Tracking Metadata with Tags

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Tags are one of the best ways to track detailed information about your posts. To utilize tags effectively, we recommend that the author of the article inputs tags to reflect what the article is about. The tags that are applied are the keywords the author expects a reader to search for in order to find a post. To optimize the use of tags for reporting, it depends on what it is that you would like to track.

Here are some suggestions:

Reader Interests

Effective use of tags is one of the best ways to understand reader interests.  If you would like to track these interests, then the tags should be applied only to the content of a post. These tags are typically the keywords that a reader would search if looking for content relating to a particular post.  Adding tags such as “video,” “photo,” or “slideshow” are not as effective because readers are less likely to search for those terms when looking for content.

Sponsored Content

If you would like to track sponsored content, you can also assign a universal tag (for each post in a sponsored content campaign. If you would prefer not to use a universal tag, applying a prefix (i.e. [campaign name] – [tag])This allows marketers to measure the success of a particular campaign.

Multimedia or Post Type

Track types of articles that readers are viewing or specific aspects of articles. Examples include: articles with photos, videos, or slideshows could be tagged, respectively, with photo, video, slideshow. Other article types could include length, tone or source. You can use a prefix here as well (i.e. “Type: “Tag”) This will allow you to measure the success of different post types.

Once you have your tags set up and running how you would like, you can drill down deeper past your readers interests. Sorting your tags by traffic source can indicate trends about the types of readers that are coming from different sources. Sorting by devices can tell you which types of content work best on what mediums.