10 Best Content Syndication Platforms in 2023
- October 14, 2022
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Tom Bellink
Fact checked by Vahe Arabian 
Edited by Andrew Kemp 
Vahe Arabian
Tom Bellink
1
2
LinkedIn Publishing
3
Slideshare
4
Outbrain
5
Taboola
6
Quuu Promote
7
Shorthand.com
8
Dianomi
9
Medium
10
Substack
Content, once published online, rarely remains rooted to the same spot. It goes through an entire lifecycle of being published, shared, updated and — in many cases — being republished via content syndication platforms.
For both publishers and content creators, syndicating content can be a daunting prospect. On one hand, content syndication can help achieve greater visibility and generate additional backlinks that increase traffic to the site and convince Googlebot that a site is reputable. On the other hand, Google penalizes duplicated content and publishers could see their content slide down the search engines results page (SERP) rankings
Despite the risks, syndicated content is still a strategy worth pursuing, given the potential audience traffic and lead generation upside, as long as publishers minimize the risk.
For those just beginning to explore this space, check out our detailed guide on content syndication SEO to understand more about the process, its benefits and also its pitfalls.
A content syndication platform is a tool that enables the distribution of content across multiple platforms. It is a crucial component of a content syndication strategy, allowing publishers to amplify their reach by distributing their content to various third-party platforms. These platforms typically specialize in content syndication marketing and offer a range of features such as scheduling, tracking and reporting.
Content syndication platforms typically support different types of content such as articles, videos, infographics and other visual content.
Some of the most popular content syndication platforms include Outbrain, Taboola and Flipboard. By using a content syndication platform, publishers can increase their exposure while maintaining control over their brand messaging and content quality.
Content syndication is an increasingly important growth tool for publishers, given that it can both boost content engagement as well as SEO performance through backlink generation.
Indeed, the content syndication market’s value is projected to grow from $4.5 billion in 2020 to $5.3 billion in 2027.
Content syndication networks provide a way for existing content, especially evergreen content, to be reused in another space, saving time, money and effort. As this content is distributed to new places, it provides a chance to gain more traffic as audiences follow the content trail from the third-party site to the original publishers.
Another major benefit of content syndication is that small publishers can piggyback on the authority and reach of larger publishers who choose to republish their content. However, sometimes the reverse can also come true. If the content ends up on a site less reputable than the original, then the content may come to be viewed as less trustworthy.
With that in mind, here’s our list of the 10 best content syndication platforms in 2023.
1
Flipboard is a free-to-use content syndication platform with more than 100 million active users, while major publishers such as The New York Times, The Verge and National Geographic host their content on the platform.
Flipboard actively promotes user content through, and any clicks on posted articles will redirect to the publisher’s site generating a sizable amount of referral traffic.
Flipboard openly communicates its website’s demographics: one-third are Millennials, one-third are Gen-X and the remaining third are Baby Boomers. Their audience is evenly split between male and female and is generally described as being influential and affluent. The wealth of information Flipboard has at its disposal will help publishers to accurately target audiences.
One unique feature of Flipboard is the ability to craft “magazines” from the publisher’s content. This option allows publishers to categorize their content and distribute it in an engaging way, as audiences can flip through articles like a magazine. The magazines can be shared through social media, in email newsletters and be embedded in the footer of a publisher’s article.
2
LinkedIn is the world’s most popular social media platform for professionals, with more than 850 million users worldwide. This is why it’s claimed one of our top spots as a content syndication solution.
LinkedIn aims to foster business relationships by offering users the means to publish articles that can be backlined to the original publisher, providing effective content syndication.
Using its networking and following features, publishers can significantly expand the reach of their articles on the platform. However, with no systems dedicated to truly helping growth, there is a limit to the reach of LinkedIn content compared to content on paid content syndication platforms.
Because the network is a business social media platform, the most effective content published on the platform is B2B content. While there is no price tag to using the platform, there’s no means of directly generating revenue either.
3
Slideshare, a presentation sharing and hosting platform, is another platform with content syndication solutions. With 80 million professionals visiting the site, Slideshare is a site with a lot of potential for B2B content.
The platform is based on the idea of the slideshow, and most of the documents uploaded to the site take that form. However, Slideshare does allow for article documents to be uploaded and shared as well.
Most of Slideshare’s content is distributed through targeted searches. In fact, 80% of all users land on a publisher’s page because of a targeted search. Therefore, learning to master content syndication SEO will lead to growth on the platform.
The platform also offers a range of tools and tips for visual design, analytics and other useful information in its Creator’s Hub. As designing a good-looking slide is a key component in performance on the platform, these resources may prove to be an informative guide.
4
Outbrain is a web recommendation platform with a strong content syndication solution. In 2020, Outbrain syndicated articles from more than 100,000 websites, delivering more than 10 billion daily recommendations for over 20,000 advertisers. The articles they host appear on outlets such as CNN as ads.
Outbrain’s pricing is structured on a cost-per-click (CPC) format, meaning publishers will pay whenever a user clicks on the article. This format allows for variable pricing structures, wherein publishers can set a budget for the campaign and when that budget is reached, their content stops being distributed. This means Outbrain offers flexible marketing approaches to suit publishers of all sizes.
