Is Content Curation Good for SEO? 11 Examples That Prove So!

Content curation. You’ve probably heard about it, you might have even read a few pieces on the subject but you never really went through it.

How many time did it happen to get a topic idea and start writing on it immediately? And after you’ve hit published you didn’t get the expected results.

The curated content marketing technique can actually boost SEO. Big time. And below you can find some case studies that prove exactly that.

Content curation has tapped its  way into the content marketing world to extend and empower relevant content in the online world. When done correctly, content curation gives a personal and relevant perspective to each published blog post.

The curation technique can help you to fuel your curated content marketing. It could offer you the chance to boost your SEO and bring valuable traffic to your website. 

The next 11 content curation examples will show you how content curation can improve your SEO strategy and results.

You will find out how to curate other people’s research, create outreach campaigns in the digital marketing world, transform boring content into mundane news, share unseen articles on search engines and so on.

1. What Is Content Curation?
2. Can Content Curation Boost SEO?
3. Use the Benefit-Driven Formula to Drive Over 27,000 Backlinks
4. Generate Over 13k Views by Curating Other People’s Research
5. Gather Fascinating Images to Create Curate Content
6. Outreach Content with the Help of Influencers
7. Make Brand New Content Using Other People’s Lessons
8. Use Visual Interactive Content Ideas for Boring Industries
9. Conduct Intriguing Research Through Videos
10. Leverage Trending Content Before It Happens
11. Make User-Generated Content (UGC) a Priority
12. Create the Best Go-To Source Content Using Statistical Data
13. Be an Authority in the Industry Through Powerful Case Studies

What Is Content Curation? 

Content curation is the process of gathering, organizing, writing and publishing relevant content around a specific topic.

An exact content curation definition cannot be traced out.

What you need to know is that the content curation methodology implies looking through the vast amount of content available out there, nicely sorting and arranging it out to transform it into an outstanding piece of content on a specific topic.  Of course, with the hope that the content becomes viral and generates a lot of traffic.

Content curation is not a new phenomenon, it is a known fact. The person that implements the curation strategy is named curator.

A curator can also be found at museum or art galleries. They are responsible for the collection, preservation, and display of items. In media, there are DJs that have the position of curator when they are assigned to select which will be played on the air.

Can Content Curation Boost SEO?

But how does content curation help you in your SEO strategy, you might ask?

Curating content delivers quality traffic, generates lots of backlinks, enhances your online presence and, therefore, boosts your SEO.

It turns out that curating content can help you generate over 13k views, over  40k links or 250k social shares, as you will see in the examples below. 

There are also content curation tools that can help you with that.

Scoop.it! is a good example of curation tool that can help you to see the best performing content for a specific topic by publishing curated content.

Quuu is an effective content curation software for social media you could use.

Zest is another great recommendation you could use to share and discover stellar marketing content.

Pocket Recommendations makes it easy for you to catch the content you care about.

SocialPilot is another great example. It is a social media marketing tool for conducting social media campaigns. 

Apart from the next 11 examples, we also advise you to consider curation communities such as Inbound.org, GrowthHackers, Designer News.

The amount of content being created and delivered on sites, blogs, and social networks is truly staggering. This is how content curation came along; a process that can help you out with your overall digital marketing strategy.

To make sure that content creation will impact your overall SEO, here are some processes you need to take into consideration when performing content curation: 

• Identify your target audience’s content needs
• Develop a fresh content framework
• If possible, do real-time curation
• Decide: what’s worthy to write and share

Before we dig into finding the best examples, let’s make a difference between content creation and content curation.

The first one has the power to create new and fresh content and the second one has the ability to bring content alive and generate traffic making it highly linkable. We should think about these two as if they were a process of content marketing split into two phases.

1. Use the Benefit-Driven Formula to Drive Over 27,000 Backlinks

Its very name, benefit-driven formula, explains what it is really about – the content that uses this formula offers a benefit to the reader.

