B2B content curation is not a fad! It's a fact. According to a recent study conducted by MarketingSherpa:
84% of the surveyed B2B buyers indicated that they are very likely to click through industry news and articles from vendor sources.
Still, many B2B businesses fall prey to some ethical and SEO related myths that force some of them to avoid content curation altogether!
This article will address the 7 most common B2B content curation myths and offer bulletproof answers to them.
B2B Content Curation Myth 1: Curating 3rd Party Content Drives Traffic to Their Sites
That's a common misconception of content curation effect. Here is the deal: if you managed to consistently publish relevant content to your target audience, you will earn their trust.
In fact, they will be appreciative of the fact that you saved them time and lifted the burden of finding quality content off their shoulders.
In doing so, you will position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and will expand your branding and social reach accordingly.
B2B Content Curation Myth 2: Content Curation Is Unethical
There is a huge difference between curating content and "pirating" content! Here are some ethical guidelines to help you out:
- Give tribute to the original content owners by mentioning their names linking to their content sources
- Do NOT republish an entire third party story and make it your own. Simply quote few paragraphs or summarize parts of the content, making a clear reference to the content owners
- ALWAYS create DOFOLLOW links to their content and rest assured that your SEO will remain intact ( Check myth # 5 for more details)
- Finally, add value to the original post by offering your own tips and insights on the topic discussed. Intelligently building on curated content makes your final output authentically yours. I love that thought!
B2B Content Curation Myth 3: Hosting Curated Content Can Affect My Page Rank
This claim is sheer bogus! After Google Panda's algorithm update, hosting curated content on a separate domain that relates to your main topic will actually increase your SEO landmark. On top of that, it will magnify your chances of outperforming your competition in search results.
B2B Content Curation Myth 4: Having Duplicate Content Can Have serious SEO Ramifications
This argument could have some grounds to it if you are going to copycat 3rd party content word-for-word WITHOUT referencing the original creator! By sticking to guidelines presented in # 2 will make your content curation process perfectly ethical and worry-free.
B2B Content Curation Myth 5: Outbound Links Hurt SEO
Outbound links to original content resources will turn your site/blog into a valuable resource and as many happy audience start sharing your content and linking back to it, your inbound links will skyrocket.
Again, think of the branding rewards of being a trusted source of information in your industry.
B2B Content Curation Myth 6: Third Party Content May Overshadow My Content!
Yes, this could be the case if you curate great content and create mediocre content! Why not raise the bar and create equally outstanding content of your own?
In fact, if some visitors were initially drawn to your blog because you published some influential figure's content, your great content can win them over.
In other words, think of your curated content as a "teaser" that will bring audience to your blog. Once there, your killer content will make them browse-not-bounce.
B2B Content Curation Myth 7: I Hate To Be Labeled a content farmer"!
Trust me. no one wishes to be slammed as a content farmer! Content farming is a black SEO practice that pushes massive amounts of pirated and poor quality content to drive search traffic.
Again, if you stick with guidelines presented in myth# 2, you will be nothing remotely close to a content farmer!
Key Takeaways
More B2B businesses are starting to realize the unquestionable significance of content curation to their overall marketing strategy.
If done right, content curation can create massive branding and SEO rewards for your business.
Did you have previous reservations about content curation that this article cleared up for you? Do you still have some lingering myths you wish to address? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Your valuable contribution is much appreciated.
This is a great roundup of why content curation is great addition to have for any content producer. We created a content curation platform call Curation Traffic a few months ago and followed all the ‘rules’ you put above. I was surprised to see search traffic to it immediately. It also allow us to capture visitors we wouldn’t ordinarily have. Really the key is doing it right as you’ve outlined above, well that and being a good filter for the information your curating.
I couldn’t agree more, Scott. Your content curation tool sounds very impressive. I will make sure to check it out. In the midst of the information overload craze, one can’t help by feel grateful for content curation 🙂
To add to number 5, there’s was a test done by seomoz (sorry can’t find the link) that referenced when they started linking out more to authority sites, they saw a slight rise in traffic.
Is it necessary to have a separate domain for content curation? Can’t I open a section on my current blog and curate content there?
Thanks for a birds eye view of content curation, I have been dabbling with it for a while now and have seen no down side whatsoever, in fact I would say you gain more friends than you lose when curating stuff from others websites.