How to Get Started with Content Syndication as a Small Business Owner

Content syndication is an effective strategy for small businesses to expand their reach and increase online visibility. This strategy can be beneficial for both small content creators and big publishers. The creator gets more visibility and authority, while the publisher gets free content. 

In this article, you’ll learn how small businesses can leverage content syndication to promote their brand, reach a wider audience, and generate leads.

What Is Content Syndication?

Content syndication is republishing or distributing online content on third-party websites. It’s different from guest posting, where you create content solely for a specific site. In content syndication, a partner website publishes the same content that already appeared on your website. This content can be:

• Blog articles
• Videos
• Infographics
• Other forms of digital media

You can distribute syndicated content in many ways, including through content syndication platforms, content-sharing tools, and partnerships with other publishers or media outlets. Third-party websites republish syndicated content in whole or excerpted. How much content is republished depends on the agreement between the content creator or owner and the syndicating website or platform.

Content syndication comes with many benefits. It can:

• Boost the original content’s reach and visibility
• Increase traffic through valuable backlinks to the source
• enhance brand awareness, authority, and reputation
• improve small businesses’ search engine rankings by increasing the number of backlinks to their website

Content syndication also benefits publishers, allowing them to access valuable content they can share with their audience without creating it themselves. By syndicating content, publishers can offer their audience a more comprehensive range of content that adds value to their experience and keeps them engaged.

Let’s look at the five steps of creating syndicated content, from planning and outreach to content optimization and distribution.

Define your content syndication goals

As a small business owner, you might be satisfied with the amount of traffic or customers you have. But if you want to take a more proactive approach, you should get in front of the customer instead of waiting for them to come to you.

Content syndication goes beyond manual techniques of content marketing. Using content syndication, you can match your best content with the most relevant prospects for your business. To see if your content syndication efforts reach the right audience, you need to establish the goals of your actions.

The goals of your content syndication strategy can include the following:

• increasing Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
• attracting high-quality leads
• increasing conversions
• increasing the visibility in search engines

Small businesses’ content syndication goals should align with their overall marketing objectives.

Find syndication partners

When you want to syndicate your content, you need to find other sites that will want to publish syndicated content.

If there are websites you’re interested in partnering with, you can check their latest backlinks. You can search for terms like “originally published in” or “republished with permission.” That’s how you’ll know if they publish syndicated content.

You can also use Google search to find the most prominent blogs in your niche. Contact third-party sites for possible syndication of your content. For the best results, send a personalized outreach message. 

To select the best partner websites, look for the ones with similar authority to your blog and the same or similar target audience.

If you want to create a significant impact with your content, you can reach out to major media publications such as Forbes or Business Insider. They often offer native advertising or contributed content platforms. These enable you to syndicate your content to their vast audience. Remember that these popular websites usually have specific guidelines and strict submission processes.

You can also join content syndication networks to find potential partners. These networks connect content creators with publishers and can help small businesses increase their reach and visibility. Several free content syndication platforms include:

• Medium
• Reddit
• SlideShare
• Linkedin
• Flipboard

If you are willing to pay to get your original article published on other channels, use paid content syndication platforms. Websites like Outbrain and Taboola charge you per click for promoting your blog content on a third-party platform. 

This is how your content will look like promoted by Outbrain.

You can set a budget cap, a cost-per-click, and a target audience. Then the platform serves readers with your blog post as a recommended article.

Another paid content syndication opportunity is third-party syndication services. You partner with a company with a solution and system in place. These services syndicate content on your behalf and distribute it to a network of publishers, increasing the chances of getting content published on third-party websites and platforms.

To sum up, finding content syndication websites is initially challenging, but many options exist. Getting your content published requires research, outreach, and the right relationship-building. 

Create quality content

The most crucial component of content marketing is content. Whether it’s eCommerce or SaaS content production, you must ensure that your blog posts, videos, or infographics are high quality. That’s the only way you can syndicate your content on high-authority platforms.

Before creating syndicated content, you should identify your target audience and their interests. This will help you create relevant content that’s valuable to them.

Use compelling and conversion-driven storytelling to keep visitors engaged. The content you create should be relevant. It should be well-written and add value to your target audience. It’s also better to make fewer high-quality pieces of content than a large volume of mediocre content. 

Visual content can attract and drive shares. So, don’t hesitate to use visuals such as videos and pictures. You can use infographics as well. At the end of the piece, include a clear call to action in your content to encourage readers to further engage with your brand. Below, you can see a great example of CTA in an article on Medium (disclaimer: ChatGPT is not a small business example, but we’re just trying to drive a point about CTAs here).

You can craft well-suited content for syndication and help you reach a wider audience if you follow these tips.

Optimize your content for syndication

When you are ready to distribute content to the third-party site, you must ensure it meets the editorial guidelines. Ensure the content meets all the requirements on formatting, image size, appropriate links, etc.

Before you publish the content, it’s also vital to conduct SEO content optimization. Use the target keyword and synonyms in the headings of your blog post and any relevant critical phrases throughout the text.

Other aspects of SEO are relevant to content syndication. Ensure the partner website uses the “rel=canonical” tag on the URL of the syndicated content. It helps to avoid Google penalizing you for duplicate content.

This is what the canonical tag looks like in the code.

The “Noindex” tag works similarly to the canonical tag but removes the partner’s page from indexing altogether. The “noindex” tag’s function is self-explanatory. The title notifies the search engine that the syndicated page should not be indexed. Since your content is discoverable on search engines only once you have indexed it, the no-index tag means your page will be the only page displayed in Google. As a result, the syndicated page won’t compete with your original content.

You can also use the least desirable method, a backlink to your website. This way, you allow syndication of only a snippet of your post. To access the entire post, the syndicated page’s readers must click the link to your website. 

Distribute and promote your content

There are a lot of options available for content promotion. After publishing the piece, you must let your audience know another publisher showcased your work. This way, the readers will have the chance to read your article if they have not read it.

The first and most straightforward way is by using social media. You can share your syndicated content on your social media channels, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. They will help engage with your audience, and show them the content you bring to them is your top priority.

Another excellent distribution channel for syndicated content is email marketing. Promoting your syndicated content through a newsletter can be particularly effective. Include a link to your syndicated content in your newsletters or create an email drip campaign around syndicated content. 

Alternatively, you can use paid advertising—sponsored content and Google Ads, for instance— to promote your syndicated content to a broader audience. One of the most popular platforms for advertising is Facebook. It’s chosen by 84% of marketers to drive traffic to their content regularly.

Lastly, don’t forget about content repurposing. You can repurpose your existing content syndicated pieces into different content formats—social media posts, infographics, and videos—to reach a wider audience. Repurposing older content pieces can save you a lot of work. Plus, they yield effects similar to those of newly-created content.

Conclusion

Content syndication can help brands expand their reach and generate leads. Businesses can achieve significant growth and success by creating high-quality content, partnering with reputable syndication platforms, and promoting their content effectively.

However, it’s essential to approach content syndication with a strategic mindset. Also, measure and optimize your results continually. 

With the right approach, businesses of all sizes can leverage content syndication to achieve their marketing goals and drive long-term success.