social media on blogs or websites owned by other people. This practice is called content syndication. Anything can be republished as content, including blogs, infographics, videos, and other media. 

Marketers could decide to:

  • Publish their entire article.
  • Publish only a specific part of their original content
  • Publish a synopsis or a fascinating passage from their content

A point to note here is that content syndication and guest blogging are distinct from one another, although they may appear identical. A guest post is a brand-new original article that has been written for publishing on a single website. Whereas syndicated content involves taking the same piece of content and reposting it on several platforms with permission.

The process of content syndication has many advantages for both the third-party site and the original content publisher. In a broad sense, it enables content marketers to reach out to a new, diversified range of people and advertise their content to them. The third-party domain will have the opportunity to acquire fresh, high-quality content for their blogs without needing to put in the effort to do so.

Why Content Syndication?

Syndicating your content can greatly expand your audience. Content syndication might be of great assistance to you if you have been continuously producing high-quality content for your organization but have not yet attracted a large audience. 

Engaging in content creation when the appropriate user base is not present may drain your resources without producing the outcomes you require or want. This issue can be solved through content syndication, which puts your content right in front of the viewers you were aiming for but were unable to reach. Certain syndication platforms go above and beyond by enabling you to develop your reputation as a respected leader.

All you need to do is employ the appropriate content syndication strategy to be able to witness sustainable short and long-term outcomes in lead capture and bottom-line growth.

SEO and Content Syndication

Google detests duplicated content, as you obviously already know, especially when the goal is to have the same content rank well in search results. Thus, posting duplicate content might have a significant negative impact on your SEO. However, content syndication produces the exact opposite effects. 

As long as it is obvious to readers and search engines that the content they are viewing is syndicated, it is not strictly considered duplicate content. This is typically accomplished by making an obvious citation to the original article at the end or beginning of the piece. The ideal scenario is when you can persuade the third-party website to backlink to the original content posted on your website. 

The publisher normally dictates how the canonical link is added. If the procedure is unclear, it is important to address it with the editor right away. Canonical links indicate to search engines as well as the audience that the content they are viewing is syndicated rather than duplicated. 

Adding backlinks and source links within the content body can also produce the same results. This way, there is a significantly greater chance that your website will receive more traffic and qualified leads. Additionally, it will increase the context and authority of your republished content in the sight of the search engines.

Content syndication networks and platforms

Everyone who has published online content for any amount of time is aware that duplicate content can be problematic. Google and other search engines generally only index one version of the content, and that copy will be regarded as the most relevant to user search intent. 

Content syndication networks get around this issue and guarantee that the original piece is indexed and receives the full SEO benefits by telling search engines where the content came from.

We’ve created a list of the most popular content syndication networks and platforms below, along with a brief description of each, to assist you in selecting the best one based on your requirements.

1. Outbrain

Outbrain is a well-known content discovery tool that promotes your work to various major media publications like Time, CNN, and ESPN in order to increase readership. Outbrain claims on its website that it reaches an audience of over 550 million internet users and provides them with around 200 billion content suggestions every month. That is how widely your content might spread on the Outbrain network. 

In order to determine which portion or iteration of your content connects most with your audience, Outbrain also offers services that allow you to track reader engagement. 

The drawback of Outbrain is that it excludes publishers from its revenue-sharing scheme unless their website is posting advertisements or receives well over 10 million page views on each post. Therefore, Outbrain may not be the appropriate content syndication network for you if you’re a small to mid-sized business looking to make money from your blog entries.

2. Taboola

Taboola, one of the best syndication networks, offers tailored content to more than 1 billion consumers each month. It is a platform for finding new content that offers regional placement on popular websites. Its technology helps publishers and advertisers distribute content to draw visitors and generate revenue from traffic. 

You have full control over the websites your content goes on, and an algorithm is utilized to promote the content. Taboola makes it possible for even tiny businesses to have their content recommended on major media publications’ websites, like CNN or BBC.

3. Soundcloud

Soundcloud is a way to reach a lot more people if you are creating any form of audio material. For instance, if your business adopts the popular podcasting style, listeners might search Soundcloud for industry leaders. Audio and video files are among the easiest to syndicate.

4. Zemanta

Zemanta is an advertising platform that uses cutting-edge technology to show readers-relevant ads. Despite being acquired by Outbrain in 2017, the business is still run under its own brand name. Its pricing structure has a monthly minimum budget for advertising.

