Syndicated content is content that is authored by another source and placed on your web site under license. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, it also implies that a purchase of the said content occurs, but I suspect that definition will change soon. RSS (acronym: really simple syndication) feeds tend to be free, and very often available for use anywhere according to fair use laws. They are getting more and more pervasive. This is important, as free syndicated content on a similar or related subject can be used to supplement home-grown content. However, before anyone thinks that I'm suggesting the creation of useless spam sites that leech off of feeds, I will state this: "Syndicated content should be used only when it is actually a useful addition, and only in moderation." Posting random news articles on random pages may somehow randomly defeat a spam filter, but it will still be spam. And I am not advocating spam. In particular, I use this approach on Lawyerseek to optimize for topical news. I use feeds to get news for all legal topics, update frequently, and display the newest news item on the topical page. That page, in turn, links to a legal news archive. We delete bad links over time, as having too many links that lead to 404s may eventually cause a problem. This is an example where syndicating news stories is useful. Used in moderation, it can provide free useful content -- both with regard to what search engines perceive, as well as users. Do not let the assertion that syndicated content is evil because it is frequently used for spamming dissuade you. Used in moderation, syndication can bring gains in rankings while also providing relevant related information to a user.