Outbrain offers a great deal of customization in the distribution of published content. It has a non-interruptive ad format, which is becoming more valuable than its interruptive counterpart. It also allows publishers to tailor their content to specific audience segments, paving the way for the development of targeted marketing campaigns for pre-published content.
5
Taboola is a content syndication platform that has more than 500 million daily active users and over 9,000 publishers. Some of Taboola’s prominent publishing partners include news portals such as USA Today, NBC and CBS News.
Taboola operates by placing a feed of suggested content at the end of host articles. Here’s a mock up of how the feed will appear on partner websites
Users can scroll through personalized articles on these feeds much the same way that they might on social media platforms. This style of content distribution can help publishers reach new audiences for their content in a relatively unobtrusive manner.
Taboola charges syndicators/advertisers on a pay-per-click (PPC) basis, while also offering a cost-per-mille (CPM) pricing solution.
A bonus to Taboola is that it offers publishers the ability to personalize user experience, allowing them to optimize their target audience. The platform also provides publishers with actionable editorial insights on content performance, which can help with the ideation process as well as with the creation of new strategies to engage audiences.
6
Quuu Promote is another content syndication network specializing in sharing content across social media. Depending on the publisher’s business goals, Quuu pushes content on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms seeking to drive engagement, likes and shares.
Unlike other content syndication platforms that leverage the authority of large publishers, Quuu acquires visibility for its content by banking on real people sharing and interacting with content on social media. The focus on real people enhances the probability of content reaching its targeted audience, as the individuals already operate inside of those communities.
Quuu Promote generates 120,000 daily shares of publishers’ content, with a lifetime total of more than 50 million. Its website also has analytical tools that can estimate the number of shares and views a publisher’s content could generate via categories.
Quuu provides three pricing options: $75 per month, $150 per month and $750 per month. Price increases with the number of available monthly posts, ranging from 10 posts to 100 posts.
7
Shorthand specializes in high-end visuals and ease of use. It is used by well-known media organizations and businesses such as the BBC, Penguin Publishing and Unicef.
Shorthand is optimized visually, with the ability to integrate animations and media in a scroll-based article format. For example, animations can change in the background as the user scrolls through the article. It doesn’t require any advanced knowledge to integrate these elements, as they have been designed for layman use.
Although Shorthand may appear to be free on the surface, only the first three articles are free to publish. From then, the pricing starts at $200 a month with more advanced features opening up at $1,000 a month.
8
Dianomi is another content syndication solution that relies on native ads to attract eyes to publishers’ content. The ads generated from Dianomi can appear beside videos, within the text of an article or towards the bottom of an article.
Dianomi is a well-established content syndication platform with over 315 publishers worldwide and partnerships with Bloomberg, Business Insider and The Washing Post. They serve 12.8 billion ads per month to a global audience of 500 million.
What separates Dianomi from its competitors is that it’s geared towards a more affluent audience, and the content that is syndicated reflects that target. The audience segments they target tend to have an average income of or above $100,000.
Dianomi also offers a CPC system of payment and offers publishers the ability to set a budget of how much they want to spend. The platform stops distributing when the budget is met.
9
Medium is one of the most popular blog and article hosting websites boasting over 100 million users. The website allows users to publish and market their own content, which means it can be used as a content syndication platform.
However, the downside to this is that publishers will not be able to rely on the platform to share stories for them — they must rely on an algorithm.
The algorithm supports quality content and distributes articles to its users by the amount of interest in the article, measured by the number of users that visit the article and by how long they read it.
Another attractive aspect of Medium, is that the platform pays publishers to host content. Although the amount generated isn’t spectacular — only 6.4% of active writers on Medium generate more than $100 — most publishers would surely welcome an alternative income stream over and above the other benefits of publishing to a content syndication platform.
10
Substack is a writing and publishing platform that can also be used for content syndication. It is a site that has been built around writers, as a form of self-publication and subscription, but a lot of the platform’s features can be repurposed for content syndication.
Substack has an inbuilt newsletter and subscriber features. The platform allows publishers to import their mailing lists from other platforms into the site to build a newsletter for any publications they make on the site. Users can access publisher content via subscribing to content.
Substack helps to generate publisher growth through their site, boasting that more than 30% of new subscribers come from internal systems. While free of fees, Substack does take 10% of any revenue earned on the site.
Content syndication offers publishers a way to breathe new life into old content. Not only do they boost visibility for publishers’ content, they also help to generate valuable backlinks that improve SERP rankings.
While we’ve covered several different content syndication platforms, there are a few more ways to syndicate content that are worth mentioning. Video syndication is a unique way to reuse old content. Transforming existing content into video and uploading to sites such as YouTube is emerging as a promising editorial strategy.
For digital video publishers, audio content syndication might be an interesting way to republish content. For more insights into making content reach its full growth, check out our guides on content promotion strategy and content atomization.
There is no clear winner as Outbrain’s area of expertise lies in content discovery, whereas Taboola primarily concentrates on native advertising. It ultimately comes down to individual needs and preferences, so we recommend comparing their features, pricing and customer support before making a decision.
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