How does content syndication boost digital PR strategies?

The debate around content syndication in digital PR is one that tends to raise its head every few months.

On one side of the argument there are the purists who insist that if the same article is published by multiple different media outlets, it’s only a matter of time before a Google penalty is slapped on your client’s website. These are the same people saying that therefore you should only log one item from a list of syndicated coverage, which significantly impacts your coverage and link numbers.

On the other hand, there are the PR, content and digital marketing professionals that can understand the genuine benefits that syndicated content can bring. From increasing website traffic to simply being able to get more eyes on your comments, advice and expertise, from our perspective, including syndicated content in your digital PR strategy is a no brainer.

Not only that, but the possibility of your content being syndicated is practically inevitable when outreaching to national and regional titles, so you should anticipate it and learn to see the value in it. This interesting map from Buzzsumo shows you all the ways in which some of the biggest news sites on the internet are connected, which makes it easy to see how stories are often picked up and shared amongst the same networks. This is particularly true for UK publications, which are 3.4x more likely to syndicate content compared to US publications.

Keep reading to find out more about what content syndication actually means, its benefits, and what it could mean for your business.

What’s in this article:

What is content syndication in PR?
What are the benefits of content syndication in PR?
Google’s stance on content syndication
Motive’s approach to content syndication
Key takeaways

What is content syndication in PR?

Working in PR and logging client coverage and backlinks every single day, we know that when an article appears in one regional media outlet, it’s likely to also appear in multiple publications. This is what is referred to as content syndication.

Content syndication is the practice of online news sites, magazines and blogs distributing and republishing the same content across a range of websites. The goal is to amplify the message to a broader audience and this tactic is often used by larger publishing houses like Newsquest and Reach PLC.

The official definition is where web-based content is re-published by a third-party website. Any kind of content can be syndicated, including blog posts, videos, articles, and more – in fact, some of the biggest sites syndicate their content including Reuters and Yahoo, and digital PR professionals up and down the country strive for coverage to hit these publications.

To give you a better idea, here’s an example of syndicated content across a variety of regional Newsquest publications that we’ve secured for our client Arbtech:

However, this tactic can often cause a wave of panic among content marketers, PRs and clients, as they worry that a syndicated PR story will cause duplicate content issues, leading to the dreaded Google penalty.

Spoiler alert: Google doesn’t actually have a duplicate content penalty as most people understand it.

There is some logic behind this idea though, as duplicating content across domains can be considered a ‘spammy’ tactic, but in this post we’ll explain the theory behind it, Google’s stance, and the benefits it can bring to your business.

Essentially, as long as the syndicated coverage and links are from high authority publishers, are relevant to the client’s business, and provide value, content syndication is a fantastic way to build authority online.

Here’s another example of syndicated content. We produced a relatable, timely, and informative story for our client Gardening Express titled ‘Brits could face fines for picking wildflowers on a daily walk’.

Not only did this get national coverage and gain links in media like The Mirror and The Sun, but it was successful around pretty much every regional news outlet across the UK.

Reach PLC published the story across The Yorkshire Evening Post, The Sheffield Star, The Scotsman, as well as 152 other regional online media with a total of 126 links – including 52 follow links!

The amazing thing with this is that mass media coverage and an influx of backlinks can be achieved from one effective 500 word story and a strong email pitch, which in our opinion is a pretty good ROI!

What are the benefits of content syndication in PR?

1. Receive quality links back to your site

Our advice is to link your brand or your client in every story, as branded links are easiest to acquire as they are the most natural. But hitting mass link totals across syndicated content can be a bit of a lottery, to be honest. Some leave the links in and some take them out. Either way, as previously outlined, there are additional benefits to this coverage outside of links.

2. Increased website authority

You might well get links from the syndicated coverage, but there should be no real worries if not. It’s also worth mentioning that Google considers unlinked brand mentions as “implied” links. They may not offer as many benefits as follow links or even nofollow links, but they certainly count.

Google contextualises the brand mentions in high-quality content, and Google Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google Gary Illyes even 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.”

Most notably on March 1st 2020, Google started treating the “NoFollow” attribute as a hint for indexing and crawling. We don't know if Google had been using them as hints all along or if there will be any other massive changes in the future that will be measurable, but what we do know is that they want us to use nofollow attributes as best practice. Even better – syndicated coverage is a great way to acquire lots of nofollow links, and all of this contributes to the authority of your website.

3. Increased traffic

Links = referral traffic.

Links also = link equity (juice).

The links acquired can offer referral traffic directly from the coverage, but also the links are like a vote of confidence in your website from Google, so it will support your organic performance and contribute towards increased traffic. You can read more about how digital PR impacts your website traffic in this blog post.

