How Article Topic Impacts Content Distribution Strategy

The topic of an article can have a significant impact on where readers find it. For example, articles about sports attract most of their external referrals from people searching Google, while lifestyle pieces are more likely to be discovered on Facebook.

Understanding where readers consume articles by topic can help inform how you write, design, and distribute your content. For example, Facebook is a major distribution channel for lifestyle articles, while Google Search is a strong referrer for technology content. An analysis of over 10 million articles published in the Parse.ly network in 2016 revealed which external referral sources drove traffic to fourteen different news topics.

This report analyses:

  • The external referral sources for news articles on U.S. presidential politics, sports, entertainment, technology, and more
  • How many articles per topic appeared in Parse.ly’s network
  • Whether readers were more likely to traffic articles on certain topics using their desktop, mobile, or tablet

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