Republishing the same information on other websites is known as syndication. Naturally, this can make content marketers, SEO, and PR professionals anxious. It’s common for consumers to worry that duplicate material on numerous websites would result in problems and raise Google penalty concerns.
This makes sense because reusing content across domains might be considered a “spammy” strategy. However, in this article, we’ll discuss the philosophy behind it from the perspective of public relations, Google’s position and the advantages it can have for your company.
The Syndication Strategy
By tracking coverage in PR, you can predict that if a story emerges in one local publication, it will probably also appear in other places. This is the syndication of material.
The largest websites frequently syndicate their content. Public relations professionals across the nation aspire to have their coverage appear in these local publications. Associated Press, Reach PLC, Reuters, Yahoo, and more frequently produce content across multiple media titles.
It is an excellent strategy to increase authority as long as the syndicated coverage and links are from high authority sources and are pertinent.
What Does Google Think?
Only websites that scrape material or flood the web with duplicate content are genuinely penalized by Google. Google will then give that website a lower ranking. But from the standpoint of earned media, Google is aware that information frequently appears on multiple websites for valid reasons, as is the case with syndication across media websites.
Consider a conventional launch-to-market press release as an illustration. When you release a press release on a new product launch, several news organizations publish the same or a closely related story using the information you gave. It works the same way to publish an article or opinion piece that is picked up. Google is aware that this is how the PR industry operates.
You want to increase your material’s visibility by utilizing other websites’ audiences; You are not trying to manipulate the SERPs and rank your content several times. Google’s search bots will choose which website to rank and omit the other results if they discover many websites with the same content.
A great idea is to enter the story’s headline when looking for your coverage on Google, go to the last page, and select “repeat the search with omitted results included.”
Instead of just the top 30 or 40 results that Google shows you, this will display the entire coverage.
There is no issue as long as you don’t publish the same stuff on your website. And if you do, you can fix this by employing a canonical link to make sure you give a hint as to who created the original work.
What Are the Advantages of PR Syndication?
Spreading awareness of the brand: You may position yourself as an authority in your field by strategically placing yourself across various media. Your brand messaging and important messages can be incorporated into the content. Thought leadership? Opinion piece? Advice article? Regardless of your strategy, you must present yourself as an authority and expert.
People will begin to regard you as authoritative when they frequently see your name or brand on reputable websites. When customers want to conduct their research through the “marketing funnel,” these crucial trust points are vital.
More presence online: Your brand becomes more well-known and approachable if you are frequently acknowledged and written about online. By syndicating your material to reputable websites with significant audiences, you may expose your brand and content to audiences you might not typically have access to. As a result, you will reach a wider audience.
A higher level of website authority: You may receive links from the syndicated coverage, but if not, there shouldn’t be any significant concerns.
Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, said: “If you publish high-quality content that is highly cited on the internet — and I’m not talking about just links, but also mentions on social networks and people talking about your branding, crap like that. Then you are doing great.”
Google began recognizing the “nofollow” feature as a tip for indexing and crawling more recently, on March 1st, 2020. Google wants us to utilize “nofollow” properties as best practices, but we don’t know if they have been using them as hints all along or if there will be any significant changes that can be measured.
Get relevant, high-quality links: As branded links are the easiest to obtain because they are the most natural, you should link your brand or client in every narrative. Getting a large number of links across syndicated content can be a bit of a lottery. Some people keep the links in, while others remove them. In either case, this coverage has further advantages in addition to links.
All of this increases your website’s authority.
Higher traffic: Links driving more traffic are called referral links. Links and equity are related (juice).
The links you obtain can drive visitors to your website directly from the coverage. Still, they also show Google’s support for your website, which will help it perform better naturally over time and result in higher ranks and more traffic.
“Lead gen”: When a third-party article directs visitors and potential customers to your website, you have the chance to engage and nurture those visitors by educating them about your company. Why did they choose to click? Use data to improve the content on your website, which should primarily focus on how your goods or services may assist users in resolving their issues.
A media outlet that shares brand material that is pertinent to audiences and beneficial to them can assist in nurturing prospects through the sales pipeline. Remarketing is another choice.
PR syndication benefits both the client/brand and the publisher. The connection between the two is good PR.
Featured Image: Megapixl © Flynt