4. Increased online presence

If you are cited and published online on a regular basis, it naturally makes your brand become more visible and accessible digitally. You will reach a wider audience because syndicating your content to authoritative sites with large audiences increases awareness of your brand and your content is seen by larger audiences than you might usually have access to.

The success and clicks come from the strength of content, as good content will naturally bring good engagement with it, creating valuable opportunities to target new audiences and demographics.‍

5. Brand messaging and sentiment

With a nice placement across multiple syndicated media sites, you can promote yourself as an expert in your industry. Thought leadership? Opinion story? Advice article? Whatever your approach, you need to position yourselves as authoritative experts.

When people see your brand or name consistently on authoritative news sites, they will start to see you as authoritative and trustworthy too. These important trust points are vital when consumers are looking to do their research in the ‘marketing funnel’.

6. Those all-important leads

When an external article drives traffic and prospects to your website, you have an opportunity to engage and nurture them by giving them more information about your brand. Use data to find out more about their intentions and make tweaks to your on-site content. More often than not, your products or services can help solve their problems.

A media site sharing brand content that’s relevant and helpful for audiences can help nurture prospects throughout the sales pipeline. Remarketing is also an option.

What are the benefits of content syndication in PR?

It’s probably best to start by reiterating that Google doesn’t actually have a duplicate content penalty as most people understand it - and that’s come straight from the horse’s mouth:

It only really penalises websites that scrape content or spams the web using low-quality, duplicate content, like stereotypical scraper sites. In which case, Google will devalue that website. But from an earned media perspective, Google understands that content often appears on more than one site for legitimate reasons, as is the case with content syndication. This is how digital newswires are able to exist and function!

For example, let’s think about a traditional launch to market press release. Imagine you’re launching a new product and we issue the press release with all the information about it to multiple media outlets who all publish the same/similar story based on the content we provided. This is the exact same principle as issuing a story or opinion piece that gets picked up and published across numerous titles. Google knows this is the way the world of PR works, and works this into its algorithms.

Ultimately, we’re not trying to manipulate the results and rank your content multiple times; we're just trying to get more eyeballs on your advice, comments, and expertise by utilising other sites’ audiences. If Google does find multiple websites with the same content, its search bots will decide which one to rank and omit the other results. So in theory, as long as you don’t publish the exact same content on your website verbatim, it’s no problem.

Historically, you were able to use a canonical URL to hint towards the original article. This would basically tell search engine bots that all SEO equity relating to the content should be attributed to the original version. However, at the start of 2023 Google made an official statement to say the canonical link element is no longer recommended for “republished” forms of content syndication – i.e. content that has been copied verbatim. Instead, it told PRs and publishers to no-index syndicated articles if they really wanted to avoid duplication and prevent them from outranking the original story. This means audiences may not be able to find some syndicated stories as easily in the SERPs compared to a couple of years ago.

To summarise, syndicated content from a PR perspective does not violate Google policy.

Motive’s approach to content syndication

In order for us to be successful and generate coverage for all our clients, we often target media houses that syndicate content as a valid tactic. To do this effectively, just create great content – it really is as simple as that. We always ask ourselves, is the story:

Newsworthy?
Relevant?
Unique?
Shareworthy?

If an idea ticks all the boxes, then you have a winning formula to get masses of coverage. Granted, it is easier with B2C businesses and campaigns.

We need to make life as easy as possible for the journalists, and make them look good. Remember, publications make money off advertising, and in short, more page views means more revenue.

We have spoken to journalists whose KPIs are the shares their stories are generating. So, help them with their KPIs, and give them a shareable, engaging story. But always remember, what publications lack is not free content, but great content.

Content syndication as we see it is a win-win situation between the brand (our clients) and the publisher. And good PR is the link between the two!

Key takeaways

Content syndication involves content being distributed and republished across multiple platforms, such as regional news outlets, to amplify reach. It’s a common practice used by large publishing houses like Newsquest and Reach PLC to increase visibility.
Contrary to common belief, Google doesn’t actually penalise for duplicate content in legitimate cases. Google’s search bots are designed to recognise content appearing on multiple sites for valid reasons, such as PR syndication, and will rank the most relevant version without penalties.
Syndicated content helps build authority by generating quality backlinks, increasing brand mentions (both linked and unlinked), driving referral traffic, and improving website SEO. It also boosts brand visibility by reaching larger and more diverse audiences across different platforms.
To successfully syndicate content, it should be newsworthy, relevant, unique, and shareworthy. Well-crafted stories that cater to a journalist’s KPIs, such as engagement and page views, have a higher chance of being syndicated widely, which benefits both the brand and the publisher.

Want to explore how you can get masses of coverage (and links) for your brand? Feel free to reach out and speak to one of our PR pros. Get in touch with us for a no obligation chat.