With the help of this solution, you can increase the ROI of each content piece you create by optimizing parameters like time spent on the site and click-through rate. Although we haven’t seen a lot of evidence demonstrating Zemanta’s capacity to produce value, it can also assist B2B firms in creating content hubs for certain target audiences.

5. IT Curated

More than 30 periodicals from various industries, such as software, healthcare, transportation, and IT, are part of this network. It is a fantastic choice to take into account if you’d like your content to be reposted on websites with high authority in your particular market.

Free content syndication networks and platforms

Since sharing the content is free, free content syndication is quite convenient. However, it will take a while to locate websites that permit free content syndication. The following are a few of the well-liked platforms.

1. Medium

Medium provides the ability to directly publish information, images, audio, and video on its platform. It serves as a free forum for writers of all levels to share their work on any subject and for readers to learn about innovative ideas. Anybody can sign up for free and utilize the Medium platform. Writers can produce standalone pieces, contribute to collections of hand-selected stories, or start their own magazines.

2. LinkedIn

Blogging on LinkedIn is a terrific option, particularly if you want to establish yourself as an industry expert. Although it is a fantastic idea to publish fresh, original content on LinkedIn, it also functions as a network for content syndication.

Due to the platform’s focus on businesses, LinkedIn is perfect for B2B content syndication.

You can impart your knowledge to people in your immediate network as well as to those in your secondary network of connections. If you publish a blog post across your network, for instance, and five people click the “like” button, it will also be shared with their followers. Your content is more likely to receive impressions the more people like and share it.

3. Slideshare

Anyone can publish anything in a slideshow format on the free SlideShare platform, which is a part of the LinkedIn affiliate network. Visitors can then view the content whenever it suits them. These visitors frequently result from targeted searches, giving you greater assurance that your material is appealing to the proper demographic. With more than 18 million submitted files in 40 genres, it is currently among the top 100 most frequented websites in the world. More than 80 million business people use SlideShare to learn from experts on any subject.

However, there are essentially no rules that publishers must adhere to on this platform as it is a free-for-all. This could imply that even low-quality information can be published and shared, which is detrimental for companies trying to build their brand authority.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is a social media platform that enables users to collect photographs they love by pinning them. Pinterest is a helpful platform if you create infographics or any other visually captivating content. In contrast to other content syndication platforms, Pinterest shows infographics as intended rather than cropping them to fit a web template.

Infographics are a form of content you may pin to Pinterest, linking to the blog articles where they were first published. Users who click on the image will be taken to your website, which will help you increase traffic.

You can join groups linked to your sector and share your infographics there to make the most of your efforts to syndicate content on Pinterest. By doing this, you can spread your content among your intended audience, who may then share it with their friends and coworkers.

5. StumbleUpon

The next syndication network on our list is StumbleUpon, which enables you to contribute your favorite web pages, follow users and topics, and share content. Additionally, you may view popular trending articles, pictures, and videos, as well as compile lists of your favorite websites. StumbleUpon also offers sponsored discovery platforms for businesses.

6. Reddit

Reddit is a debated content syndication platform. It primarily serves as a platform for sharing links and content, and because the majority of postings lack advanced features, syndicating can be challenging.

Success on Reddit requires a lot of effort, but if you do it right, you can promote your links and content and get tremendous results. It is one of the easiest sites to share a link and invite discussion rather than completely syndicating content.

In order to guarantee that users are discussing topics they are interested in, Reddit is divided into tens of thousands of “subreddits.” So, be careful not to post in a subreddit for pets if your company is about digital marketing.

7. Quora

Individuals can ask questions on Quora, a social networking site, that cannot be immediately answered by a Google search. It also provides a publication platform, perfect for authors who haven’t yet developed a following.

Bloggers don’t have to put in as much time-consuming SEO work as well. Quora allows writers to focus on creating interesting and valuable content. Entrepreneurs and professionals can showcase their subject-matter expertise on Quora by responding to inquiries from others. B2B executives can utilize this platform to share blog entries from their company and engage in dialogue with readers who are likely to be both interested and relevant.

Conclusion

To summarize, content syndication enables you to distribute your information over the internet, reaching a larger audience and greatly increasing the exposure of your company’s online content. With so many content syndication networks available, you should pick the one that best matches the primary goals of your company, whether they be to increase brand recognition, engagement, or exposure.

November 24, 2022
Vaibhav Kakkar