drive your docs with data - conduit conference 2017
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drive your docs with data
ed marshstc pmcapril 1, 2017
20+ year technical writer▪ currently associate @ major financial
firm content creator▪ contentcontent.info▪ content content podcast –
edmarsh.com/podcast stc ny metro newsletter editor▪ currently developing stc ny wordpress
site homebrewer ▪ mmm beer
@edmarsh▪ #CONDUITdata
why we are heredata will make your:• life easier• content more user-focused• users more engaged• management able to track your progress• value to the company increase• already good looks even better*
*your mileage may vary
every single web server has built-in analytics.
use this as a selling point with management if you haven’t moved to html-based help yet
don’t forget low-performing contentwhy is it not performing?• obsolete?• poorly written?• using wrong keywords?• confusing title/content?• just plain unimportant/irrelevant?• is this topic cluttering search results?• is it a candidate for archiving?• what else can you learn from it?
robohelp and madcap both have analytics products
google analytics
google analytics code you put in master pages in robohelp, flare, and wordpress
wordpress
http://edmarsh.com/2016/08/17/wordpress-plugin-changed-thinking-about-technical-writing/
research what are your customers
doing/thinking? what are their pain points? what are your competitors doing?
analytics.twitter.com
mobile appall the data.
before
after
but.
advertising gives you an amazingly bad targeted audience
support tickets
find out how your users write and think are you speaking the same language as
your users? are you considering misspellings/typos? are there additional keywords you can add?
generate new topics
help your technical support teams are there recurring topics that can be
addressed? share best practices/war stories
most importantly create connections break down silos!
google trends.ohhhhh, the data.
excel (or google sheets)is your friend. really.
content inventories
pivot tables
let’s wrap-up.
edmarsh.com @edmarsh edmarsh.com/podcast contentcontent.info http://www.linkedin.com/in/edmars
h/ http://www.slideshare.net/theedma
rsh/
thank you.questions?yes, please.
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