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Is content syndication a good or bad idea for articles of a startup blog?

Giving my blogs to use for thei websites?

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Dan Neale

Agency Leader & Communications, PR, Social Expert

You really have to think about the objective. Why do you want to do it? Assume it is to drive traffic?

Best way, is to focus on creating content that people want to read and share, then pushing out with paid support via social platforms, influencers and partners.

Answered almost 9 years ago

Mohammad Lafi

InBound Marketing Certified Entrepreneur

Bad, and here's why.

Why do you have a blog on your startup website to begin with? I'm assuming it is to generate more traffic to your website, and to position yourself as a leader in your industry. If you syndicate your content, you're losing both.

First off, your organic reach will most probably suffer, due to the fact that search engines will consider this duplicate content and will lower the reach of this content everywhere it's posted (Assuming they were kind enough, and didn't penalize the websites). It does not matter that the blog post was posted first at your website, your reach will suffer! You could avoid this with a few tactics like using canonical links, but none of those tactics are guaranteed.

Now to the second part, lets say you were looking up a very specific topic and happened to find the same article on multiple websites, how would you feel about the reliability and value of this website? The majority of users will deem this content unworthy.

Therefore, I think it's a bad idea. Let me know what you end up deciding.

Answered almost 9 years ago

Rebecca Caroe

I know how to find customers for your business

I would say that it is 100% a good idea with a couple of caveats.

First, your syndication destination should already have an audience who aligns closely with your startup's desire clients / customers.

Second, the syndicator must allow linkbacks to your website.

So definitely go do it - if it builds audience with prospects and also if it can be made to drive traffic back to your website.

The key to appraising whether these things are appropriate, are all about building audience, testing the market and getting early adopters.

So consider your articles and whether a call-to-action can be added to the bottom of each one that drives the interested reader to your website. When they get there, can you capture their details by offering something to the reader?

Answered almost 9 years ago