Slickstream Support

How To Update the Slickstream Plugin

Slickstream — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 03:55:14 GMT

Below are instructions on how to update the Slickstream plugin to the latest version.

There are two options to make sure that you are on the latest version of the Slickstream plugin:

Delete the existing plugin and reinstall (recommended if installing from 2.0.x ➜ latest version)
Update from the prompt on the Plugins page (recommended if installing from 1.4.x ➜ latest version)

Option 1: Delete and Reinstall

Log in to your WordPress account and navigate to the Plugins page.
Find the "Slickstream Search and Engagement" plugin and deactivate, then delete it.
Click on Add New Plugin
Search for "slickstream" in the Keyword field. Click on the "Install Now" button.
Click Activate.

That's it! You do not need to re-add your Slickstream site code or adjust any settings. This information will be maintained. Please clear any site caches and navigate to your website to ensure that Slickstream is still displaying and operating as intended.

Option 2: Update from the Plugins Page

Login to your WordPress account and navigate to the Plugins page.
Locate the "Slickstream Search and Engagement" Plugin from the list. There should be a message that says, "There is a new version of Slickstream..."
Click on the "update now" link.
Refresh the Plugins page. If there is an "Activate" link under the plugin, click to activate it.
(In most cases, this will happen automatically)

When the plugin is updated and activated, it should display like this:
Please clear any site caches and navigate to your website to ensure that Slickstream is still displaying and operating as intended.

If you run into any problems with these instructions, don't hesitate to contact us at support@slickstream.com.

Using Zapier to Integrate Slickstream with 3rd Party Services

Slickstream — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 19:05:46 GMT

Slickstream member name and email data can be integrated with a number of third-party services using Zapier. This give you flexibility to integrate with services beyond our proprietary integrations.

Here we'll show you a quick example of how to set up the an integration between Slickstream and another service using Zapier. In this case, we'll use the email service provide Aweber.

Keep in mind, each application you connect to may have different options for integration within Zapier. You may need to contact Zapier support or your 3rd party application's support team for specific integration questions:

Step 1: Create a new "zap" in your Zapier account and set up the source application trigger.

Within your Zapier account, create a new "zap" using the "Create Zap" button.

Rename your new zap so you can find it easily later, then click on the first trigger to edit the settings.

Search for Slickstream, then click the name to continue.

For the Slickstream "Event", choose "New Member".

Connect to Slickstream using the "Sign in" button. (You'll just be adding your Site Code and API key, not actually signing in to Slickstream in this step)

Add your Site Code and API Key to Zapier and click the continue button.

Then, click the blue "Continue" button.

Step 2: Set up the trigger for the application that will receive your Slickstream member data

In the target application's trigger settings, search for your application. In this case, we're using the Aweber email service provider. Your options may be different from this point forward so the settings you see in Zapier may be slightly different.

Once you've chose your application, you'll be prompted to choose what types of actions you want to do with the Slickstream member's data. In this example, we'll create a new subscriber in Aweber for each new opted-in member sign up via Slickstream.

Once you've set up the data connections, you'll be prompted to sign in or add your API info, depending on your 3rd party application's requirements. In this case, we'll sign in to Aweber within Zapier.

Once you've established the connection to your 3rd party application within Zapier, you'll be prompted to continue and then set up synchronizations between the data received from Slickstream and your 3rd party application.

You can then choose to test the integration within the "zap" builder, or publish your "zap" immediately.

Once you've determined your "zap" is working as expected and you've published it, your "zap" will now appear in your Zapier dashboard.

After you've tested and published your "zap" it's live and will begin pushing your Slickstream member data into your external application. You may enable or disable your integration between Slickstream and your 3rd party application as needed directly within Zapier.

Slickstream and Raptive First-party Data Integration

Slickstream — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:52:35 GMT

This article describes Slickstream's integration with Raptive’s Identity API, which allows Raptive creators to benefit from first-party data collected by Slickstream directly. No action is required to turn this on. This integration is automatically enabled, and if you'd like to opt out of this integration at any time, contact support@slickstream.com.

First-party data lets you identify a site visitor based on their email address. Some of your visitors' email addresses are known because they have signed into Slickstream. Visitors sign into Slickstream to store or retrieve their list of favorite posts.

