Question
How is the Related articles list in the help center populated? Can I influence what articles are returned?
Answer
You cannot influence what articles are displayed in the Related articles list.
Articles in this list are displayed based on a relevancy score, which is determined as follows:
-
A log of each user's recently viewed articles is maintained
- When a user views an article, a record is created linking the most recently viewed article to the currently viewed article as related content
- As users continue to view articles, each article will accumulate relationships with multiple other articles, and the frequency with which an article is marked as related to another will increase its relevancy score, thereby enhancing the relevance and accuracy of related article suggestions over time
For example:
- User visits Article A
- From Article A, the user visits Article B
- Article A's relevant score in relation to Article B is increased
- Another user visits Article B and Article A is suggested as a related article
For more information, see our developer documentation: Recent articles helper.
7 comments
Paul Watson
Does the "learning" process happen in the background even if "related articles" is not switched on (displayed)?
For example, if we switch the feature off because results are not currently useful and then switch it back on in six months time, will the articles displayed reflect the six months of site usage?
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Dane
Yes, the relevancy metrics are recorded regardless of the helper for related articles.
Hope this helps!
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Casey Birkholz
Is this still relevant with the introduction of tags? I just started testing out tags and I do see tagged articles appearing under "Related articles" but I also see untagged articles that I've recently visited in that list.
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Arianne Batiles
Hi Casey Birkholz,
I would say it would depend on the experience you want for your users. Related articles return a list based on a user's recently viewed articles and the number of times the article is marked as related while content tags work like a hashtag. You have control over these tags and you can add the same tags to articles you think are related. With this feature, users by clicking the tag can view a search page displaying all other content in your help center with the same tag.
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Vlad
Is there any way to pull related articles via ZD API?
I need related article IDs in the help center DOM to take their section names. 💁🏻
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Darenne
I hope this clarifies it!
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Richard Bilton
i'm aware of the advanced helper {{related_articles}} but i would like to loop through related articles and customise the returned html that the helper provides. The reason for this. is because the helper adds a rel="nofollow" which isn't ideal for SEO purposes and is been flagged as an issue on our site audit software.
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