With the Suggested Content part, you can create recommendations for website users to visit other areas of your website. For example, you can use the part to direct users to articles or donation forms that are related to the content on the pages they visit. The part displays short summaries about suggested content and links to the pages with the content.
The Suggested Content part uses tags and user interests to determine the content that it recommends. When you create parts for your website, you associate tags and users interests with them and select whether to make the parts eligible for Suggested Content parts. Then when you create a Suggested Content part, you select the tags and users interests to use to generate recommendations.
Note: For the Suggested Content part to be effective, you must associate tags and user interests with the parts on your website. If you do not maintain these tags and user interests, the Suggested Content part cannot recommend the most relevant content or keep recommendations up to date. To associate tags and user interests with parts, use the Tags tab. For more information, see Tags Tab.
When a user visits a page that includes a Suggested Content part, it recommends other parts that most closely match its tags and user interests. As you update the content on your website, the part automatically updates its recommendations to reflect the changes. For example, when you add new parts or edit the tags and interests associated with existing parts, the Suggested Content part updates its suggestions to take these changes into account.
To determine the content to recommend, the Suggested Content part assigns point values to the tags and user interests that it includes. It then assigns point values to all parts on the website that are eligible for the Suggested Content part. When the Suggested Content part creates its recommendations, it selects randomly from all eligible parts but emphasizes the parts with the most points. This allows the part to avoid recommending the same content repeatedly and still focus on the most relevant content. After the part selects the parts to recommend, it organizes the items to display the most recently edited or created first.
To assign point values, the Suggested Content part performs several calculations.
| • | For tags associated with the Suggested Content part, the part assigns points based on user history. When website users visit your website, the program tracks the content they view. For each part that a website user views, the Suggested Content part assigns points to the tags associated with that part. The number of points depends on how often and how recently the user viewed the part. For each view, tags receive five points, but this decreases to one point during the course of seven days. |
| • | For user interests associated with the Suggested Content part, the part assigns 20 points for each match to a user interest in a website user’s profile. |
| • | For parts that are eligible for the Suggested Content part, the part adds the points from all the tags and user interests associated with the parts and then subtracts points for each time a user viewed the parts. The number of points it subtracts depends on how recently the user viewed the part. For a recent view, the part subtracts 25 points, but this decreases to 5 points during the course of seven days. |