WordPress Plugin: Parse.ly Content Helper

Overview

The Parse.ly Content Helper is a new set of content insights available to WordPress users of the Parse.ly plugin. When viewing the WordPress dashboard and Posts lists, and editing or authoring a post in WordPress, users can rely on the Parse.ly Content Helper for curated analytics, content insights, and information that is otherwise only available within the Parse.ly dashboard. Learn more here on how to install the plugin, and review frequently asked questions on the plugin.

Where to find it in WordPress

Dashboard

See the top posts on your site in the last 10 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days using our dashboard widget in WordPress. We can rank the top posts by page views or average engaged time.

To add this widget to your WordPress dashboard, select Screen Options from the top of the Dashboard page. Then select Parse.ly Top Posts. The widget will now display on the dashboard.

Posts

When viewing or searching for posts in WordPress, you can use the Parse.ly Content Helper to show you data on the performance of published posts for the last days. This data will display in the Parse.ly Stats column for published posts with at least 1 page view.

Similar to the dashboard widget, users can add this Parse.ly Stats column to their Posts view by selecting Parse.ly Stats from the Screen Options on this page in WordPress.

Editor

The Parse.ly Content Helper is a curated set of content insights available on any post you’re editing, right from within the WordPress Editor. Users can access the Helper by selecting the Parse.ly icon from the top right navigation of the Editor. The Parse.ly Content Helper contains content insights (Performance Details and Related Top-Performing Posts) as well as opt-in only generative AI (Title Suggestions, Smart Linking, and Excerpt Generator.). These features are visible as a sidebar on the right of the post when editing or authoring.

How to use the Parse.ly Content Helper in the Editor

See Performance Details 📊

The Performance Details panel shows content insights for the last 10 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days on the post you’re editing:

• Number of views and visitors.
• Average time spent on the page by visitors.
• Referrer data, including direct visits.

From within this panel, it is also possible to open the published post/page to view it on the website, or visit a detailed analytics page on the post within the Parse.ly dashboard.

Use the performance details data to:

• Gain quick insight and context into a post’s recent performance without switching tools or focus.
• Identify channels to focus on for future promotion by reviewing the current top referrers.

It is worth noting that we only display data for published content that has at least 1 view.

Publish smarter and faster

The Content Helper now includes a suite of suite of smart pre-publishing tools powered by Parse.ly AI to help you publish better, faster. Anything Parse.ly AI is opt-in only to ensure our customers have consented to the use of our AI capabilities before adopting them.

To learn more about the API powering our new Content Helper capabilities, see our API documentation.

WordPress sites on the WPVIP Platform have exclusive access to these features: Title Suggestions, Smart Linking, and Excerpt Generator.

Related Posts

The Related Top-Performing Posts panel provides a list of the website’s most successful posts that are most similar to the content you’re editing. You can filter the related posts shown by two metrics:

1. page views
2. average engaged time

And you can filter the data used to show related top posts by:

1. Tag
2. Sector
3. Author

This list of content insights is useful to:

• Gain insights and identify patterns on what makes a post successful, in order to write similar content in structure, style, keywords or other criteria.
• Get a list of top-performing related posts for linking purposes from/to the current content. Linking related posts increases depth of engagement with your website and improves the recirculation rate on your content.
• Identify top-performing posts that merit a deeper review; content refresh for evergreen posts, updates to author names, addition of new tags, and more.

From within this panel, it is also possible to open the related published posts, or visit their statistics page on the Parse.ly dashboard.

It is worth noting that:

• The similarity is based on the current content’s tag, category, or author (in this specific order of priority).
• Only one of the above is taken into account for similarity at the moment. You can, however, choose which data point you want to prioritize.
• If the content contains multiple categories or tags, only the first category or tag (as returned by WordPress) is taken into account for similarity.

How to disable the Parse.ly Content Helper

We’re sorry if you want to disable the Content Helper, but we understand that this might be needed for your use case. In wp-parsely 3.9 and newer, it is possible to disable the Content Helper using filters. If you are not sure which version you are currently using, please check the plugin settings page, where you will see the version number.

By default, all Content Helper features are enabled. Here are the filters that can be used to disable the Content Helper:

// Disable the Content Helper entirely.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper', '__return_false' );

// Disable the Content Helper Dashboard Widget.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper_dashboard_widget', '__return_false' );

// Disable the Content Helper Stats Column.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper_stats_column', '__return_false' );

// Disable the Content Helper Editor Sidebar.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper_editor_sidebar', '__return_false' );

// Disable the Content Helper Excerpt Generator.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper_excerpt_generator', '__return_false' );

// The above filters can be used in conjunction. Here's an example of 
// disabling all Content Helper features except for the Dashboard Widget.
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'wp_parsely_enable_content_helper_dashboard_widget', '__return_true' );

Troubleshooting

The Content Helper cannot be disabled using filters

Verify that you’re using wp-parsely 3.9 or newer and that the filters in question return false or '__return_false'.

The Performance Details panel is missing

Verify that you’re using wp-parsely 3.6 or newer, and have access to the Parse.ly content API.

New WPVIP customers – as of January 2024, we will configure your Parse.ly plugin with the API Secret needed to enable PCH. The API Secret field will not be visible in plugin settings.

Other WPVIP customers – you will require a Parse.ly API Secret to enable these features. Contact your account representative(s) to request that we install this secret.

Parse.ly-only customers – if you have purchased the API, you can find your API Secret in the Parse.ly Dashboard under the “API Settings” menu item. You will need to enter this into your plugin settings. If you have not purchased the API and would like to do so, email your account manager or support@parsely.com.

The Performance Details panel is not showing any performance data

Verify that the post has been published and received at least 1 page view. If there is still no data, please contact our support team.

The Content Helper does not seem to work correctly

Under the hood, the Content Helper leverages the Parse.ly API to get its data. However, ad blockers or browser tracking protection can sometimes interfere with the Content Helper’s HTTP requests to the Parse.ly API. Please add the website to any applicable allow lists and try again. If issues persist even after doing this, please contact our support team.