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The Best Content Distribution Platforms for SEO Revealed

Farnaz Kia

Wednesday, 7th Jun 2023

So you’ve mastered the art of creating high-quality content and now it’s time to share it with the world.

You’re eager to see your target audience engage, but where do you start?

The answer lies in finding the best content distribution platforms for SEO.

Blogs, videos, social media, and podcasts are popular — and effective — ways to get your message out there.

Let’s look at the numbers:

By selecting the right distribution outlets, you can maximize your reach and guarantee that your efforts don’t go to waste.

In this blog post, we’ll explore various options that will help boost your online presence through strategic content distribution.

From blogging platforms to video-sharing sites, social media networks, and podcast directories – we’ll cover all aspects of a successful SEO content distribution strategy.

Dive in as we unveil our list of best content distribution platforms for SEO that will increase visibility and drive engagement from your target audience!

What Are Content Distribution Platforms?

Content distribution platforms are digital platforms that facilitate the distribution and dissemination of various types of content, such as articles, videos, images, and other media, to a wide audience. These platforms help content creators and publishers reach their target audience and increase the visibility and accessibility of their content.

Here are some common types of content distribution platforms:

Blogging platforms: Blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and Medium provide tools for individuals and organizations to publish and distribute written content. These platforms often have built-in features for social sharing, search engine optimization, and RSS feeds.

Social media platforms: Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok enable users to share and distribute content with their network of followers. These platforms provide extensive reach and engagement opportunities for content creators.

Video-sharing platforms: Video-sharing platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo allow users to upload and share videos. These platforms offer various features for content distribution, including video monetization options, video analytics, and the ability to embed videos on other websites.

Content aggregators: Content aggregators like Flipboard, Feedly, and Pocket gather content from various sources and present it in a curated format. They help users discover and consume content from multiple publishers in one place.

Podcast platforms: Podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts allow users to distribute and listen to audio content. These platforms offer podcast hosting, distribution, and discovery features for content creators and listeners.

Content recommendation networks: Content recommendation networks like Outbrain and Taboola display sponsored content or related articles on various websites. These platforms use algorithms to match relevant content with users’ interests, increasing content visibility and engagement.

News aggregators: News aggregators such as Google News and Apple News gather news articles from different sources and present them in a personalized format. These platforms allow users to customize their news preferences and receive publisher updates.

Content syndication networks: Content syndication networks like ZergNet and Revcontent distribute content widgets on multiple websites, reaching a wider audience and increasing content exposure. These platforms often focus on sponsored or recommended content.

These are just a few examples of content distribution platforms. The digital landscape is continually evolving, and new platforms and technologies emerge regularly, offering new ways to distribute and consume content.

How Content Distribution Platforms Can Help Your Business

Content distribution platforms allow entrepreneurs to tap into an existing user base to facilitate massive exposure for their brand.

Here are some ways these platforms can help your business:

Increased reach and visibility: Content distribution platforms provide access to a vast and diverse audience. By leveraging these platforms, you can extend the reach and visibility of your content. This exposure can lead to more brand awareness, website traffic, and potential customers.

Targeted audience engagement: Many content distribution platforms allow businesses to target specific demographics, interests, or geographic locations. This targeting capability helps you reach your desired audience more effectively, ensuring that your content is seen by people who are more likely to be interested in your products or services.

Build brand authority and credibility: Publishing content on reputable distribution platforms can enhance your brand authority and credibility. When content appears on trusted platforms, it can positively impact the perception of your business, establishing you as a thought leader or expert in its industry.

Improved SEO and website traffic: Content distribution platforms often provide backlinks to the original source of the content, such as your website. These backlinks can boost search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, improve organic search rankings, and drive more traffic.

Monetization opportunities: Some content distribution platforms offer monetization options, allowing you to earn revenue from your content. For instance, video-sharing platforms like YouTube provide opportunities to monetize videos through advertising or brand partnerships. This can be a source of additional income for your business.

Data and analytics insights: Content distribution platforms typically provide analytics and data on content performance. You can gain valuable insights into audience engagement, content reach, demographics, and other metrics. This data can inform content strategy, help refine targeting efforts, and optimize future content distribution.

Social sharing and virality: Content distribution platforms often have built-in social sharing features that enable users to easily share content with their networks. If the content resonates with a lot of people, it can go viral, leading to increased exposure, brand recognition, and potentially, new customers.

Cost savings: Content distribution platforms can offer cost-effective ways to distribute content compared to traditional marketing channels. Many platforms offer free or affordable options to publish and promote content, making it accessible to businesses of all sizes.

Overall, content distribution platforms play a crucial role in helping businesses promote their content, expand their online presence, and achieve their marketing and growth objectives.

Choosing the Right Platform

Your audience: Identify where your target audience spends most of their time online.
Your goals: What do you want to achieve through this distribution?
Your resources: Consider how much time and effort you can dedicate to managing and updating your content on each platform.

Source: Outbrain

Blogging Platforms for SEO

Bloggers who write articles with 2,000+ words are far more likely to have better results. Several excellent blogging platforms offer strong SEO capabilities.

