Today's Mission: Think about where to publish your content.
Many people think of running a blog as creating content and posting it on your own site. And it can go that way sure, but you can get a lot out of putting your content on other sites, too.
Why?
Because it can help you build a reputation, a larger audience, and a bigger online presence. But before we get too far into today's article, let's get into a couple of important terms:
Search Engine Optimization
What is SEO? It's the process of optimizing your content so targeted traffic is going to your offers. There are two types of SEO; On Page SEO and Off Page.
On Page SEO
On Page SEO involves anything you post to your website or blog that helps your search engine ranking. All content such as blog posts, articles, images, keywords, titles, subheadings, count here. Any changes to your website that helps you get more visitors is on page SEO.
Off Page SEO
Off Page SEO is anything you do to improve your content in all its forms. This means on any third party websites, including social media. For instance, improving your LinkedIn profile and linking it back to your website. Publishing your website on other sites is also off-page SEO.
Why You Need Both Types of SEO
It's important to consider both types of SEO. By doing so, you maximize traffic and build key relationships with your readers. You also spread brand awareness.
So how can you be most efficient at SEO? There are a couple of perspectives on this.
One is that it's important to publish everything on your site first, then focus on other sites. You can either link the content on your own site to another, or do a little rework and post it on other sites.
Another perspective is that you can syndicate your content. What does that mean? It means posting your content on your site then pushing it out to others.
Syndication works well, but duplicating content can have its drawbacks.
Why?
Search engines don't always like duplicate content. Moz has a great article on why, and you can read it here.
Now, search engines are much smarter than they used to be. If you've created something original and you're posting it to other sites, you may be okay. But I believe it's usually a good thing to avoid.
So what's the right way to republish then?
When republishing your work on another site, Google will need to know who deserves credit. So how can you be sure they get the right information?
Be sure that any publication republishing your work has the right source code. This way Google doesn't index that site's version of the work and attributes credit to you.
Another option is to rewrite or rework your content, although that can be a lot of work. For more information, check out Yoast's article about canonical URLS and how they work.
This is important stuff.
Where to Publish Your Content
It's always ideal to publish your content on your own website or blog first. Having said that, there are situations where publishing elsewhere also helps SEO.
Publishing your content off-site on other platforms builds backlinks to your site. It can also help you find a while new audience. Regardless of the benefits, it's important that you understand the process before starting.
Your mission for today is simple. Check out the articles on both Yoast & Moz above and get an understanding as far as posting on other sites.
Chances are if you're looking to connect better with your local patients, you won't need to go too deep into this. But, if you're looking to reach out into new territory, this could be very useful.
Say you're located in a major city, and you want to expand your delivery service. There could be some great organizations and publications that are a fit for your content.
Take a few minutes to jot down some places you think it might be useful to feature your content. Tomorrow we'll learn a bit more about syndication if that's where you decide to go.
Then on Day 9 we'll get into creating great headlines for your content. See you back here tomorrow for Day 8.