Running a content website today is more competitive than ever, with the web flooded with news and content of every kind. If you don’t catch each audience member’s eye with the most appealing, relevant, and engaging content for them, then they are likely to spend their valuable time elsewhere, on another site that does. But how is is possible to show every user what they most want to see?
Well, that is a use case for personalization technology, with algorithms to dynamically adjust what each visitor is presented with from moment to moment, based on their most recent activity as well as overall patterns of interest from browsing behavior. With a fully personalized content site, the only thing that’s the same for all visitors is the structure of the site (although even that is optional!), the rest is unique to each person.
Content Website Homepage Personalization
The homepage is the place where engagement begins, and whether you’re considering a new or returning visitor, there’s always something to personalize or optimize.
When a returning visitor lands on your homepage, Personyze probably already has a ranked set of interests from previous interactions, and so you have a variety of options for how to personalize the homepage. A “Finish Reading” recommendation is often recommended, showing articles that were viewed and scrolled at least 5% but not scrolled 100%, as well as various newest or most popular from the user’s favorite categories, topics, or authors.
It’s also possible and often effective to show banners for content or affiliate links based on their previous content interactions here, as well.
Recommendations for Content Listing Pages
On your content pages, it’s all about combining what you know about the visitor from the past with what they are showing an interest in right now. Multiple algorithms can be used, including latest from the author being currently viewed, most popular from the associated topic(s) of interest, and more user-centric recommendations, like Recommended for You.
These personalized content recommendations are sure to keep the visitor clicking through and engaged, whether any given article they’re currently reading is what they were looking for, or not.
Recommendations for Category Pages
Visitors on a content category page are aware of what they’re generally looking for, and shopping around for a particular piece of content that will engage them; that’s the reason you visit a content category page. With personalized recommendations on category pages, you drastically increase the likelihood that they will find what they’re looking for, because the individual content items shown aren’t just a static list of all content from that category, but are dynamically generated based on what is most popular, and perhaps what has crossover with their other tracked interests in Personyze.
Email Content Recommendations
Finally, your visitors’ experience of your brand is greatly enhanced by having personalized recommendations in your emails. These are what will keep audiences coming back for more, using algorithms to make each marketing email uniquely tailored to that individual. Here, a variety of algorithms can be useful, but there’s something to be said for the simple “Finish Reading” and “Latest from Your Favorite Authors.” It’s also possible to create an entirely personalized newsletter, which is essentially a combination of multiple of these algorithms all placed into a singular email template. Imagine, a newsletter tailored to each news reader.
Conclusion
Personalization is essential for content and news websites nowadays, in the same way that it is for ecommerce. The reason people can’t stop looking at social media is because of personalization, and with algorithmic content recommendations from Personyze, it’s possible for your website to have a similar level of engagement. Visiting a news website with personalization is like reading a newspaper where all the articles you’re interested in magically move to the front page. If you had to choose between two newspapers, why would you ever not choose the magical one? Furthermore, there are fairly clear guidelines and best practices, as summarized in this post, which you can follow if you’re just getting started with personalization.