When a visitor signs into Slickstream, an anonymized version of their email address is shared with Raptive, which is used in ad auctions throughout that visitor's journey on your site. You benefit if advertisers bidding in ad auctions pay a premium for this anonymized identity information.

The primary way that Slickstream encourages visitors to sign up on your site is via its membership/favoriting system, whereby your visitors can create and store lists of their favorite posts. Visitors who sign up on your site become members on your site only.

As part of the membership system, you can customize the messages your visitors see when they sign up. For creators who use the Raptive ad network, Slickstream automatically updates the consent message to clarify that email addresses are used for ad personalization.

This article details the membership system and how to set membership options and customize the associated messages.

Putting Slickstream Data to Work

Slickstream — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 11:24:55 GMT

One of the best things about Slickstream is the wealth of data available in your analytics portal. It features content insights, clickthrough data, search queries, recommendation pairs, individual widget usage, and more. This article explains how to use Slickstream data to improve your content strategy and develop loyal readers.

Access Slickstream Data

After creating your Slickstream account, you gain access to the portal. On the portal's homepage, you will find a snapshot of feature performance for the last 30 days and summary data on traffic, engagement, and each widget. At the top of the page is a menu to access the different portal analytics.

Slickstream Analytics

Reader Journeys: Understand how users navigate your site

From the portal menu, go to the ‘Journeys’ tab. This page displays each visitor's actions and experiences over time. See acquisition data from each session, active time browsing every page, form submissions, site searches, and more.

Tips

Identify the topics and content types that drive the most conversions and expand those areas.
Discover how many readers convert from first-time site visitors to engaged readers and what content they read. Use these insights to inform your content strategy.
Find out which campaigns generate the most traffic by looking at the pageviews associated with UTM codes. Repeat these high-performing campaigns at a later date.
Check out the Journey Explorer User Guide for more information on reader journey data.

Searches: See what visitors look for on your site

From the portal menu, go to the ‘Searches’ tab. This page displays how visitors use the search panel to find content on your site. It lists your site's top searches and posts clicked on from search.

Tips

Use these insights and ensure that the posts visitors click on align with the search topics. Content that precisely matches what visitors are seeking keeps them on your site longer.
Pair this data with your SEO keywords to understand if the search terms used to find your content are also what they want more of once they arrive.

Recommendations: Find out which posts readers click on next

From the portal menu, go to the Recommendations tab. This page displays the connections between content and tracks the number of readers who moved from one post to another.

Tips

Identify the best opportunities for content clusters, which are groups of closely related posts around a specific theme. Well-rounded content clusters can lead to lower bounce rates and more multipage sessions.
Find the topics visitors click on next and create more related content.
Identify and promote the top content pairs via social media and other channels.

Content: Get into page performance details

From the portal menu, go to the ‘Content’ tab. This page displays all of the indexed pages on your site and how each has been performing for the last 30 days. See what pages readers are most active on, the most favorited, the most viewed, and more.

Tips

Identify posts with high engagement and promote them via social media and other channels.
Create additional content for subject areas covered in your most popular posts.
Update old posts that have lower engagement (e.g., pageviews, active time, favorites)
See this article for information on the data in this report: Content Report Columns Explained

Memberships: Track and view new subscribers

From the portal menu, go to the ‘Memberships’ tab. This page displays the total number of subscribers and the number of new subscribers in the last 30 days. See the email addresses you can integrate with your mailing list and the number of favorites for each contact.

Tips

Integrate your email service provider and automatically import new subscribers.
Ask your subscribers via email to self-segment by asking them a question or requesting that they click on an option that applies to them. Use this segmentation to inform your content strategy or develop an email marketing campaign.
Customize your membership invitation message to suit your brand and audience. Within the Slickstream Portal, go to Config > Site-Wide > Membership > Sign-up Message.

There are endless ways to take advantage of Slickstream data. Check out this article for more ideas on how to put it to work for you. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@slickstream.com.

Slickstream and Perfmatters

Slickstream — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 20:50:47 GMT

As with other caching plugins, Slickstream may need to be excluded from Perfmatters optimization within WordPress.

Here are instructions.

