Optimization for Content Sites: Analytics, SEO, CRO
Martijn Scheijbeler / Director of Marketing / martijn@thenextweb.com / @MartijnSch

@MartijnSch@MartijnSch
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Optimization for Content Sites
Better tracking, better decisions
Better decisions, better results
“What you’re not tracking, you don’t know!”
“Implementing better tracking creates more insightful data”
“The better the data is the more insightful your decision will be”
“Your results get better by the decisions you make”
“Just as long as the decisions you make are better decisions”
Better results, reach your business goals

How to provide context
How to optimise context
@MartijnSch
WHAT YOU GET OUT OF THIS?
We’ll share the set-ups we use at The Next Web around Analytics, SEO, CRO.

Data is Dumb! How to make it Smart?
@MartijnSch

Analytics
MORE & BETTER DATA?
SEO
MORE & BETTER TRAFFIC?
CRO
MORE ENGAGEMENT?

MEDIA
News
E-commerce
EVENTS
Events
Conferences
WORK SPACES
TQ
INTELLIGENCE
Index.co

The biggest difference, it’s not all about money. Unfortunately!

@MartijnSch
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Unique Users
Growing our unique user base will
increase the potential to reach Generation T.
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Our metrics/KPIs for success;
User Engagement: PV/Session
A higher engagement with our user base will
increase the number of pageviews per session.
User Retention: Returning %
Increasing the percentage or returning users will
increase our brand awareness.
Newsletter Signups
To get a relationship with our users we’d like to
have their email address for the newsletter.
Social Shares
More shares will influence our reach amongst
new and returning users.

What we track &
How we do this?
@MartijnSch
ANALYTICS:

What makes it different:
Publishers v.s. E-commerce?
@MartijnSch

You need a plan! This is what our ‘Tracking Plan’ looked like.

Google Analytics (GA) & Google Tag Manager (GTM)

• Send data to the dataLayer
• Able to create variables
• Use the data however you want
The DataLayer

• 57 Custom dimensions
• Examples:
• Author
• Adblocked
• A/B Testing
• Post ID
• Client ID
Custom
Dimensions

• 4 Custom Metrics
• Examples:
• Ads Loaded
• Comments
• Ads not Loaded
• Words
Custom Metrics

• 23 Calculated Metrics
• Examples:
• Customer Lifetime Value
• AVG Cost per Session
• Non Bounces
• Cost of Acquisition
Calculated
Metrics

Event Tracking
What is going on and why is that
happening? That’s what event
tracking helps with.
Examples:
• JavaScript Errors
• Ads Loaded or Not Loaded
• Share Buttons
• Contact Forms
• Integrations with Google DFP

Scroll Depth
Do you really know if people read
your content, you don’t, right?

Time on Page
Do you really know if
people read your content,
you don’t, right?
But on a high bounce rate
page it’s really hard for
web analytics tools to
calculate the perfect time
on page.

You want to know what
happens in the funnel of your
ecommerce shop, right?
But how does that work for a
publisher? We figured it out.
Enhanced
Ecommerce
@MartijnSch

Custom Data
Custom information:
Content, Metrics, Data
Engagement
What’s a user doing:
Scroll tracking, event tracking
Testing
What does(n’t) work:
Testing via Google Tag Manager
Enhanced Ecommerce
Improving Ecommerce:
More info on the transaction process
Filters
Excluding + Improving:
Page information + cleaning
Cost Data
Calculate your ROI:
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.

@MartijnSch@MartijnSch
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We make most of this available!
Download via:
Github.com/TheNextWeb/GTM
Import the container in GTM
Configure what you (don’t) need
Download as ZIP, import the container in
Google Tag Manager to get started.
The documentation in Github will tell you what
to configure in Google Tag Manager.
Share the love!
You can import a container in Google Tag
Manager with a preconfigured set of tags,
variables, values to get started immediately.
Our GTM set-up is now available for you!

TLDR;
Web Analytics
@MartijnSch
1. You obviously know your business goals
2. For publishers it’s not all about money
3. Know your micro conversions inside out
4. Leverage all options in GA & GTM
5. Track the sh*t out of everything!

