Content gaps

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As your customers increase adoption of your site, it is crucial that you maintain and evolve your knowledge. Often times it can be challenging to identify which contributions will yield the most value to your customers. This best practices methodology demonstrates how to create a data-driven process for feeding your site with high-value content.

Why should I use analytics to drive my content decisions?

Use Expert data to determine where you should invest your time gives you higher content ROI. Ultimately this means that your content reaches more people, leaves a bigger impression and has more reach. This drives:

Decrease in support cases
Increase in customer satisfaction
Increase in customer expertise
Increase in customer/vendor alignment

What existing content can I tap into?

Often times our customers are sitting on a treasure chest of untapped content that is readily available and highly valuable. In this case, we are not referring to user manuals or frequently asked questions. Instead, we are referring to smaller quantities of content that is frequently used.

Tapping into existing valuable content is easy and rewarding. Additionally, moving existing business knowledge to Expert can drive adoption of your site. Consider the following sources of existing knowledge:

Support agent templates
Product specification sheets
Standard company processes
- Support process
- Warranties
- Returns

Lastly, you also want to look at other sources of your user guides. The more coverage you have, the more your customers will rely on your site. An increase in knowledge coverage may also correspond with a strategic initiative such as:

Launching a new version of your product
Offering your product in new languages

Which new articles do I need to create?

The key to identifying new content is to target activity that indicated users were looking for your content but could not find it. These are your customers who need help but are not able to locate the corresponding material. This list represents the opportunity to increase your knowledge coverage.

Source	Instructions
Search Insights report	Go to Site tools > Dashboard > Site Reports > Search Insights. Look for queries with 0 search results or 0 clicks. If you have an article that is related to the search term, create a search recommendation for the unlinked search term. If you do not have an article that is related to the search term, create a new article.
Google searches	Go to Google Webmaster Tools. In the left menu, go to Search Traffic > Search Queries. Sort the search queries report by Impressions. Search with high impressions but low CTR are ripe for introducing new content. Create a new article that is associated with the search term. Consider the significance of the search by looking at the Impressions column to determine how many users have struggled with this search.

Source

Instructions

Search Insights report

Go to Site tools > Dashboard > Site Reports > Search Insights.
Look for queries with 0 search results or 0 clicks.
If you have an article that is related to the search term, create a search recommendation for the unlinked search term.
If you do not have an article that is related to the search term, create a new article.

Google searches

Go to Google Webmaster Tools.
In the left menu, go to Search Traffic > Search Queries.
Sort the search queries report by Impressions.

Search with high impressions but low CTR are ripe for introducing new content.

Create a new article that is associated with the search term.

Consider the significance of the search by looking at the Impressions column to determine how many users have struggled with this search.

Which articles do I need to update?

The key to identifying which articles need to be updated is to target activity that indicated users found your content but then took an action that indicated they were dissatisfied with it. This list represents the opportunity cost of having the wrong content.

Source Instructions

Source	Instructions
Calculate your content impact	Go to your Google Analytics property view. Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Set your Date Range to a time period of 6 or 12 months. Change the Show rows to 500 (down at the bottom). Sort the Bounce Rate column header descending (highest to lowest). Export the report to Excel (XLSX) and open it with your preferred spreadsheet tool. Add a new column called Content Impact and enter the value as: =SUM((BOUNCERATE / AVG TIME ON PAGE) * PAGEVIEWS) Calculate the Content Impact for all rows. Sort the data by Content Impact descending. The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved. Create a column that counts the number of forward slashes (`/`) in the path and filter out rows with only 1 or 2 slashes. This will yield results of knowledge articles, excluding navigation pages.
High bounce rate	The rate represents the percentage of users that depart your site from an individual page. In Google Analytics, each page has a bounce rate and you can get a list of pages with the highest bounce rates. Pages with the highest bounce rates are prime candidates for review and repair. The high bounce rate typically indicates that users are stopping on this page and departing the site. There are more complex ways to analyze the bounce rate, for instance, you may want to only look at the bounce rate for users that had a time-on-page less than one minute. Either way, a high bounce rate is a strong indicator of bad content. Go to your Google Analytics property view. Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. Set your Date Range to a time period of 6 or 12 months. Change the Show rows to 500 (down at the bottom). Click the Advanced link to create an advanced filter. Apply the following filters: Sort the Bounce Rate column header descending (highest to lowest). The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved. You may want to adjust the filters (Pageviews and Avg. Time on Page) according to your site usage.
Low article ratings	Go to Site tools > Dashboard > Reporting > Community scoring. Refine your report scope with a Report Search Query: Page Type: tag:article:howto Author: author:<enter username> Path: path:<enter path (without your domain)> Click on the Rating column header (click twice to sort descending). The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved.

