Content marketers are fully aware of the saturation of content on the interwebs. After all, WordPress reports that its users produce 70 million blog posts a month. Further, blog production increased from 2019 to 2020. Every organization is fighting to remain relevant and top-of-mind to audiences, which is why many brands are turning to a content aggregator website.
Leveraging such a site can lead to greater visibility in a very noisy world. In this post, we’ll define what a content aggregation website is, how it works, and the advantages it can offer.
What Is a Content Aggregator Website?
This type of website automatically collects data from other sources online and then aggregates it into one central hub where users can easily access it. You’re likely familiar with these—Reddit, Google News, and Flipboard are prime examples. People post content and these sites aggregate them into organized categories, mostly by topic. Some aggregators are very broad, while others are more specialized.
There are lots of ways to define what to aggregate, including by:
- Industry
- Keyword/topic
- Hashtag
- Channels
For example, you could aggregate content based on relevant hashtags and collect those from social media sites that permit hashtag usage. You could also gather content based on a channel from YouTube or Vimeo.
For clarification, aggregation of published content isn’t plagiarism. The platform attributes the content to its author or source. All you’re doing is making it easier for your readers to find information that matters to them. Checking out your content analytics can give you some ideas of the topics and formats your audience most appreciates.
What Aggregation Rules Should You Set?
You’ll want to include aggregation rules if you decide to launch one. Some key things to consider:
- Credibility of the source: Make sure it’s reputable and factual.
- On-brand evaluation: Include sources that share the same values and perspective that your company does.
- To block or not block direct competitors’ content?
- Checking languages to ensure it aligns with the geographies where you do business.
Does Content Aggregation Dilute Your Brand?
If you aggregate content from your industry, are you creating more competition for your content? That’s an easy assumption to make, but it’s a misconception. While you probably don’t want to include content from a direct competitor, it makes sense to use indirect competitors and industry experts.
For example, in our case, we probably wouldn’t aggregate content from other content marketing software platforms, but we’d include stories from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) or other authorities on the subject.
What you’re doing with content aggregation is making it easier for your audience to learn about challenges and find solutions. It’s not unlike third-party content you curate for social media. It has the same effect of delivering value to your buyers but with content that’s not just from your brand.
Best Practices for a Successful Content Aggregation Website
Having the right platform and rules is the start of creating a successful website. You can do more to ensure you’re imparting quality information and experiences to your audience.
- Offer insights: You can include some commentary on a post demonstrating thought leadership and a point of view.
- Summarize: Summing up an article can be helpful for skimmers that don’t have much time. Bullet points are very effective.
- Consider SEO: Not every article will follow SEO best practices. You can optimize these pieces as the aggregator.
- Attribute properly: Always give credit to the author or source.
- Prompt discussion: Take the time to pose some questions around content that could spur meaningful conversation.
Benefits of Content Aggregation
If you implement new content marketing tactics, you need to determine what the ROI (return on investment) will be. Here are the most common benefits that make it a good decision for brands.
- Expand your audience: If you create an inclusive site full of lots of information that your buyer persona will appreciate, you can increase your audience base.
- Engage more: Engagement is critical to content marketing, and content aggregation can help you. You’re providing your audience a wealth of information that’s not just about your solution. For example, if you offer patient satisfaction software to hospitals, that’s only one part of what your audience needs as a healthcare tech professional. There are lots of other categories of content that would be useful to them.
- Build customer loyalty: Offering content aggregation is a resource for your buyers. Providing them with this could positively impact their view of your brand and strengthen their loyalty to it.
- Increase revenue: If you expand your audience, you’re likely to encounter buyers that are new to you. This first introduction could lead them to want to know more about your solutions.
How to Create an Aggregator Website
Creating an aggregator website is simple, thanks to technology. You can use platforms to launch your own, or you can use a homegrown system. That could be more costly and delay efforts. If you’d rather use a tool, here are some easy options.
Curator.io
- Free and paid options
- Specific to social media feeds and supports almost all the players
- Features advanced filtering with rule blocking on types of content or sources
- Brandable and open API
- Hashtag friendly
- Analytics and reporting functionality
Check out the video below to see how it works.
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- Publish or embed on any website
- RSS feed powered
- Free and paid plans
- Search, filter, and automation features
- Capabilities to send out aggregated newsletters to subscribers
See how it works in the tutorial below.
Miappi
- Focuses on user-generated content (USG)
- Can aggregate images, videos, and comments from social media sites
- Customizable and configurable
- Has features to ensure correct permissions for republishing content
- Analytics and reporting
- Paid versions only.
Watch the video below for a preview of functionality.
Should You Launch a Content Aggregation Website?
A content aggregation site can deliver benefits for your brand and audience. It’s fairly easy to implement with the right technology, a plus for busy enterprise content teams. It’s always something you can test out, and you can easily measure its impact. It could deliver more traffic to your website and conversions.
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