Usually, this benefit is integrated using an actionable verb. A great example that uses the benefit-driven formula is, for instance, this headline: “12 unique content amplification techniques that earn 327% more links” as it offers the benefit: “ earn 327% more links” by using  those 12 amplification techniques.

Another great example of curated content that uses this formula is a guide from Backlinko named Link building for SEO. Pretty straightforward. 

The interesting thing is the fact that the title is organized by benefits, not topics, like this subtitle: “How to get world-class links with content marketing”. Note that it isn’t named “Content Marketing”, but instead it offers a benefit.

This kind of content must always respond to the viewers’ question “what’s in it for me?”. If your posts answer this question, then you’re on the right track.

The content began to receive traffic and links as it was, and only after that it was promoted. Of course, the design was another important trigger, but it’s another part of the whole strategy. You can see its great evolution in the next screenshot:

The Site Explorer can help you to discover the most high-performance piece of content by the number of links, ranks, shares or influence (such as domain influence or page influence).

2. Generate Over 13k Views by Curating Other People’s Research

Another example of a successful content curation is the article:  The ideal length of everything online, backed by research on Buffer’s blog.

This one uses the strategy of content sharing out of other people’s research from trusted sources. It gathered all the information on a specific topic, making it the most resourceful content data with information straight from the main source. You can find there info on things  such as the the ideal length of a tweet offered by Twitter, the ideal length for a headline by KISSmetrics, the ideal length of a blog post by Medium and so on.

Take a look at the screenshot bellow to spot the success of the blog post mentioned above.

This original approach, by curating content from the original source, is a great way to attract traffic and create a linkable piece of content on the long term. Making a blog post backed up by research generates a vast amount of views, traffic and user satisfaction. 

The article above is a good example of curated content because it gathers all the statistics for the ideal length on everything that is online. As the name says, it offers examples with the ideal length of a tweet, Facebook post, Google+ headline, ideal width of a paragraph, ideal length of a presentation and so on.

Sharing and discovering content is a huge pillar in every marketer’s plan of action. When managed correctly and systematically, content can make or break a marketing strategy. But the bigger part the content plays in the marketing strategy, the bigger the pain experienced by the marketers.
	Yam Regev
	CMO at Webydo | Co-Founder at Zest.is

3. Gather Fascinating Images to Create Curated Content

Gathering vibrant pictures is another great example of content curation. 12 Of The Coolest Offices In The World is an excellent article model of this type of content. The author used vivid photographs to draw the readers’ attention and keep their interest alive.  

This article had success due to the fact that it collected pictures with offices from around the world and put them together in a great mix up.

The blog post combined all kinds of companies with different types of activities and services such as fundraising, technology, hospitality service, architecture, fashion, toy manufacturing. The list integrated big, well-known names of the online and offline world.

Another aspect that is quite important is the fact that the article was curated on Bored Panda, a dedicated photography website, and also specifying the source for each photo.  

If we take a look at the data for this page in Site Explorer we can see it generated a lot of links and social shares.

Before you consider applying this content curation approach you should know a few tips:

• select only high quality pictures to drive engagement;
• try to post on websites that have a large number of visitors.

4. Outreach Content with the Help of Influencers

Using influencer marketing technique to curate content can place you on the road to success. The article 20 Social Media Marketing Tips From the Pros from Social Media Examiner is a strong example of this content curation technique. In the following printscreen you can see a preview from the outreach content.  

Using a mention outreach technique can really boost your online presence and bring you awareness. Take a look at the screenshot below:

The thing that makes this article so valuable is the fact that the Pros/Influencers used real and hands-on examples regarding everything there is about social media through their tips.

The author collected and published the article into a neat and eye-catching blog post. She observed the guidelines of an outreach article by choosing a particular topic, selecting well-known experts, picking a template and creating an engaging headline.

5. Make Brand New Content Using Other People’s Lessons

9 facts about computer security that experts wish you knew is another example of a good content curation strategy for improving SEO.

