How to Syndicate Content in WordPress (A Beginner's Guide)

Many of our users have asked us if they can use content syndication to bring backlinks or more content to their website. Actually, most WordPress blogs use the feature of content syndication. It comes with WordPress and makes it simpler for people to share content via RSS.

With this feature, users will be able to subscribe to your website with the news reader. Moreover, other websites can automatically share your content on different platforms.

What is content syndication and why should you use it?

Content syndication is when content creators and bloggers, share their work with other interested parties to republish and share on their platforms. For example, if you have a blog, you can share your articles with other people so that they can publish and share them on their platforms.

In turn, if you want to gather content from other blogs about a certain topic, you can do so by getting their syndicated content and posting it on your site.

Why use content syndication as a blogger?

Now, you may be curious as to why anyone would want to allow others to share their content on their website and platform. In fact, there are many benefits to making your content syndicatable:

1. wider audience : If you're a new blog site, co-sharing can help you push your content to different platforms and attract more people to your blog or website.
2. Building Partnerships : Terms can be discussed and negotiated with other platforms to use your content to help you promote and build your brand with their existing traffic.
3. Search Engine Optimization and Backlinks: Websites that reference more original content and have links to the source help with search engine optimization (SEO). Some of these backlinks can be useful, depending on the site's reputation and how they share their content. At the same time, sites with bad reputations and spammers will not be beneficial and can be asked not to share their content.
4. Increase Social Influence: A good content curator will use their social media accounts to promote the content they share on their website. If they properly attribute it to social activity then this can help gain new followers.

Why publish syndicated content as a content curator?

Here are some of the benefits of publishing syndicated content as a curator:

1. Establishing Subject Matter Authority : Citing quality content from a variety of sources on a specific topic helps you build authority and credibility around that topic. This allows users to find better content and helps search engines understand the platform's focus on that niche.
2. Saving time and resources : Writing high-quality content takes time. Even with the help of AI writing tools, all articles still need to be edited, rewritten and published. Curated content helps save some time by sharing similar content from other proven sources.
3. Networks and partnerships : Rather than obtaining syndicated content without permission, sources can be contacted and asked for permission to share their content. They may ask to share their content in a specific way, and honoring these requests will help you win partners and networks in your industry.

Below, let's take a look at content syndication in WordPress and how to do it right.

How does content syndication work in WordPress?

WordPress has built-in support for syndication using RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

RSS feeds work by publishing the latest content in a structured XML document. This feed contains full articles or summaries, as well as metadata for each item, such as date, author, category, etc.

This RSS feed can be found by adding /feed/ to the end of any WordPress website URL. For example:

https://www.example.com/feed

Users can use the Feedly Feed reader applications, such as RSS feeds, subscribe to RSS feeds. Other sites can also use these applications to get updates and post them on their blogs or websites.

Let's dive deeper and learn how to syndicate content properly so you get the most out of it as a publisher. Later, we'll also discuss the appropriate way to acquire syndicated content as a curator.

How to share syndicated content as a publisher/blogger

As a publisher and blogger, of course you want users to visit your blog or website directly to see your content.

So, if other sites start posting your content, will users still come to your site?

Will search engines treat this content as duplicates?

How do you make sure your articles rank high before those sites that republish your content?

Don't worry, we remove these concerns for you so that your content and website can retain traffic, be well search engine optimized and maintain a good reputation.

1. Summary rather than full content

Instead of making the entire post available to other sites, limit WordPress to only sharing a short summary of the content in an RSS feed.

To do this, go to the WordPress admin area in the"Settings" ""Reading" page, then scroll down to the "For each post in the feed, include" option.

From here, select "Excerpt" and click the "Save Changes" button to store your changes.

Now, your WordPress syndication feed will only show the summary or blurb of the post. Moreover, it is possible to customize the post to your liking with a more appealing summary, which is used to grab the attention of the readers just like the trailer of a movie.

2. Adding a link to the original article in the RSS feed

Content curators often use automated blogging software to get blog summaries and automatically post them to their websites. But this won't give you enough recognition. Even on some less popular keywords, these content crawling tools may outrank you.

To solve this problem, you need to All-in-one SEO for WordPress. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps you optimize content syndication summaries to your advantage.