Let’s explore some of the best options available:

WordPress

WordPress is arguably the most popular and widely used blogging platform and is highly regarded for its SEO capabilities. It offers a range of SEO plugins, such as Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, that allow users to optimize their content, meta tags, and sitemaps.

WordPress also provides clean and customizable URL structures, mobile responsiveness, and fast loading speeds, all of which contribute to better SEO performance.

Pro tip: If you’re using BrandWell, you can automatically publish all your long-form blog posts to your WordPress blog. Just install the WordPress plugin when setting up your project in BrandWell and you’re good to go.

Medium

Medium is another popular choice among writers and content creators who want to reach a large audience without worrying about technical aspects or website maintenance.

The platform has a clean design and focuses on delivering high-quality content, which could help improve your overall online presence and authority in your niche.

Squarespace

Squarespace is a website builder that also includes powerful blogging functionality. It offers SEO-friendly features out of the box, including customizable meta tags, clean URLs, XML sitemaps, and responsive design templates.

Squarespace prioritizes site speed and performance, which positively impacts SEO rankings. Additionally, it has an intuitive interface and provides built-in analytics to monitor SEO performance.

Wix

Wix is another popular website builder that offers a user-friendly interface and robust SEO capabilities. It provides customizable meta tags, clean URLs, structured data markup, and XML sitemaps.

Wix also offers advanced SEO features like 301 redirects, canonical tags, and SSL certificates to improve website performance. It has a range of SEO apps and integrations, making it easier for users to optimize their content and track their SEO progress.

Ghost

Ghost is an open-source blogging platform known for its simplicity. Its clean interface and intuitive design make it easy for writers and bloggers to focus on crafting engaging posts without distractions. Ghost comes equipped with built-in SEO features such as customizable URL structures, meta descriptions, and automatic XML sitemaps generation, which help users implement best practices for search engine optimization. The platform also offers a range of responsive and customizable themes, allowing users to create visually appealing blogs that align with their branding and style preferences.

One of Ghost’s standout features is its performance optimization. It is built on a modern tech stack (Node.js) and is optimized for speed, contributing positively to user experience and search engine rankings. Ghost also supports various SEO plugins and integrations that extend its SEO capabilities, including social sharing, schema markup, and analytics integration.

Source: Databox

Video Platforms for SEO

Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search traffic than plain text.

Short-form video is the most popular trend among marketers because it has the highest ROI. In fact, 90% of marketers who use short-form videos will increase or maintain their investment in 2023.

It’s time to unlock the power of video content to skyrocket your SEO rankings.

Research shows that websites with videos have a higher chance of ranking on Page One of Google.

No wonder YouTube is now the second-largest search engine.

The Big Player: YouTube

YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform in the world. And because it is owned by Google, it is highly favorable for SEO.

YouTube offers a range of features to optimize video content for search, including keyword-rich titles, descriptions, and tags. It also provides closed captions, custom thumbnails, and the ability to add annotations and cards to engage viewers and improve SEO.

Vimeo: The Creative Hub

If you’re looking for a more niche audience, consider Vimeo.

This video platform caters to creatives and professionals seeking high-quality content without ads interrupting their experience.

Vimeo is known for its high-quality content and robust SEO features. It allows users to customize video titles, descriptions, and URLs, which helps in optimizing video content for search engines.

Vimeo provides the option to include captions and subtitles — improving accessibility. It also offers privacy settings to allow users to control where and how their videos are embedded, ensuring that videos are properly attributed and linked back to the original source.

Wistia

Wistia is a video hosting and marketing platform designed with businesses in mind, offering features that cater to both video content creation and optimization for SEO. Unlike general video platforms like YouTube or Vimeo, Wistia is focused on providing tools that help businesses leverage video content effectively for marketing purposes. One of its key strengths is its emphasis on video SEO and analytics.

Wistia provides robust SEO features tailored specifically for video content. This includes customizable video SEO settings, video sitemaps, and the ability to add metadata such as titles, descriptions, and tags. These features are essential for optimizing videos to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for businesses to attract organic traffic through video content.

Source: State of Video Marketing Survey 2021

Social Media Platforms for SEO

People spend 147 minutes per day on social media. That’s two hours and 27 minutes of screen time that you can use to reach out to your target audience.

While social media is not directly used for SEO purposes, it can still contribute to a brand’s online visibility and search engine ranking.

The Power of Backlinks from Social Media

Earn backlinks from reputable sources within social media networks by creating valuable resources, cultivating relationships with influencers, and engaging in online communities.

Create valuable resources like infographics or guides that others will want to reference on their sites or blogs.
Cultivate relationships with influencers who may share a link back to you if they find value in what you offer.
Engage in online communities and forums where you can share your expertise, answer questions, and occasionally drop a link to your content when relevant.

Here are three social media platforms that can support your SEO efforts:

Facebook

With billions of users, Facebook is a powerful platform for businesses to reach and engage with their target audience.

