Article Syndication

What is Article Syndication?

Article syndication refers to the practice of republishing content on one or more third-party websites after it has appeared somewhere else first.

Unlike article spinning, which seeks to disguise content that’s been rehashed, syndication is fully transparent and legitimate. In a nutshell, the same article runs on another site, which is often a larger publication, in order to put the copy under the noses of a brand new audience.

In fact, many popular websites created their reach through syndication deals, and the strategy remains a respectable way to extend the lifespan of high-quality content.

Why Use Article Syndication?

The appeal of article syndication is straightforward. If you’ve written something that’s of a high quality, provides actionable insights, or demonstrates thought leadership, syndicating it to a site with a bigger or a varied readership can help to provide more exposure for your work, your brand, and those who have never before found your website.

You can still drive referral traffic with syndication, as well as build authority, and even earn the odd backlink or brand mention. For thought leadership articles, getting your content under the noses of an established audience can bring a level of value that exceeds your SEO efforts alone.

How to Use Syndication

Despite clear advantages, syndication still endures a mixed reputation. This is primarily down to the challenges of duplicate content. When the same copy exists across two different pages, Google is forced to decide which version to rank. In most cases, it’s not particularly appealing for your larger syndication partner to outrank your original article.

The answer to this problem is widely used and easy to implement. In an ideal scenario, the syndicating site would use a canonical tag that points back to your original article. This tells Google that your version is the source.

Alternatively, adding a clear “originally published on” link on the syndicated copy can help to improve your traffic. This can help to ensure that you’ll remain rightly recognised as the source of the content.

Risks of Article Syndication

These measures are mostly about retaining control over your content. When using syndication, you’re relying on the partner site to either implement or use canonical tags or attribution appropriately, and there’s no guarantee that the website you’re publishing on will play ball.

If a large site syndicates your work without any attribution, there’s every chance that Google will recognise it as the source and rank it instead of your original content.

This means that you should always look to agree on the attribution terms before you syndicate. It’s also a good idea to favour partners who are more respectful of your requests.

When used well, article syndication is a fully legitimate and effective way to boost your SEO, which is far more effective than the spammy and back-hat strategy of article spinning. Instead, this is a transparent means of replenishing your work with proper attribution to broaden your reach.

As long as the canonical tags and credit are managed as appropriate, it can be an effective facet of your SEO strategy.