3. Proper use of canonical URLs

Canonical URLs ensure that search engines don't get confused when different URLs point to the same content.

By default, your WordPress content may appear on the categories, tags, authors, and other archive pages of your website.

Sometimes the same content may be intentionally posted on different URLs for marketing purposes. For example, when creating separate pages for different advertising campaigns and promotions.

If you need two URLs for the same content, then you can use the All-in-one SEO for WordPress Add a canonical URL.

Simply edit the secondary posts/pages you don't want to be indexed, then scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings box below the post editor.

From here, switch to the Advanced tab and add the preferred URL to the Canonical URL field.

Don't forget to save the post or page to store the new settings.

4. Create and submit RSS sitemaps

In order to improve the search visibility and indexing rate of your website, it is necessary to Google Search Console and other webmaster tools to submit XML sitemaps.

Search engines also recommend adding an RSS sitemap to your website. an RSS sitemap is actually a list of your most recent posts in a small enough file that search engines can visit it often to discover new content.

With an RSS sitemap, your content can be indexed by search engines faster so that other sites can find your content. This also helps search engines determine which source posted the content first, thus recognizing it as original.

To add an RSS sitemap, all you need to do is go to the "Sitemap" page of the All in One SEO plugin and click on the "RSS Sitemap" tab. In the "RSS Sitemap" box, make sure the "Enable Sitemap" switch is on.

You can click on the "Open RSS Sitemap" button to view and copy the URL of your website's RSS sitemap. After that, you can submit the site map to theGoogle Search ConsoleUp.

5. Track your website analytics

Tracking website analytics can help you know which sources are bringing the most visitors to your website. What's more, it also allows you to monitor changes in traffic and take action as soon as you notice a drop in traffic.

In WordPress, the easiest way to do this is to use theMonsterInsightsPlugin to track analytics. This is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that lets you see how your website is being visited directly in the WordPress backend.

First you need to install and enableMonsterInsights PluginThe

Once activated, this plugin will guide you through the setup process. You can also learn how to set up the plugin in WordPress in our articleInstall Google Analytics(math.) genusPrevious postsThere's a detailed tutorial in there.

Once the setup is complete, you can access the Insights " Reports page to view regular website traffic reports.

The report page quickly shows you information about your website traffic in a way that people can easily understand. The charts at the top of the page visualize how your site's traffic is performing. You can view the website traffic report and analyze it in depth to see where all the traffic is coming from and if there are any signs that traffic is decreasing.

How to share syndicated content as a content curator

As a curator, you can use syndicated content to create an engaging experience for your users. However, to avoid being removed for copyright infringement or penalized by search engines for duplicate content, you need to get it right.

Here are some tips for content curators to share syndicated content to help you.

1. Finding Joint Content

Finding good syndicated content gives your readers a fresh perspective. Also, doing so prevents search engines from penalizing your site for duplicate content.

2. Requests for licenses to share

Because a site has an RSS feed doesn't mean you can automatically put their content on your site. You can share some of their site's content, but only within reason. However, the site's webmaster may feel that you are sharing beyond what is reasonable.

To avoid trouble, you should ask the original author for permission first. This will not only help you expand your network, but may also help you find a partner in business.

3. Use automated blogging software

You can also use a lot of automated blogging software to curate website content. We recommendFeedzyThis is a program, which grabs content from RSS feeds and automatically publishes it to your website.

Feedzy also helps you filter the content you want to publish. For example, you can choose to post only content related to specific keywords.

Also, Feedzy works with AI software like ChatGPT to help you touch up your content before publishing. However, remember to follow copyright rules and do this in a legal and ethical way!

4. Easily request deletion of content

As a content curator, sharing articles from other sources could land your site in a copyright dispute or even receive a DMCA takedown request.

If the creator is unhappy with the syndicated content you share, they may ask you to remove it.

To make it easier for them to make a removal request, you can add a contact form to your website.

To easily set up the "Request Content Removal" form, you can use theWPFormsThis plugin. It is the best contact form plugin on WordPress that helps you to create various forms.

I hope this post gave you a good understanding of content syndication and how to use it properly in WordPress.