Gizmodo made a brand new article using other people’s advice and lessons. For each statement,  the author selected an authority in the industry to back it up. The information is gathered through an in-house research and not through a direct contact with the source/expert. That is the difference between this method and the previous one – the way the information was collected.

The good news about this type of curated content is that you could always improve it with new insights, just like the author of this blog post did. At the end of the article he left this note ”This article was originally published in March 2015, and has been updated” so the readers will know that the information is accurate and trustful.

After a quick analysis in the Site Explorer, we can see the data pulled out for this article.

It has a natural look and a natural distribution of links and referring domains. The Page Influence is Good, just like the examples we’ve encountered until now. The curated content also gets a large number of social shares, which shows that it is a valuable piece of content.   

6. Use Visual Interactive Content Ideas for Boring Industries

Content doesn’t mean just blog posts, it can also be displayed as video, visual, graphics and so on. Using interactive visual content ideas for boring industries is another content curation strategy. Cardstore by American Greetings, a greeting card retailer, created one of the most interesting birthday cards through a video to celebrate Mother’s Day.  

The video went viral and social shares, links, mentions started to flow. That happened because the brand used a unique method to deliver a birthday card, not following the traditional way at all. 

Below you can see the notable feat of this article.

You can see it has lots and lots of links, referring domains and shares on social media channels. The page influence is high and so is the domain influence. That’s a very good sign the video is powerful and has relevant content.

7. Conduct Intriguing Research Through Videos

A nice implementation of the method used in the title above can be found in the  #LikeAGirl campaign. The brand worked with a documentarian for this video to ask a group of girls and boys what it is like to do different actions “like a girl”.

A study showed that girls’ self-esteem drops twice as much than boys’ during puberty and since confidence is a brand equity they used this information in the concept of the video.

The phrase “like a girl” is used as an insult rather than a good thing. This video tries to change that by asking girls during the puberty period and young girls a few questions: “How does it look like to throw like a girl?” or “How does it look like to run like a girl?”.

The content strategy used by the brand helped it to generate a lot of traffic and views. The idea behind this project – to encourage and keep girls’ confidence high during puberty – also contributed to the success of the video. Actually, the study was the basis for this video, supporting the research with the help of the participants and also offering a conclusion.

The video is not only an experiment, but it also makes a stand in the end and shows what actions can be taken in the future. Using this content marketing strategy can offer you a high advantage from an SEO point of view.

Below you can see the great results for this curated content:

8. Leverage Trending Content Before It Happens

If you have news or insight from your industry, use it as a leverage to trigger traffic and social exposure in the online world. It is also a quite important aspect in terms of SEO.

Imagine the next situation. You have a friend who is the biggest guitar lover you know and you find out there will be an exhibition of rare guitars in town.

How do you think he will feel when you give him this info? Apply this situation for your readers. Offering them fresh and qualitative content is a huge advantage for you to win them over.  

To get inspired you can look for trends or related searches on Twitter, search mentions on BrandMentions, be a member of niche groups on LinkedIn, Google + or any other social media channel related to your business), or publish content from RSS feed, follow posts from GrowthHackers.

For this technique, it is important to search for intriguing news. Take GrowthHackers’s example. As you can see in the next screenshot, they tweeted three times in quick succession about the same topic.

This is just one example. For sure there are others that can be applied for sharing unseen article strategy.

To have great results using this method you should pay a lot of attention to the research data stage. Then sort out interesting information you can write about from emails, aggregator services, RSS feeds, books and so on.

An expert curator is a good researcher, on top of other aspects such as writing, promoting and SEO technicalities.

Quality content curators help us find the content that matters. The best content curators understand their audience and strive to only share high-value content that is aligned with their interests.
	Ross Simmonds
	Founder of Hustle & Grind

9. Make User-Generated Content (UGC) a Priority

User-generated content is all the content that is created by the user, such as comments, content submission, uploaded images or any other form of transferred public content.

