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Classification

Content Classification

How to classify your articles, enable automatic internal linking and improve the navigation of your website.

Making the content on your website highly visible and accessible from almost anywhere within your website will mean that your visitors will be able to decide where to navigate. This ability will probably be the most powerful feature of your website. 

What it means is that your website has become interactive. Instead of displaying information that you have decided is good for the reader, the reader has decided what is important and chosen a path into your website to find the desired information. 

This is only possible by writing articles that serve a specific purpose and yet are part of a collection of articles that respond to your visitors wants and needs depending on their anxieties and trust.

Category types

Category Types

Here are 4 category types for you to use: 

Related items

The behaviour of this category displays a list of the titles of the articles with the same classification 

Related products 

The behaviour of this category displays a secondary list of the titles of the articles with the same classification 

Groups 

The behaviour of this category will depend on your application. 

An example of a group is a collection of case studies or catalogues. In this example, an image could be used as the link instead of the title or keyword. 

Free tags (keywords) 

The behaviour of this category displays a tag cloud or a list of the keywords classified within a given article

Defining and collecting articles

The initial challenge is to decide on a hierarchy of terms and definitions that define your categories

This is the science of classification and what's known as 'taxonomy'. It is effectively building and defining a data model for your business. Using the exercises performed in Question Zoning and Zone Path Analysis, use the suggestions below to help you create your own category names:

Suggested category

Suggested Categories

Quality Issues

Use the quality issues you have experienced as category names. For example, if a quality issue is 'fails to see the need for training', then create a category called 'training'.

Customer Types

Use customer types as category names. For example, if Local Authorities are one of your main customer types, then create a category called 'local authority'.

Customer Scenarios

Use typical customer scenarios you have experienced as category names. For example if 'customer demands a fast turn-around' is a typical scenario you often experience, then create a category called 'fast turn-around'.

Products

Use your existing product categories as category names. For example if 'Warehouse safety' is a part of your products and services you offer, then create a category called 'warehouse-safety'.

Services

Use your existing service categories as category names. For example if 'maintenance and support' is part of your products and services you offer, then create a category called 'support'.

Collecting and grouping questions

Suggested terms to define within a category

The collection of terms within a category will help to define what that category stands for. 

This will put meaning behind how you classify your articles and help to make sense out of how you plan to link your articles together. 

Within each category, define labels for the terms that reflect the question zones. This will help to classify where the article belongs in your zone path analysis exercises. 

Question Zone 

Use the terms below to represent the question zones the articles belong to: 

  • Can You Solve My Problem 
  • Will It Work For Me 
  • Whats In It For Me 
  • Why Choose You 
  • Whats Next

Trust Layers 

If you have already created and defined your trust layers, and have articles specific to your trust layers, prefix the term name with the trust layer. For example TL1 (trust layer 1).

Question zoning

A Complete Example

Here is a example of the category 'training', complete with terms: 

training 

  • TL1_TR_CanYouSolveMyProblem 
  • TL1_TR_WillItWorkForMe 
  • TL1_TR_WhatsInItForMe 
  • TL1_TR_WhyChooseYou 
  • TL1_TR_WhatsNext 
  • TL2_TR_CanYouSolveMyProblem 
  • TL2_TR_WillItWorkForMe 
  • TL2_TR_WhatsInItForMe 
  • TL2_TR_WhyChooseYou 
  • TL2_TR_WhatsNext 

Notice that the category name has been embedded into the term name to add clarity.

Impartial Persuasive

How to Classify an Article for related links or products

As a general rule, you should classify an article with all terms from all the relevant categories that apply. 

Try to keep the popularity of a classification to below 10 articles. This will be an iterative exercise and will depend on the number of articles you have written. 

Classifying Impartial Articles 

The purpose of an impartial article is to add trust to the visitor. You should classify an impartial article for a specific question zone, ie. try not to classify any given impartial article in more than one zone. 

Classifying Persuasive Articles 

The purpose of a persuasive article is to move the visitor to the next question zone. You should classify a persuasive article in adjacent question zones, ie. classify a persuasive article with terms CanYouSolveMyProblem and WillItWorkForMe.

Wordcloud

How to Classify an Article for tag clouds

As a general rule, you should classify an article with all the relevant keywords that apply. 

Try to keep the number of keywords to below 20 and check that the article contains a fair distribution of popular keywords used throughout the site. This will be an iterative exercise and will depend on the number of articles you have written and the number of tags you have defined.

Marketing Workshops

Try our marketing workshops for FREE

The first FREE introductory workshop will cover the business identity section of the brand development training programme. 

This 45 minute call will cover the following areas: 

  • Splitting your marketing activities into customer acquisition and customer nurturing marketing strategies 
  • Add clarity to your objectives by asserting a well defined USP 
  • Generate a business posture by presenting value and results combined with your passion to deliver 

The complete workshop programme includes Marketing Analysis, Content Marketing, Information Architecture, Messaging Strategies and Business Analytics. These workshops can be arranged as 45 minute telephone / Zoom calls to be held once a week (a time and day that fits). Those companies who wish to take this further can arrange one-2-one training or join an existing workshop group held on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

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