Access the PerfMatters settings:
In the left sidebar menu of your WordPress dashboard, click "Settings" and then select "PerfMatters" to open the plugin's settings page.
Click the "Assets" tab within the PerfMatters settings page.
If the "Defer Javascript" and/or "Delay Javascript" options are enabled, you'll need to exclude Slickstream's JS files from deferral and delay. Add the following entry to both the “Exclude from Deferral” and "Exclude from Delay" text fields, respectively (one entry per line):
- https://*.app.slickstream.com/
- Here’s what this should look like:
- NOTE: These exclusions are only required if the "Defer Javascript" and/or "Delay Javascript" options are enabled.
To save your changes, scroll down to the bottom of the "Assets" tab and click the "Save Changes" button.

If you have any problems or these instructions are in any way unclear, please contact Slickstream directly at support@slickstream.com.

Sailthru Integration with Slickstream

Slickstream — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 17:38:47 GMT

Slickstream supports email integration with Sailthru. If you manage newsletter subscribers using Sailthru, you can automatically upload all sign-ups on your website via Slickstream.

Here’s how to set up the integration:

Step 1: Get your Sailthru API Key

You’ll need your Sailthru API Key and Secret key to get started.

Sign into your Sailthru account.

In the menu in the top-right corner, click your profile icon and select "Admin.”

Once you’re on the Admin page, click “Setup” in the left-hand navigation bar and then select “API & Postbacks.”

From this page, you’ll copy your API key and your Secret key.

Step 2: Go to the Integrations page in your Slickstream portal

Once you’re signed in,choose the appropriate site and under it, select Integrations.

Step 3: Create a new Sailthru integration

On the Integrations page, click the "Connect Sailthru" button.

Paste the API Key and the API secret you got in Step 1 into the input fields here.

Use the drop-down menu to choose the list you want your new subscribers to go to.

Your list must be created in Sailthru before it will appear in the menu.

Click “refresh” if you do not see any options appear.

Once you’ve selected your list, you should see that the integration is active.

Once you complete the integration, any reader that has signed up for a membership and opted into your email marketing will get uploaded to your Sailthru list -- including those that had previously signed up.

Enable Slickstream Event Tracking Using Google Tag Manager (GTM)

Slickstream — Wed, 17 May 2023 13:29:36 GMT

WARNING: This is an advanced tutorial that should only be used by developers for sites that use Google Tag Manager (GTM) as the exclusive method for tracking Google Analytics of UA and/or GA4 properties.

If you use Google Tag Manager (GTM) as the exclusive method for tracking Google Analytics (no other Google Analytics (GA) scripts running on your site), your developer can follow these instructions to create new event tracking Triggers, Variables, and Event tags so you can track Slickstream Events in Google Analytics.

NOTE: If you are running both a separate GA script (gtag.js or analytics.js) and Google Tag Manager script on your site, Slickstream will prioritize your GA script to send Slickstream events and the GTM events detailed below will not be sent.

1. Log in to your Google Tag Manager account and select the appropriate container.

2. Create a new trigger:
a. Click on "Triggers" in the left sidebar menu.
b. Click on "New" to create a new trigger.
c. Name the trigger "Slickstream Event Trigger".
d. Click on "Trigger Configuration" and select "Custom Event" as the trigger type.
e. Set the "Event name" field to "slickstream_event".
f. Set "This trigger fires on" to "All Custom Events".
g. Click on "Save" to save the trigger.

3. Create variables for event data:
a. Click on "Variables" in the left sidebar menu.
b. Click on "New" to create a new variable.
c. Name the variable "DLV - Slickstream Event Action" and click on "Variable Configuration".
d. Select "Data Layer Variable" as the variable type.
e. Set the "Data Layer Variable Name" field to "slickstream_event_data.event_action".
f. Ensure that the version dropdown is set to version 2
g. Click on "Save" to save the variable.
h. Repeat steps a-g three more times with the following variable names and keys:
Name: “DLV - Slickstream Event Label” key: “slickstream_event_data.event_label”
Name: “DLV - Slickstream Event Category” key: “slickstream_event_data.event_category”
Name: “DLV - Slickstream Event Value” key: “slickstream_event_data.value”

4. Create a Universal Analytics (UA) event tag:
a. Click on "Tags" in the left sidebar menu.
b. Click on "New" to create a new tag.
c. Name the tag "UA - Slickstream Event".
d. Click on "Tag Configuration" and select "Universal Analytics" as the tag type.
e. Set the "Track Type" to "Event".
f. Set "Category" to "", "Action" to "", "Label" to "", and "Value" to "".
g. Select your desired Google Analytics Settings variable or set the "Tracking ID" manually.
h. Click on "Triggering" and select the "Slickstream Event Trigger" created in step 2.
i. Click on "Save" to save the tag.

