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What is a deep link?

Derry Coffey

Software Engineer

13 February 2024

Deep linking is a valuable feature provided by Insytful, designed to enhance your content management experience by seamlessly connecting your Insytful page reports with the corresponding editing page in your Content Management System (CMS).

TL;DR [too long; didn't read] 🤯

  • Deep linking is a feature found in Insytful.
  • Deep links improve user experience with seamless transitions.
  • Deep links in Insytful help users quickly identify issues in their CMS content and make fixes.
  • Most CMS support deep linking, and set up can be done with very little work.
  • Using this guide, you can set up deep links with your CMS and Insytful.
  • Deep linking in mobile apps is crucial for enhancing user experience by allowing direct access to specific content without navigating through the app's interface.

Learn all about deep links, the benefits of deep linking and how to set deep links up with Insytful and popular CMS' Contensis, WordPress and Drupal.

Deep link feature focus in Insytful

Deep linking has proved to be a valuable feature for users of Insytful.

The deep link feature has been designed to enhance your content management experience by connecting Insytful page reports with the corresponding editing page in your content management system (CMS).

The result is a seamless user journey that your digital team will love. Your team, whether developers or content editors, can find and fix issues with content in your CMS, removing the guesswork and pinpointing problems directly to aid your team's efficiency.

What is a deep link?

A deep link or deep linking is defined as links that take users directly to specific content within an app, rather than to a generic web page or homepage. Deep linking is used to make navigation easier for users, taking them directly to the content they are interested in, and bypassing irrelevant content. App links enable direct interactions with apps by allowing URLs to be opened within the designated app, bypassing irrelevant content. They are a secure and user-friendly option for enhancing user experience and journey continuity.

What are the benefits of deep linking?

Eliminate guesswork

This streamlined workflow eliminates the need for manual searches within the CMS, enabling you to direct users to specific content within the app. Deep links make it easy to find the relevant page, addressing any identified issues or making necessary updates promptly.

Improved user experience

Users can find and resolve issues quickly and effortlessly, saving time and frustration. Additionally, in-app deep linking is crucial for creating a seamless user experience by directing users to specific content within an app, thus improving conversion and retention rates.

Increased engagement

By improving the user experience and user journey, you will increase user engagement. Users want a seamless experience which deep links can provide. Mobile deep links boost conversion rates and provide valuable performance metrics, making them essential for effective user acquisition, engagement, and retention strategies.

How does deep linking work in Insytful?

The technical bit

By utilising metadata from your web pages and customisable templates, deep linking empowers your team to navigate directly to specific pieces of content within your CMS, facilitating efficient editing and issue resolution.

Deep linking simplifies the process of moving from page analysis and reporting in Insytful to editing content in your CMS.

Whether you are reviewing performance, accessibility, content quality, or SEO scores within Insytful, deep linking allows you to seamlessly transition to the relevant editing page in your CMS with just a single click.

How do I set up CMS deep linking with Insytful?

Setting up deep linking can be relatively simple, as most CMS support this functionality. If you need help setting up your deep link template, get in touch, and we can provide a plug-in. The guide below outlines how to set up templates in Contensis, WordPress, and Drupal, as well as how to set up deep link metadata in five steps.

Deep link template

Your deep link template is the foundation for your CMS integration.

Step 1: You will first need to identify the URL's that your CMS uses for editing content, for example:

  • In Contensis: https://cms-mysite.cloud.contensis.com/app/projects/website/entries/12345678-1234-1234-1234-012345678901
  • In WordPress: https://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1&action=edit
  • In Drupal: https://www.mysite.com/node/1/edit

Step 2: Once you know the format for your edit page, you need to identify the parts of the URL that determine what content you are editing, for example:

  • In Contensis: https://cms-mysite.cloud.contensis.com/app/projects/website/entries/12345678-1234-1234-1234-012345678901
  • In WordPress: https://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1&action=edit
  • In Drupal: https://www.mysite.com/node/1/edit

You're now ready to create your deep link template.

Step 3: For each part of your URL that can be changed, decide on a token name to represent that value, for example:

  • In Contensis: ProjectId, EntryId
  • In WordPress: PostId
  • In Drupal: NodeId

Step 4: You can now replace the values in your edit URL with these tokens by putting them in square brackets, like so:

  • In Contensis: https://cms-mysite.cloud.contensis.com/app/projects/[ProjectId]/entries/[EntryId]
  • In WordPress: https://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=[PostId]&action=edit
  • In Drupal: https://www.mysite.com/node/[NodeId]/edit

You're now ready to prepare your metadata that will be used to replace these tokens.

Deep link Meta

Step 5: In your page templates, you will want to include some meta tags using Insytful's "IDL" (Insytful deep link) format.

Example:

tsx
<meta name="IDL:ProjectId" content="website">

The format is relatively simple, the name should start with "IDL" followed by a colon and then your token name. The content is the value for that particular token on the given page.

Deep link wrap up

Once you've added these to the page template and populated them with the relevant data from your CMS, you're ready to go!

How deep links work in Insytful

On your next scan, Insytful will pick up the IDL metadata from the tags and populate the CMS URL - providing a link directly to your website.

Audit your web content with Insytful

Insytful is designed to improve users' digital experience. It uses industry-leading tools and its own scanning technologies to score your website’s performance, accessibility, content quality and other content-specific issues.

Try it for yourself and bring your products and services to an even wider audience.

Try it for yourself


Frequently asked questions

Do you need to be a developer or technical to set up deep links?

Depending on how your website is set up, anyone can set up deep links following the instructions above. Once you enable deep linking, you should notice finding and fixing errors with Insytful becomes easier.

Can you use Insytful without an integrated deep link set up?

You don't need to integrate deep linking to use Insytful. You can still use the Insytful app to find and fix errors on your website without, however it is recommended for the best user experience to set up deep links.

Derry Coffey

Software Engineer

13 February 2024