Supercharge WordPress Site Traffic with Content Syndication

Content creation is the backbone of a successful online presence in digital marketing. However, merely producing great content is not enough to guarantee success. To reach a wider audience and maximize revenue opportunities, many website owners turn to content syndication.

Content syndication is a process of republishing content on third-party websites. For website owners, it’s a great way to reach new audiences. The main advantage for publishers is fresh content for their readers.

Adding content syndication to your marketing strategy can help you drive traffic to your site, improve your online presence, and increase brand awareness.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of content syndication, its history, and its role in marketing. We’ll also discuss different content syndication strategies, their benefits, and their potential drawbacks. Finally, we’ll offer some tips on how to effectively implement content syndication for your WordPress site.

What Is WordPress Content Syndication?

WordPress content syndication means republishing content from your WordPress website on other platforms, such as news aggregators, content networks, and other websites. It is a collaboration between a content creator and content syndication platforms or partners. When you choose to syndicate your WordPress content, you make it available to others.

It’s essential to understand that content syndication and guest blogging are not the same thing, even though they may appear similar. When you do a guest post, you create a brand new piece of content exclusively for one platform. On the other hand, content syndication involves taking the exact same content and publishing it on other platforms with permission.

Content syndication is also different from repurposed content. Syndicated content is the same piece of content republished in the same or slightly edited form on different websites. However, it still has the same content format, whether blog posts, an infographic, or a video.

Content syndication is also not plagiarism, as it’s done with permission. However, Google can recognize syndication as duplicate content because, essentially, you’d have at least two same publications on the internet. The good thing is you can prevent this by using canonical tags and giving credit to the original content creator.

Usually, syndicated content will have an annotation that looks like this:

If you have a website on WordPress, you can syndicate content with ease. WordPress offers a range of plugins that simplify and enhance the process of WordPress content syndication.

Sometimes, other websites may syndicate your content as it is. In other cases, they might publish a shortened or edited version of it. Usually, publishers claim the right to alter your content in some way.

Content syndication marketing works well when you have quality content that publications want to share. When creating content for syndication, remember it should be high-quality and insightful. Make sure you’re proposing something fresh and useful to the audience. Use tools that improve readability, like generative AI as well. Tools such as Writer, for instance, can even help ensure your content remains on-brand:

If you have an entire team writing several syndicated content pieces, you’ll want to monitor your content workflow, too, to ensure high-quality pieces.

You can create content with syndication in mind by producing evergreen content, such as how-to guides or other educational posts. This ensures that your content stays relevant, and publishers will want to use it even after time goes by.

By syndicating content, more people can discover your website by clicking on the links. Ultimately, content syndication can result in a bigger loyal audience. We’ll look at the specific benefits of content syndication later on.

From the publisher’s perspective, they get free content that is ready to publish. They can also get a share of your audience if you choose to announce the partnership. In the end, content syndication is a promotion strategy that ensures content reaches a wider audience.

2 Ways to Syndicate Content

There are two main ways to syndicate content: Free content syndication and paid content syndication. 

Both methods have their pros and cons. Understanding how each works can help you choose the best strategy for your WordPress site.

Free Content Syndication

Free content syndication allows you to republish your content on other platforms without any cost, helping you reach a wider audience and improve brand recognition. 

By carefully assessing the situation and evaluating the terms and conditions of syndication agreements, content creators can make informed decisions that will maximize the potential benefits of content syndication for their brand.

The easiest way to syndicate content for free is by using social networks. If you write blog posts, you can also try platforms like Medium or Reddit. These platforms allow you to post long-form content you can later promote or share with your audience.

Another way to syndicate content for free is by finding syndication partners. You can start by researching websites similar to yours that also cover similar topics. At this point, you want to reach out to websites that have a similar size to yours.

Your syndication partners should be noncompetitors. Noncompetitors are not commercial rivals, but they have a common target audience.

To find sites with syndicated content like yours, type in the search terms on Google, such as “republished with permission” [topical keyword] or “originally appeared on” [topical keyword]. This is how it should look in practice on the example of the keyword “AI”:

This way, you will find websites that publish content like yours and may be interested in republishing your own blog post for free. You can reach out to these website owners and send your pitch. Use an email finder to search for their address.

