Whether it’s images, videos or text-based content, businesses invest a lot of time and money into web-based content. In most cases, it’s well worth the investment – but you’ll always want to get more out of your content where possible.
That’s where content syndication comes into play. But what is it? What are the benefits? And are there any drawbacks? Read on as we provide all the answers…
As a basic definition, syndication is the transfer of something for control by another group. Content syndication isn’t a million miles from this concept. It refers to the republication of your content by another website. Rather than being stolen or copied, that content is knowingly ‘transferred’ to a third-party.
Why? The benefit for them is clear. They get good-quality content for free, which is typically relevant to their business. But what do you get in return for your original content?
Firstly, backlinks. This is the primary benefit of most content syndication agreements. A third-party site will link back to your website, which contributes to your site’s authority. In simple terms, Google scans all links to your website to see how well thought of you are. While it’s not a standalone success strategy, sites with more high-quality links will be ranked higher on Google’s search engine results pages.
On top of that, there’s exposure. As well as linking to your site, the third-party site will usually mention or describe your business, which means potential customers will be reading about your business. Again, it helps that there’s a link there so they can also click through to your site if they would like to find out more.
One potential problem with content syndication is duplicate content. Google discourages content duplication – the use of identical content on different pages or sites. It’s not difficult for Google to detect when content has been copied or used more than once. And Google won’t be able to tell which site published it first.
What it doesn’t do, however, is penalise it. Having your content syndicated (and duplicated) on another site won’t affect your overall authority or ranking. However, it could impact on the ranking of specific content. Google’s advice is as follows:
“If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you’d prefer”
To provide an example, you might have a blog post which ranks on the first page for ‘Best Kitchen Colours’. If that’s syndicated to a site that’s more relevant or has more authority than your own, their version of the article may well rank above your own. In other words, it could create a trade-off between site SEO and the traffic from a specific piece of content.
If you want to get more out of your content, iBase can help. Our digital asset management system allows you to store, organise and retrieve the content you need with ease, whenever you need it.
Whether it’s for syndication or reuse in your own campaigns, our easy-to-use software will save you time, effort and even money in the long run. Contact us today to arrange a one-to-one demo.
