Article recirculation makes it possible for editors to see how many readers went from reading one article on the site to reading another (recirculated). View the real-time recirculation rate of each post in the Compass article view. The Recirculation Rate is calculated by dividing the total number of clicks by the number of concurrent users.
Recirculation is an important KPI indicating how interested readers are in what a publication has to offer.
A recirculation rate above 7% can be considered good.
Under How are my links performing you can see the list of internal and external URLs that are linked within the text of the article and elsewhere on the same webpage. Monitor individual link performance for each URL in terms of Viewable CTR (the number of clicks on a link divided by the number of users who scrolled far enough to view it) and total number of Clicks. Viewable CTR refers to the the number of clicks on a link divided by the number of users who scroll far enough to view it. See full definition here.
Keep in mind that this same information can be visualized via the Heads Up Display as an overlay.
More advanced users, such as those on Product and Analytics teams, can dive deeper in the Recirculation module.
How to use recirculation data
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Understanding in real time how readers interact with article links is the key to improve recirculation (increase internal traffic).
- If a link is not generating many clicks: Try changing the text of the backlink or replace it with an article getting a lot of engagement elsewhere on the site.
- If a link is generating LOTS of clicks: Consider adding it to other pieces where it makes sense.
- If a link with a high Viewable CTR is located lower down on the page: Consider moving it up on the viewport to boost its performance. This works great for internal articles and affiliation links.
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Monitor external links for affiliation and monetization purposes.
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Allow writers to gauge the interest of readers: Journalists often create links for their pieces, but they won’t know if those links are of any real interest to their readers unless they see the rate at which readers click.
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Improve user loyalty: if users have nothing interesting to click on, they won’t read more content, a missed opportunity.
- Once recirculation is optimized, publishers see user engagement scores (RFV - Recency, Frequency, Volume) increase.
- RFV is a highly predictive KPIs for subscriptions. The higher their RFV, the more likely readers are to subscribe. Better recirculation → more subscribers.