5. Create a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) event tag:
a. Click on "Tags" in the left sidebar menu.
b. Click on "New" to create a new tag.
c. Name the tag "GA4 - Slickstream Event".
d. Click on "Tag Configuration" and select "GA4 Event" as the tag type.
e. Set the "Event Name" to "".
f. Click on "Add row" under "Event Parameters" and set the "Parameter Name" to "event_category" and "Value" to "". Click "Add Row".
g. Repeat step f to add two more rows with the following Key-Value pairs:
- Parameter Name: "event_action", Value: ""
- Parameter Name: "event_label", Value: ""
h. Select your desired GA4 Configuration Tag or set the "Measurement ID" manually.
i. Click on "Triggering" and select the "Slickstream Event Trigger" created in step 2.
j. Click on "Save" to save the tag.

6. Publish your changes:
a. Click on "Submit" in the upper right corner.
b. Add a version name and description (optional) and click on "Publish".

Now, whenever a custom event with the value "slickstream_event" is triggered, the configured UA and GA4 event tags will send the Slickstream events with the specified parameters.

How To Pin A Post Recommendation

Slickstream — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 05:28:12 GMT

You can designate a specific post to become a "pinned recommendation". This means this designated post will appear first in the filmstrips with have a small "pin" indicator and a slightly different background color to draw visitors' attention to it. You can also set an expiration date for this pinned post or leave the expiration date blank if you'd like to keep the pin indefinitely.

To pin a post, go to Config in your portal. Select the Site Wide tab, then select Recommendations.

Enter the URL of the post you would like to recommend in the Pinned Recommendation Page URL box.

Enter a date in the Pinned Recommendation Expires box if you would like to specify when you would like the pin removed.

Save the changes.

How To Change The Widget Color

Slickstream — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 03:12:54 GMT

The widget color is used for all Slickstream components. To change the color, go to Config in your portal. Select the Site Wide tab, then select General.

Scroll to the Highlight Color setting, and enter the HEX or RGB color code or color name. Save the change.

Why You Shouldn't Defer Or Lazy Load Slickstream

Slickstream — Tue, 24 May 2022 04:12:53 GMT

Given the importance of performance scores for websites, minimizing load time is very important. So you may be using techniques or plugins that will defer certain scripts from loading immediately. For Slickstream, it's important to understand the trade-off between user experience and potential performance gains, particularly as Slickstream's code is designed to have a negligible impact on load time.

The techniques for improving load time typically work in one of two ways. In some cases, script tags are modified so that they won't load until a master script invokes them later in the loading cycle. In other cases, most or all of the scripts on the page are combined into a single script, and that script is loaded later. In either case, the loading is deferred so that preference is given to loading the basic content on the page first. That makes sense, but unfortunately, it's not that simple. This deferral can cause problems because some features on the page are delayed. This approach can also create a logjam later in the loading cycle.

Slickstream supplements websites with additional engagement features such as site search, content recommendations, and favoriting. This is done via a script which is added into the <head> of the page. It is important to make sure this script is NOT deferred or combined into other scripts. This is for two reasons.

First, visitors depend on the Slickstream features added to the site for navigation. If search is delayed, for example, frequent return visitors who expect to find it may have to wait for it to load before being able to use it.

Second, Slickstream takes extreme care with its embed script to minimize the impact on site performance and load time. Only a few simple actions are loaded immediately. These are the actions necessary to ensure immediate key functionality for search boxes and buttons as well as favorite buttons. Slickstream then intentionally defers the remaining work to ensure only a negligible impact on loading. For example, if someone clicks on a search button immediately after loading the page, Slickstream ensures that it will not miss that click. However, after the click is captured, there may be a short delay while the full search functionality is loaded. This ensures a good User Experience with minimal performance impact.

Furthermore, it can be particularly problematic if the deferral strategy is to combine all scripts together into one larger script which loads late in the page load cycle. Loading the large script can slow down everything on the page, so while it may help with initial page load performance scores, it can lead to a frustrating experience for visitors a few seconds after the page loads.

So when using caching plugins or adding custom code to lazy load scripts, it's important to exclude the Slickstream embed script from these actions. Here are instructions on how to do this for most caching plugins.