So you want to take a secret vacation and google your way through heaps of travel websites only to find that some of those smart little websites already know where you’re going and when! Now that’s Content personalization simplified. Displaying web content based on user’s demographics and/or anticipated needs is Content personalization and is considered top priority in order to build a compelling and engaging Drupal website.
Websites like Facebook and LinkedIn also implement Content personalization techniques and uses them to present you with relevant posts, links and ads on your personal feed. If you’re a Netfilx user, you will notice that the movies/dramas shown to you first are the ones you are interested in. This is based on your viewing history and genres you are most interested in. Amazon will show you products that you are most interested in and most likely to buy based on what you may have searched previously.
Content personalization can be carried out in various circumstances. For example:
- Geographic location of the User
- Date or time the user logs in
- If a user has logged in or is an anonymous user
- Gender of the user
- Which part of the site the user is on
- User’s preferences (chosen by them previously)
- User’s device details (mobile, tablet, desktop)
- Previous registrations (events, newsletters)
- Previous shopping history
- …and many more
Personalizing Website Content Made easy with Drupal
Drupal provides with umpteen options to customize content according to different contexts. Here we’ll discuss about a few modules in Drupal that will help you customize content in various contexts:
Context: Menu Block
With this Drupal module you can customize your navigation structures/menus to suit each visitor depending on the user role/type or any other context provided by the Context module. The Context module lets you display context depending on various conditions and reactions.
Commerce Recommender
If you have a shopping website and looking for content personalization, this Drupal module is very valuable. When a user selects a product, it offers views where users can see products that have been ordered by others. It also offers recommendation based on the user’s previous purchases.
Browsing History Recommender
As the name suggest, this module provides content recommendations depending on the user’s browsing history information and are fully customizable.
Fivestar Recommender
This module integrates other Drupal modules like the Fivestar module, Voting API etc. to provide with views for the user to view “Users who liked this also liked” and “Recommendations for you” based on the ratings on Fivestar voting by other users for the products and based on the current user’s previous ratings for different products.
Personalization Module
This module allows you to personalize content depending on user behaviour, geolocation and other taxonomies. Personalized content can be displayed based on the user’s interests. For example. If a user is trying to dig through a lot of articles on Sales and Marketing, you can suggest some sales and marketing content to them. You can also use this module for advertising on sites. For example. If a user has been looking through different websites for buying a phone, you could display ads of the top few phones available. It can display a “Suggested Content” block and/or a “Suggested Content” paginated listing for your page. This module can work with non- Drupal core caching too.
Personalize module
This Drupal module offers a group of extensible plug-ins and APIs for personalizing Drupal content based on user’s context. Using this module, personalizing content is as easy for anonymous users as it is for known. The Personalize module makes use of machine learning algorithms, which gives the best prediction on user’s preferences, and displays the right content to the right user at the right time.
