Clearing up Misconceptions about Article Submission, Syndication and Marketing vs Duplicate Content
What’s this about? “This is an Auto-Response¹ for the (fairly) common subject of Article Marketing, Syndication, Submission, Publication, versus Content Duplication². It is intended to cover some of the common issues, mistakes, and outright misguided thinking SEOs and digital marketers have about Publishing Articles online for SERP gain.”
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What’s the Main Aim of Article Syndication?
Despite continuous popular belief over the course of decades, the main ACTUAL purpose of article syndication articles has NOTHING to do PR Links!
In fact, it has NOTHING to do with improving your organic search rankings at all!
You should do it to build Traffic!
Article syndication exists to publicize, popularize and push your site, brand, or business into the public consciousness.
It exists to generate interest, awareness, and to get people to your site.
Got it?
Good!
So what does that actually mean?
It means that you stop worshiping all those naff sites claiming to be DA/PR/AHR/Whatev-R of [insert arbitrary number.]
It means you DO NOT simply go and use every single High-DA# “Article Syndication” site you can find!
You ARE NOT looking for links that pass DA, PR, AHR, or “Whatev-R.”
You ARE NOT only looking for sites that don’t use “nofollow”
YOU ARE LOOKING FOR QUALITY PROMOTIONAL OUTLETS.
You are looking for sites that deal specifically with your target market, audience, potential customer, and/or client base.
You are looking for sites that have an audience and get the type of people that are likely to convert into whatever it is you want them to convert into!
It’s pointless getting 10,000 visitors a day if none of them are interested in what you’re doing²!
You mentioned Duplicate Content?
Yes. I. did.
That’s because – despite duplicate content being banged on about for years and there being tons of info about it in the SEO community…
a large percentage of people still seem to think it’s perfectly logical to put up information on their own site, and then go and post the exact same stuff up on X number of article syndication sites and directories etc.
Don’t Do It!
For starters – it’s a search engine nightmare.
If Google sees the same content in multiple locations it may filter the SERPs, removing all bar one version.
Newsflash: It may NOT pick the one you want, which will likely result in poor rankings/traffic for your own site!
Just as importantly (personally I think more so,) this type of indiscriminate reposting of the exact same material bugs the hell out of readers!
Why would I – as a user – be happy if I just read 600 words on an article site, clicked on your link, and then find that you expect me to read the exact same thing AGAIN?
Where’s the value in that?
Where’s the UX thought/consideration?
What’s the point?
So repeat after me: “DO. NOT. DUPLICATE. CONTENT. LIKE. THAT!”
Okay Mr. Knowitall – So what’s your suggestion then???
I (personally) suggest that you engage your brain and start using a bit of common sense!
Think like a User.
What do you want?
What do you need?
It’s information, details, and/or insight your users are after.
You are meant to be showing that you not only know your stuff, but you know what your user/customer actually needs and wants!
It’s part of the sales process!
Building rapport, trust, and loyalty!
It’s also part of building brand and popularity
So don’t just slap up any old rubbish and then syndicate it til the cows come home.
Do some research.
Figure out what it is that people need/want to know. Look around at what the competing sites and companies aren’t telling potential customers. Then plan out some articles around that.
Not just one!
Several…
You want 2+, minimum.
You want a major article (or a small collection of them) on your site, all with top quality, full info.
You then recreate them, cut back, shortened, not quite as informative, but still focused on quality and usefulness!
And it’s those cutback ones you syndicate and market with.
These are the articles that you submit to trade press sites, news outlets, or market-sector-specific magazines/ezines etc.
And they should ALL link to your main article, on YOUR OWN website.
They should all entice/encourage/prompt the reader to find out more by following the link to your site.
That way, you are offering them a benefit!
Don’t forget … you have your site to fall back to… and you can likely do more on your own site than on a DR/PR/AHR/Whatever-R site.
There you can publish things like spiffy diagrams, useful/detailed photos, instructional videos, etc.
Why not mention those spiffy things in the DA/PR/AHR/Whatev-R article, and tell readers to visit your own site?
Again, for those in the back: Encourage people to visit YOUR site for even more useful stuff, in EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE you syndicate or guest-post.
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So how will this help my organic SEO rankings?
That’s the funny part. It won’t/shouldn’t.
Not directly, anyway.
Chances are, all of the links will be nofollowed anyway.
And that’s fine.
Remember – YOU ARE AFTER Traffic and Conversions, not SE Rankings.
Yet – you may well find a “hidden” benefit³.
Secondary Links!
That’s right.
Though the article submissions themselves may not benefit the SERPs, those people reading your Quality Articles, those people coming to your site afterward… they may well be impressed/pleased enough to mention you on other sites or their own sites/blogs/social profiles.
Those would be secondary links, which are likely to give you actual SEO/Ranking benefits!
You used that word again : Quality!
Yup.
Look at some of the article sites out there.
Seriously – GO LOOK AT SOME!
And not just at the sites themselves, but at their content, the sites they link to, the adverts they display etc.
Now – if some of those sites were people – imagine what they look, sound and behave like.
Would you REALLY want to be associated with such people?
Do you REALLY want your business to be seen as part of that crowd?
So don’t just syndicate your QUALITY content on any/all sites.
Spend the time looking for a few good ones, because there are still some around, even in 2024.
And then, if you can, find some sites specific to your industry, product, or services.
Focus on QUALITY!
The same goes for your content.
Do NOT go and generate “fluff.”
It’s a waste of your time and resources – no matter what your SEO tells you – and it bugs the daylights out of your readers.
Why would you use a company that just wasted 5 minutes of your time telling you nothing whatsoever!!??
You wouldn’t.
And you definitely wouldn’t recommend them!
So – if you are going to generate content – Do It Properly!!!
And that includes spelling and grammar checks⁴
(Yes – I feel like a hypocrite saying that bit! :D)
Each article MUST be written with Quality in mind!
It must be interesting, useful, informative, and worth reading!
Anything else is a waste of time.
And NOT just Article Sites…
Nope.
You can find other sites that are related to your market sector.
You could talk to some consumer blogs, some forums etc, and ask if they would be interested in some FREE QUALITY CONTENT.
No strings attached.
No DA/PR/AHR/Whatev-R-passing links required.
But the key is – you want ONLY relevant/related syndication locations for your articles, and the more tightly targeted on your business, product, or service they are, the more likely yu’ll be to get conversions!
(Yes – you can even do the same thing for simple Adverts! Remember – it’s the Traffic you’re after – NOT the DA/PR/AHR/Whatev-R!!!)
And that’s it… Now imagine what I can do if I help you, specifically.
Contact me today to get some personal help from the Autocrat.