Paid Content Syndication

Paid content syndication involves paying for content distribution on popular platforms, which can help you reach a larger audience and generate more leads.

There are content syndication networks that take care of your content for you. For example, Gannett is an owner of multiple local media outlets. If the content is syndicated on one third-party website, it’s likely to be republished on others.

By investing in paid content syndication, you can maximize your content’s reach and drive more traffic to your site.

Benefits of Syndicating WordPress Content

Syndicating WordPress content can provide several benefits, such as increased SEO and backlink opportunities, more revenue, better website presence, and higher brand awareness.

Let’s dive deeper into each of these benefits and explore how content syndication can help you achieve your marketing objectives.

Increased SEO & Backlink Opportunities

Syndicated content can boost your SEO performance if you go about it the right way. While syndicated content can be flagged as duplicate content by Google, there are ways to prevent it.

The best one, as I said earlier, is to use canonical tags to signal which version of a syndicated page should be displayed in search engine results. A canonical tag (or rel=canonical) is a snippet of HTML code that tells search engines that a URL represents the original version of a page. You can include the tag in the head section of that page. Here’s a sample canonical tag:

<link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.yourwebsite.com/yourpage/” />

Google also says each syndicated article should include a link back to the original article. This can help SEO by driving traffic to your website and signaling to search engines that your website has a high authority.

To make sure that syndicated content improves your SEO, you should also follow best practices for content optimization, such as adding relevant keywords, breaking up the text with headings, and adding metadata. 

Content syndication can also improve your backlink profile. Backlinks are an essential part of SEO that tell search engines that your website is credible and trustworthy. When syndication partners include a link to your original content, it automatically enhances your backlink profile.

More Revenue

Reaching more people can translate to additional revenues for you. This additional revenue can come in different forms. By increasing traffic through syndicated content, you can get:

• Ad & Affiliate Revenue: With syndicated content, you can attract revenue from sources like ads or affiliate marketing.
• Sponsorships & Advertisers: Syndicating content to platforms with a vast audience can attract advertisers and sponsors interested in reaching your readership.
• More Sales: Since readers can see your valuable content on multiple third-party sites, you become seen as an authority in your niche. This increase in trust in you can lead them to buy from you as well.
• Commissions: You can also be part of a paid syndication network and get a commission for publishing content from other websites.

Better Website Authority

Content syndication is a great way to boost your website’s authority. By appearing on different sites related to your niche, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field. 

As your content appears on various reputable platforms, readers begin to associate your brand with expertise and credibility, fostering trust and loyalty.

Also, by including the link to your website in the syndicated content, your website can also experience increased discoverability.

Higher Brand Awareness

Increased brand awareness is a result of an improved website presence. By establishing your expertise and improving the discoverability of your website, more people in the industry will recognize your brand. 

By boosting organic traffic, you can improve your visibility and, ultimately, reach new audiences. A wider audience allows you to build a loyal community and customer base.

Bonus Tip

Now that you know how to syndicate your content on other sites, you might be wondering if you should publish syndicated content on your site that was produced by someone else. Here’s how to do that.

If you want to syndicate content on your WordPress website, you can use various platforms. 

Feedzy, for example, is an RSS aggregator which allows you to show multiple feeds on your site and easily import content from other WordPress sites. Also, you can filter syndicated posts by keywords, create feed categories, and add affiliate links.

By importing posts and configuring settings such as assigning categories, you can easily syndicate content that would look just like this post:

But why would you want to publish syndicated content on your own website?  Simple: This way, you and your syndication partner can gain mutual benefits from your agreement and offer content to new audiences. So, your partner gets to expand its audience reach while you drive more traffic to your site.

Ready to Put Content Syndication to Work for You?

WordPress content syndication is a powerful tool that can significantly impact your website’s success. By distributing your content across multiple platforms, you can attract a wider audience, improve SEO rankings, and increase revenue opportunities. 

Whether you choose free syndication networks to reach targeted audiences or invest in paid partnerships with influential publications, the benefits are well worth the effort.

However, it’s essential to remember that content syndication should be approached strategically. Always maintain the quality and uniqueness of your content and focus on partnerships that align with your target audience. By doing so, you can harness the full potential of content syndication and unlock new opportunities for growth and success.