In today’s always-connected world, marketers feel pressured to publish as much content through as many channels as possible. It's easy to understand why people might seek shortcuts. Content marketing platforms like NewsCred provide high-quality licensed content through syndication, helping marketers tackle the sheer scale of content production.

Despite its obvious importance, marketers still have trouble nailing best SEO practices. Few methods are set in stone, and Google’s frequently shifting algorithm makes conquering SEO even more difficult. One consistency is that Google rewards distinct, meaningful content with more SEO power. The more unique and insightful your content, the better it will perform -- even in the face of Google’s capricious algorithm.

Content syndication must be approached carefully because it has the potential to negatively impact SEO or impart no meaningful search value to your site (if you properly credit the original source with a "rel=canonical" tag). Search engines treat licensed content with less priority. When you publish licensed content on your site, you’re actually just posting a copy of the original source material.

Irresponsible syndication can be detrimental to you, the original content publisher or both. When Google finds the same content on more than one page, there is a good chance that it will hide the duplicates completely. Google chooses the best version to display in search results, which will most likely be the original publisher's. As its Help Center says, “Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you'd prefer.”

NewsCred avoids Google penalties for the original content owner by inserting a canonical tag in every piece of its licensed content. This “rel=canonical" link element lets Google know which page is the authority. When you offer licensed content on your site, you need to give the original publisher its rightful SEO priority. This tag lets search engines know that your content is just a copy. Furthermore, any links to your licensed content will benefit the original publisher and will do nothing for your site.

Licensed content can serve as a supplement to your content curation. If you have the opportunity to add another marketing weapon to your arsenal, why not? But keep in mind that when someone searches for a story, your duplicated content probably won’t be the first to show up in search results. Licensed content serves your audience, but doesn’t do as much for your SEO as original content does.

According to NewsCred, licensed content costs three times less than original content. However, NewsCred is referring to the price of original, longform content, which is expensive to make. Not all original content is expensive. As part of our inbound strategy, we curate relevant news and blogs and summarize them into short-but-high-quality custom curated content with links out to the original source (along with a "hat tip").

We believe that the ideal solution is a mix of longform, middle-length, and short curated content. Longform content takes more time and money to produce, so having a strong foundation ratio of several curated items per original content item is essential. For Inbound Journalism sites, we'll also produce a steady stream of feature-length articles that serve to position the site sponsor as a thought- and industry-leading source.

We follow these rules for custom content curation to establish a good user experience:

• Provide unique content. Content that is too similar to existing content is bad. Duplicate is even worse. Include an original take that brings your own insight to the story. The more unique content you have, the better your page will perform in search engines.
• Add value for readers. If readers like what they read, then they will share your content. More shares means that Google find it more meaningful and bump it up in search results.
• Include links to sources. And only use trustworthy sources -- Google sees this, too.

Google treats custom curated content with the respect it deserves. Custom curation does several favors for your site and brand:

• Gives you more SEO power. You don’t have to worry about Google giving priority to a larger publisher that ran the original item.
• Establishes your site as an authority. Google loves meaningful content -- so does your audience. If you have something to say that can’t be found anywhere else, then you will attract potential leads.
•  Increases the chances of other sites linking to you. Google pays attention when other high-quality sites link to your site. If you offer meaningful content, other thought leaders will take notice.

All of these factors translate into more traffic, leads, sales and higher ROI.

Original, high quality content improves SEO and drives more traffic to your site. Once someone is on your site, you can offer them premium content behind landing pages to generate leads. Make your own bite-sized custom curated content before serving up someone else’s content.

Want to learn how to improve lead generation for your website through custom curation? Click the button below to complete an inbound marketing assessment at no cost or obligation.