For example, when a brand asks participants to do something such as uploading images or content in exchange for a prize is a situation of curating content. National Geographic uses this strategy for their Your Shot project to select the travel photographer of the year.

You can see for yourself that this curation technique is working just by looking at the results in the Explorer tool:

The page authority and domain authority is high, which shows the quality of this type of curation content.

Another technique would be to use the user-generated content to create new/fresh blog posts for your brand. For instance, you could use the comments from your users in a new article or your viewers’ questions from the forum in a new blog post.

Forums themselves are a good example of user-generated content. Fodor’s, the world’s largest publisher of travel and tourism information, has a whole category of Forums for different topics.  

The best part is that it generates a lot of traffic and links. On top of that, they use the forum to push visitors on other pages on the site. As you can see in the previous picture, on the first page of the forum, there is a section with the latest news and features from the website.

10. Create the Best Go-To Source Content Using Statistical Data

Another example that proves content curation is good for SEO comes from Hubspot: The ultimate list of marketing statistics. Creating the best go-to source content using statistical data can lead to traffic generation and social shares boost.

What makes this article unique is the way the information is organized by categories and subcategories, like SEO, content marketing, social media, video marketing, email marketing, lead generation, advertising, marketing technology, sales.

Basically, everything about online marketing gathered from different providers, which makes it a well-documented and excellent go-to source content.

You can easily find what you want due to this structure. It is meaningful and organized. The information is easy to read, using bullets, colored graphs, and all those subcategories.

Another important aspect is the simplicity of this article. It is neat and easy to follow, which is really important these days because nobody has time to follow chunks of text.

One of the main things is simplicity and quality of content, so if we get that right, we hope to remain on track.
	Daniel Kempe
	Co-Founder/CEO @ Quuu

The data pulled out for this article show it is a highly qualitative content and has started to gain more and more links recently.

11. Be an Authority in the Industry Through Powerful Case Studies

Glassdoor, one of the biggest websites that help people find a job through real reviews from previous employees, conducts in-house analyses and elaborates market trends. They have in-case studies that can really make an impact. For example, Demystifying the gender pay gap: Evidence from glassdoor salary data is a really good in-house case study.

Glassdoor used data from hundreds of thousands of Glassdoor salaries shared anonymously by employees on the website. One of the aspects why the study was successful is the analyzed topic: the gender pay gap.

It is very resourceful, examining it based on two approaches, one for workers with similar backgrounds working in similar jobs and, moving forward, one that splits those groups into male and female workers. This type of content curation provides real data information that basically anyone can read at and draw a conclusion out of it.

Below you can see the link juice collected by this article:

Conclusion

The content curation process might not be very difficult, it just needs a lot of attention if you want to have great results.

We thought that the content curation definition or the content curation tool might not be in handy all the time. However, some content curation examples will help you better understand what it’s all about. 

To become a good curator you need to have an eagle eye and be a good picker of the topic and the way you expose the curated information. We’ve written some previous posts on how to amplify your content or how to write a better one. 

No matter whether you use the benefit-driven formula, curate other people’s research, use visual interactive content ideas for boring industries, leverage trending content before it happens, outreach content with the help of influencers or any other example we’ve mentioned above, you have a good chance to experience these new approaches. 

If someone else did it, it means you could experience some good SEO results with these content curation techniques. And the good part is you can find a tremendous amount of content on the web you should juggle with.

As we mentioned before, it is important to know your public’s interest and to offer content that is relevant to your target audience. 

All of your curation efforts can lead to better performing content.

The previous guide will help you to get started with your content curation process. 

After you carry out your content curation strategy it is mandatory to continue with content distribution and promotion to bring the value and keep your article alive. You can start your sharing content process right now if you have content you failed to promote or that you did promote and is still relevant to your audience in the present.  

This is not a an ultimate guide or a definitive guide to content curation. We tried to offer some examples that really prove the power of content curation. We would be more than happy if you could contribute with some more examples.