Facebook posts can drive traffic to a website, generate backlinks, and increase brand visibility. Sharing blog posts or other content on Facebook can help attract attention and potentially earn shares and links, which can positively impact SEO.

Twitter/X

Twitter is a popular platform for real-time updates, news, and conversations. It can be used to share and promote content, including blog posts, articles, and videos.

By leveraging relevant hashtags and engaging with industry influencers and followers, you can increase your content’s visibility, reach, and potential for generating backlinks.

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that can be highly valuable for B2B businesses. It offers opportunities to share informative content, articles, and thought leadership pieces, which can establish a brand’s expertise and credibility.

LinkedIn posts and articles can generate engagement, attract backlinks, and drive traffic to a website.

Additionally, LinkedIn Company Pages and employee profiles can help improve the online presence and visibility of a business.

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform that allows users to discover and share ideas, inspiration, and products through images and videos. From an SEO perspective, Pinterest is valuable because pins can appear in search engine results, making it a powerful tool for driving organic traffic to websites.

For businesses and content creators, Pinterest offers opportunities to showcase products, services, and content in a visually engaging way. By optimizing pins with relevant keywords, descriptions, and hashtags, users can increase the visibility of their content and attract potential customers. Pinterest also supports rich pins, which include extra information like product details, recipe ingredients, or article summaries, making them more informative and appealing to users.

While social media platforms themselves may not have a direct impact on SEO rankings, the user engagement generated on these platforms can indirectly contribute to SEO efforts. It’s important to leverage social media as part of a broader digital marketing strategy to increase brand visibility, drive traffic, and potentially earn backlinks from relevant sources.

Tap into social media networks to extend your reach, enhance search engine rankings, and build up your brand.

Podcast Platforms for SEO

Nearly three out of every four podcast listeners say they enjoy tuning in to learn new things.

Statistics also show that 54% of podcast listeners are more likely to consider buying from a brand after hearing its ad on a podcast.

Podcasts are an excellent way to boost your brand’s visibility and improve your SEO results, but how do you choose the right platform?

Here are some of the best podcast platforms for SEO.

Apple Podcasts

As one of the largest and most influential podcast platforms, Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes) is essential for podcasters seeking broad exposure. Being integrated with Apple’s ecosystem, podcasts hosted on this platform can reach millions of iOS users worldwide.

Podcasters can optimize their presence on Apple Podcasts by using relevant keywords, compelling descriptions, and attractive cover art to improve discoverability and attract new listeners. Additionally, Apple Podcasts offers analytics to track listener behavior and engagement, enabling podcasters to refine their content strategy based on insights.

Spotify

Spotify has become a major player in the podcasting industry, offering a user-friendly platform with a vast audience. By hosting podcasts on Spotify, creators can tap into its extensive user base of music and podcast enthusiasts.

Spotify provides tools for podcasters to submit their shows, customize their profiles, and engage with listeners through comments and playlists. The platform’s recommendation algorithm also helps surface podcasts to users based on their interests and listening habits, enhancing discoverability. Moreover, Spotify’s analytics dashboard provides valuable insights into listener demographics and behavior, empowering podcasters to optimize their content and grow their audience effectively.

Google Podcasts

Google Podcasts is Google’s dedicated podcast platform, integrated with Google Search and Google Assistant. Podcast episodes hosted on Google Podcasts can appear in search results, providing additional exposure to potential listeners.

Google Podcasts is designed to be accessible across various devices, including Android phones and Google Home devices, making it easy for users to discover and listen to podcasts seamlessly. Podcasters can optimize their shows for Google Podcasts by ensuring episodes are tagged with relevant metadata and implementing best practices for SEO. The platform also offers analytics to track performance metrics and understand audience engagement, helping podcasters refine their content strategy.

Stitcher

Stitcher is a podcast app and platform that offers a curated listening experience for users. It features a wide range of podcasts across different genres and categories, allowing users to discover new shows based on their interests.

Podcasters can submit their shows to Stitcher to reach their audience and benefit from its recommendation algorithm. Stitcher also provides analytics tools to track listener engagement and demographics, enabling podcasters to gain insights into their audience and improve content delivery.

Source: Statista

Distribute Digital Content Like a Pro

Want to get your valuable information in front of the right audience?

Use a combination of platforms to deliver your message effectively.

Content distribution platforms are essential tools that help you share, promote, and manage your content across various channels.

By doing this, you can reach a wider audience while improving your search engine rankings (hello SEO!).

Publishing high-quality blog posts on WordPress or Medium can attract links back to your site, thus raising your search engine rankings.

Video hosting sites such as YouTube and Vimeo can be advantageous for building relationships with viewers and boosting brand visibility.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help you promote your content and reach a wider audience.

Podcast platforms like Apple Podcasts and Spotify can help you connect with your audience and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

To achieve optimal success, consider combining these platforms when distributing your digital content.

Identifying the correct platform(s) for your target demographic is essential. By using these distribution channels effectively, you’ll not only drive more traffic but also improve your SEO rankings by increasing brand awareness across multiple channels.

Written by Farnaz Kia

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