Calculate your content impact

Go to your Google Analytics property view.
Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
Set your Date Range to a time period of 6 or 12 months.
Change the Show rows to 500 (down at the bottom).
Sort the Bounce Rate column header descending (highest to lowest).
Export the report to Excel (XLSX) and open it with your preferred spreadsheet tool.
Add a new column called Content Impact and enter the value as:
- =SUM((BOUNCERATE / AVG TIME ON PAGE) * PAGEVIEWS)
Calculate the Content Impact for all rows.
Sort the data by Content Impact descending.
The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved.

Create a column that counts the number of forward slashes (/) in the path and filter out rows with only 1 or 2 slashes. This will yield results of knowledge articles, excluding navigation pages.

High bounce rate

The rate represents the percentage of users that depart your site from an individual page. In Google Analytics, each page has a bounce rate and you can get a list of pages with the highest bounce rates.

Pages with the highest bounce rates are prime candidates for review and repair. The high bounce rate typically indicates that users are stopping on this page and departing the site. There are more complex ways to analyze the bounce rate, for instance, you may want to only look at the bounce rate for users that had a time-on-page less than one minute. Either way, a high bounce rate is a strong indicator of bad content.

Go to your Google Analytics property view.
Go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages.
Set your Date Range to a time period of 6 or 12 months.
Change the Show rows to 500 (down at the bottom).
Click the Advanced link to create an advanced filter.
Apply the following filters:

Sort the Bounce Rate column header descending (highest to lowest).
The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved.

You may want to adjust the filters (Pageviews and Avg. Time on Page) according to your site usage.

Low article ratings

Go to Site tools > Dashboard > Reporting > Community scoring.
Refine your report scope with a Report Search Query:

Page Type: tag:article:howto
Author: author:<enter username>
Path: path:<enter path (without your domain)>

Click on the Rating column header (click twice to sort descending).
The articles at the top of this list are performing poorly and should be rewritten or improved.

How do I get users to tell me what I need to work on?

Analytics provide a great way to observe a macro view of your content performance; however, sometimes all you need to do is reach out to your users to get valuable insight. Encouraging feedback, providing channels for article suggestions and communicating with your users can often yield information that is otherwise inaccessible through data. Use the following methodologies to enable user feedback channels:

Source	Instructions
Create an article suggestion form with a SalesForce.com WebForm	Login to your SalesForce.com account. In the top right corner, click on your username and select Setup. In the left navigation, select Customize > Leads > Web-to-Lead. Click Create Web-to-Lead Form. Select the fields that you want in your form. Enter a Return URL, usually a thank you page. Click Generate. Copy the provided HTML. Go to your site and select a page where you want to place your article suggestion form. Click Edit page. Click View > Source. Paste HTML into the source mode. Modify the style (CSS) of your form as you need. Click Save. Add a link to your article suggestion form to your header and other pages.
Engage your users and elicit feedback through a knowledge newsletter	Sending your users and stakeholders a regular knowledge newsletter keeps people informed, builds relationships and provides an excellent channel for feedback. Whether you are eliciting feedback from your colleagues or from your customers, a knowledge newsletter is an excellent way to drive adoption and increase communication. Review our best practice to craft the right newsletter for your desired audience.

Source

Instructions

Create an article suggestion form with a SalesForce.com WebForm

Login to your SalesForce.com account.
In the top right corner, click on your username and select Setup.
In the left navigation, select Customize > Leads > Web-to-Lead.
Click Create Web-to-Lead Form.
Select the fields that you want in your form.
Enter a Return URL, usually a thank you page.
Click Generate.
Copy the provided HTML.
Go to your site and select a page where you want to place your article suggestion form.
Click Edit page.
Click View > Source.
Paste HTML into the source mode.
Modify the style (CSS) of your form as you need.
Click Save.
Add a link to your article suggestion form to your header and other pages.

Engage your users and elicit feedback through a knowledge newsletter

Sending your users and stakeholders a regular knowledge newsletter keeps people informed, builds relationships and provides an excellent channel for feedback. Whether you are eliciting feedback from your colleagues or from your customers, a knowledge newsletter is an excellent way to drive adoption and increase communication. Review our best practice to craft the right newsletter for your desired audience.