Content Consumption: Grouping content to analyse site activity

I read with some interest an article by Neil Mason on 'Content Consumption'. He highlights two methods of analyse: firstly to use the folder structure of your site, i.e. using '/' within the URL to group content together, and secondly to use tagging to provide this grouping.

Whilst I agree with his conclusions as to the positives and negatives to each approach, he is also missing an alternative, which to to group content dynamically.

For example, WebAbacus uses transforms to create new fields of content in real-time. This allows the user to create a new field containing the content category, sub-category, or full bread-crumb, of the relevant piece of content. You can then report on this transformed field to show the content group rather than the actual URL or Page Title. You can even split the content groups, allowing the end user to drill-down into each category to see underlying content sub-groups or the actual URL/Page Title.

This approach does not require the site to have a rigid content structure or the need to update page tagging, although both methods are still possible.

The main advantage of this approach is that it is applied in real-time, meaning that you can create your content groupings AFTER you've collected the data. In effect, you can start collecting your data on the 1st of the month, and then create your content groupings (a matter of a few minutes work) on the 15th, and still see how this looks for data collected on the 1st-15th.

Additionally, you can make changes to the content groupings, and because they are applied in real-time, the changes will be immediately reflected in your reports.

Finally, different users may wish to have different content groupings. A dynamic approach is ideal here, as it is the end user that controls the content structure, all without any involvement of their technical teams or changes to the page tagging.

The 'Data Group' transform is just one example of the many transforms within WebAbacus. It is extremely useful for understanding content consumption, but also for how users move around your site.

An example of this in use, can be seen via our 3D Traffic Visualisation tool, shown below, where each content group is shown as a circle/node: