What Is Content Aggregation? Definition, Steps and Examples

Updated February 3, 2023

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If you manage a website or a blog, you can boost traffic and customer engagement through content aggregation. This process can help you optimize and present the content that users want, which can increase repeat visits and build a positive brand reputation. Learning about the aggregation of content can help you implement it for your content aggregationbusiness goals.

In this article, we discuss what content aggregation is, why it's beneficial and how to use it with two examples of the process.

What is content aggregation?

Content aggregation is collecting related data from various sources and then displaying all that content in one location so that it's easy for readers to reference and view. The primary purpose of content aggregation is to ensure it only collects essential information and focuses on the same topic. The process removes low-quality or irrelevant information so it can't interrupt the consistency and flow of information that's accessible. A person who uses aggregation doesn't inherently claim any of the content as their own, but simply gathers it for review and assessment.

For example, a luxury brand company sells high-fashion handbags through its online e-commerce store. On their social media account, they can aggregate content by collecting posts from their customers who have taken a photo with one of their handbags bought from the store. Displaying images of their happy customers on their official account helps to demonstrate brand authority, build community and encourage customers to continue posting and promoting photos of themselves with the luxury brand's handbags.

Why use content aggregation?

Using content aggregation can offer a variety of benefits, such as:

Faster learning: Access to a collection of useful and related information can save time and allows users to learn about a topic quickly. If users can read through all the information they need from one convenient location, they don't have to spend long hours searching through various websites to assemble the information.
Automation opportunities: Content aggregation tools and applications automate the content identification process, using keywords and phrases to gather critical information for you. This helps to minimize the need for labor-intensive aggregation, improving the efficiency of the process and allowing you to save valuable resources, such as time and money.
Increased traffic: As your content improves and becomes more relevant, users will likely continue visiting your website to read or view what you're going to provide next. As you gain more followers and visitors, you can expect greater organic user growth and an increase in your revenue.
Low cost: Content aggregation may cost less than creating your content, making it a viable and cost-efficient solution to gathering information and increasing your user base. Saving money in this area allows you to use the saved funds for more important projects, tasks and resources.
Customization: Content aggregation tools allow you to personalize and customize the information that you want to receive. This ensures that any data or content you include on your website only reflects the topics that interest you and your target audience, helping you maintain content consistency.
Improved in user engagement: On social media, content aggregation is a viable way to help improve how much your customers engage with your brand. This gives you greater insight into your users' opinions and how they feel about your company, enabling you to respond more efficiently to their concerns, questions and feedback.
Trend identification: Gathering content from articles, blogs and news outlets can help you locate emerging trends. This helps you determine the best content to feature on your website and how you might enhance it with your own creative insight, opinions and unique attributes.
Diversified information: Pulling your data from different sources is important because it helps you diversify the content you present to your readers. This can provide unique perspectives and insights you might miss if you only gathered information from one location.
Industry influencers: As you search through significant amounts of content, you will likely identify the leading figures within a specific industry. You can use these influencers to gain meaningful insight into what kind of information users value and why they gravitate to a specific source for it.
Search engine optimization: The content aggregation process ensures that the data you collect is relevant and current. Including meaningful information on your website helps to boost your rankings and SEO analytics, allowing you to further elevate your site's relevancy.

Related: Guide: What Is SEO?

How to aggregate content

Here are four steps to help you aggregate content:

1. Locate credible sources

Ensure that the sources you're aggregating content from are credible. Review each website carefully to verify that the information they provide is trustworthy. As you decide on which content to include on your website, make sure that it applies to your topic and is useful for your audience to read.

2. Add your own value to the content

After including and quoting the original content on your website, rebrand the information in your own style. You can do this by providing your insights into the text and posing a new perspective that the aggregated content might not have provided. Also, consider including excerpts from other external resources to help support your opinions and statements.

3. Summarize the content

When your audience wants to gather relevant information quickly, summarizing the content can make it easier for them to locate the needed material. This can ensure a more positive experience for your users. You can also put the most important information into bullet points.

4. Give proper credit

To verify your own credibility, include sources for the information you gathered. Credit the authors and publications so your readers can gather additional information. Besides crediting the source, use SEO within your content, especially if the information you gathered doesn't include proper SEO features. Optimizing your content the right way ensures that people can find it more easily.

Examples of content aggregation

Here are common examples of content aggregation:

Newsfeeds

News feeds, also called RSS feeds, collect concise pieces of relevant information from various sources and then distribute them to subscribers regularly. This can be an effective method to draw long-lasting users since the users usually subscribe to receive regular updates. Use content aggregation to ensure customers obtain the information they desire consistently.

Search engine results pages

Search engines are one of the most common examples of content aggregation tools. When you type in specific keywords, a search engine gathers links from many sources, often placing them at the top based on their relevance and high traffic numbers. To achieve this status, websites often use content aggregation to optimize their relevance and improve their SEO ratings.