Anleitung: set up cross-posting for blog posts

Cross-posting — publishing the same content on multiple platforms — is an effective strategy for reaching a broader audience without creating entirely new content for each platform. Whether you want to share your blog posts on Medium, DEV.to, LinkedIn, or other blogging platforms, this guide covers the technical approaches, automation tools, and SEO considerations for setting up cross-posting correctly.

Blogging Platform APIs for Cross-Posting

Most blogging platforms expose APIs that allow programmatic content publishing. The two most common protocols are:

XML-RPC (Legacy)

XML-RPC was the original standard for remote blog publishing. While largely superseded by REST APIs, it is still supported by many platforms:

• WordPress: https://yourdomain.com/xmlrpc.php
• Community Server: https://yourdomain.com/blogs/metablog.ashx
• Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/feeds/BLOGID/posts/default

XML-RPC clients like Windows Live Writer (now Open Live Writer) and desktop publishing apps used these endpoints to create and manage posts remotely.

REST APIs (Modern)

Modern platforms offer REST APIs with JSON payloads:

• WordPress REST API: https://yourdomain.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts
• Medium API: https://api.medium.com/v1/users/{userId}/posts
• DEV.to API: https://dev.to/api/articles
• Ghost API: https://yourdomain.com/ghost/api/v3/content/posts/

Example: Posting to DEV.to via API

curl -X POST https://dev.to/api/articles \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "article": {
      "title": "My Blog Post Title",
      "body_markdown": "# Hello World\nThis is my cross-posted article.",
      "published": true,
      "canonical_url": "https://myblog.com/original-post",
      "tags": ["webdev", "tutorial"]
    }
  }'

Note the canonical_url field — this is critical for SEO (covered below).

RSS Feed Syndication

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is the simplest way to make your content available for cross-posting. Every major blogging platform generates an RSS feed automatically.

Finding Your RSS Feed

• WordPress: https://yourdomain.com/feed/
• Ghost: https://yourdomain.com/rss/
• Jekyll/Hugo: Usually at /feed.xml or /index.xml
• Medium: https://medium.com/feed/@username

Using RSS for Cross-Posting

Platforms like DEV.to and Medium can import content directly from your RSS feed:

DEV.to RSS Import:

1. Log into DEV.to
2. Go to Settings > Extensions
3. Under Publishing to DEV Community from RSS, enter your blog’s RSS feed URL
4. Click Save
5. New posts from your feed will appear as drafts in your DEV.to dashboard

Medium Import:

1. Go to https://medium.com/p/import
2. Paste the URL of your original blog post
3. Medium will import the content and automatically set the canonical URL

Automation with IFTTT, Zapier, and Make

Automation tools connect your blog to social media and other platforms without writing code.

Zapier

Zapier connects over 5,000 apps with “Zaps” (automated workflows):

1. Create a new Zap
2. Trigger: RSS by Zapier > New Item in Feed
3. Enter your blog’s RSS feed URL
4. Action: Choose the target platform
   • Twitter/X: Post a tweet with the title and link
   • LinkedIn: Share a post
   • Facebook Page: Create a post
   • Medium: Create a story
   • Slack: Send a message to a channel

Example Zap for Twitter:

• Trigger: New RSS Feed Item
• Filter: Only items from the last 24 hours
• Action: Create Tweet with text: New blog post: {{title}} - {{link}}

IFTTT (If This Then That)

IFTTT offers a simpler interface for basic automations:

1. Create a new Applet
2. If This: RSS Feed > New feed item
3. Then That: Choose a service (Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, etc.)
4. Configure the action template

Make (formerly Integromat)

Make provides the most flexibility with visual workflow builders, conditional logic, and data transformation. It is ideal for complex cross-posting workflows that need content formatting adjustments per platform.

WordPress Plugins for Cross-Posting

Jetpack (Publicize)

Jetpack’s Publicize feature automatically shares new posts to social media:

1. Install and activate Jetpack
2. Go to Jetpack > Settings > Sharing
3. Connect your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr)
4. When publishing a post, customize the sharing message in the editor sidebar

SNAP (Social Networks Auto-Poster)

SNAP supports a wider range of platforms:

• Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit
• Medium, Blogger, WordPress.com
• Telegram, Discord, VK

Konfiguration:

1. Install the SNAP plugin
2. Go to Settings > Social Networks Auto Poster
3. Add each network and authenticate
4. Configure posting templates with variables like %TITLE%, %URL%, %EXCERPT%

WP-to-Twitter

A focused plugin specifically for Twitter/X:

1. Install WP-to-Twitter
2. Connect via Twitter API credentials
3. Configure tweet templates for new posts, updates, and pages

Canonical URLs: Avoiding Duplicate Content

The most important technical consideration when cross-posting is canonical URLs. Without them, search engines may penalize your content for being duplicated across multiple sites.

What is a Canonical URL?

A canonical URL tells search engines which version of a page is the “original.” All SEO value (page rank, backlinks) is attributed to the canonical version.

Setting Canonical URLs

In your HTML head:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://myblog.com/original-post" />

On cross-posting platforms:

• Medium: Set when importing. Medium respects the rel=canonical tag and displays “Originally published at [your domain].”
• DEV.to: Set the canonical_url field in the article front matter or API call.
• LinkedIn Articles: Add a note at the top: “Originally published at [link]” (LinkedIn does not support canonical tags natively).

Bewährte Methoden for Cross-Posted Content

• Publish on your own blog first — Wait at least 24-48 hours before search engines index your original post, then cross-post.
• Always set canonical URLs — Point back to your original blog post on every cross-posted version.
• Customize per platform — Adjust the introduction or add a platform-specific call to action.
• Link back to the original — Include a “Originally published at [your blog]” note with a link.
• Do not cross-post everything — Select your best-performing or most relevant content for each platform.

Cross-Posting Strategy

Choosing Where to Cross-Post

Platform	Audience	Content Type	Canonical Support
Medium	General tech, business, lifestyle	Long-form articles	Yes
DEV.to	Software developers	Technical tutorials, dev topics	Yes
Hashnode	Developers	Technical content	Yes (custom domain)
LinkedIn	Professionals, B2B	Industry insights, career advice	No (manual link back)
Reddit	Niche communities	Discussion starters, tutorials	No (link posts)

Timing Your Cross-Posts

• Publish on your blog first
• Wait 1-2 days for indexing
• Cross-post to Medium and DEV.to (with canonical URLs)
• Share on social media (Twitter, LinkedIn) via automation
• Monitor analytics to see which platforms drive the most engagement

Zusammenfassung

Cross-posting expands your content’s reach across multiple platforms with minimal extra effort. Use your blog’s RSS feed as the content source, automate distribution with Zapier or IFTTT, and leverage platform-specific plugins in WordPress. The most critical step is setting canonical URLs on every cross-posted version to protect your SEO. Start with one or two secondary platforms, measure the results, and expand your cross-posting strategy based on where your audience engages most.