What we want to rank for &
How we do this?
@MartijnSch
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION:

What makes it different:
Publishers v.s. E-commerce?
@MartijnSch

Facebook, Google, Apple,
YouTube, Amazon, Alibaba,
Samsung

It’s hard for Google to
understand the META
information. Definitely if
you don’t provide it the
right (structured) way.
Google is dumb!
@MartijnSch

TLDR;
Search Engine
Optimization
1. Competitive like hell!
2. Make sure you’re ‘different’ from others
3. Optimize whatever you can to the max
4. Schema.org is going to help you out!
5. It is all about scalability
@MartijnSch

What we optimise for &
How we do this?
@MartijnSch
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMIZATION:

Testing Figures
Data from 2015
2,5CRO Team in 2015
38.000.000Sessions with Tests
0CRO Team in 2014
5-7Tests per week
PricelessAmounts of fun
35%Traffic v.s. Tests
@MartijnSch

“If you double the number of
experiments you’re going to
double your inventiveness”
- Jeff Bezos
@MartijnSch

What makes it different:
Publishers v.s. E-commerce?
@MartijnSch

The opportunity is
350-400 tests a year. As
ROI per test is low we
need to run a lot to have
a positive return.
Efficiency <> Costs
@MartijnSch

Google Tag Manager is making our lives easier + scalable

We didn’t move to any ‘real’
CRO tool but decided to
iterate on our own: GTM <> JS.
Supporting: A/B/n & MVT.
GTM Testing
@MartijnSch
Download:
Github.com/TheNextWeb/CRO

Would like to see what we tested?
@MartijnSch

Sharing
@MartijnSch

Sharing brings in more loyalty,
more engagement and
hopefully more traffic.
Share buttons

• Variant increase clicks with 16%
• Had a significance + power level of > 99%
• We ran the test for 1x 7+ days
• Targetting over 200.000 users
Winner: Variant
Original:
Variant

Engagement
@MartijnSch

Engagement is important,
focus on getting more clicks
on the related stories in the
sidebar.
Rankings!

• Variant increase clicks with 36%
• Had a significance + power level of > 99%
• We ran the test for 7+ days
• Targetting over 300.000 users
Winner: Variant
Original: Variant:

Engagement is important,
focus on getting more clicks
on the related stories below
the article.
Related Stories

• Variant increase clicks with 36%
• Had a significance + power level of > 99%
• We ran the test for 2x 14+ days
• Targetting over 500.000 users
Winner: Variant
Original:Variant

So what if we remove the
whole sidebar, wouldn’t people
be more focused on the stuff
that is out there?
Big, bigger

• Variant decreased clicks with 17% + 14%
• Had a significance + power level of > 99%
• We ran the test for 14+ days
• Targetting over 420.000 users
Winner: Original

TLDR;
Conversion Rate
Optimization
@MartijnSch
1. Know what you’re testing
2. Focus on your user segments
3. Iterate on what you’re already testing
4. Focus on high significance
5. Test big, bigger, biggest!

What does the
Future look like?
@MartijnSch
WHAT’S NEXT:

Currently measuring the scroll
depth and the engagement on
page is separated. Merging the
data will make sure the tracking
is improved and loadtimes will
decrease a tiny bit.
Content
Enagement V2.0
@MartijnSch

SEO: Schema.org
@MartijnSch
Provide all the right information
about our content to search
engines. The more meta the
information is the better.

We want to make sure you have
the right experience from
wherever you come from.
Maintain testing on segments
“Personalisation”
@MartijnSch

@MartijnSch@MartijnSch
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Optimization for Content Sites
Better tracking, better decisions
Better decisions, better results
“What you’re not tracking, you don’t know!”
“Implementing better tracking creates more insightful data”
Better results, reach your business goals
“The better the data is the more insightful your decision will be”
“Your results get better by the decisions you make”
“Just as long as the decisions you make are better decisions”

Take Aways:
1. Know your business goals!
2. Measure & Track micro conversions
3. Provide all information, make it smart
4. Know what the future looks like
5. Mostly have fun & keep iterating
@MartijnSch

Do you have any
Questions?
@MartijnSch