What are deep links?

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.

What is deep linking and deep links?

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.

What are the benefits of deep linking?

Eliminate guesswork

This streamlined workflow eliminates the need for manual searches within the CMS, enabling you to address any identified issues or make necessary updates promptly.

Improved user experience

Users can find and resolve issues quickly and effortlessly, saving time and frustration.

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.

How does deep linking work in Insytful?

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

The deep link feature has been designed to enhance your content management experience connecting your 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 can find and fix issues with content in your CMS, removing the guesswork and pinpointing problems directly in the CMS to aid your team's efficiency.

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 e.g.

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 e.g.

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 e.g.

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

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:

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.

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 for free and bring your products and services to an even wider audience with Insytful.