Utilising Target Data

When creating silos or backlinking to higher tiers, accessing the data on the target pages can increase the relevance of links to the targets.

For example, if we created on Tier 1 a list of products with MPSS, we could then backlink each product with some spun comparative article with the target product at the top of the list — this would only be possible if we know what the target product is.

To do this, we can utilise MPSS & subdomain variables with the prefix target and their original syntax.

Usage & Examples

Usage with Subdomain Variables (& XREF)

You can use any variables that are available to the target page, this includes the variables on the target page's subdomain, which may be different from the current page's subdomain.

To do this, we access the target's variables with the prefix target. like so: [[target.city]]

Example
<h1>Services in Florida</h1> Content... <a href="[LINK]">Book a [[target.service]] in [[target.city]]</a>
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Usage with MPSS

Like with Subdomain Variables, we can also access the Static, Property & Spread MPSS variables on the target page.

To do this, we access the target's variables with the prefix target with the appropriate symbol like so: [target@city] for a static variable, [target:name] for a property variable and [target~kw] for a spread variable.

Example
<h1>Top Products This Year</h1> Content... <a href="[LINK]">Buy [target:name] for $[target:price]</a></li>
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Accessing Specific Tiers

To access data on a specific tier from any other tier you can prepend the tier ID instead of target, like so: [A:city].

For example, C tier content can access it's grandparent A tier MPSS Property Variable with [A:price].

Another example, D tier content can access it's grandparent B tier MPSS Property Variable with [B:url].

The great part of using target data like this as it is still entirely relevant. The connections will be maintained on a per-page level so you never need to worry about inconsistent data!

Note: the ID is alphabetic, so 1 is A, 3 is C, etc. They are also case-insensitive so [a:city] will work too.

Specifying Depth

To access data on a more distant tier, such as C accessing A tier data, you can append more target prefixes and therefore access more "nested" data.

For example, using Property Variables on A0 with the city column:
Given B0 > A0, B0 can access it's target's city column like so: [target:city].
Given C0 > B0 > A0, C0 can access it's target's target's city column like so: [target:target:city]. You could alternatively use [a:city] as mentioned above.

Note: this only works for "default" (non-numbered) targets across more than 1 tier. You cannot do [target3:target7:city]

Distribution

To further control how multiple targets are handled, we can leverage an index after the prefix, like target4.

The logic for how distribution is handled is as follows:

  • target (no index) is a randomly selected target from the list of the page's targets
    (the selection does not change unless the targets change)
  • target1 will be the first target
  • target2 will be the second target if exists, otherwise the first target
  • target3 will be the third target if exists, otherwise a random selection of the target(s)
    (the selection does not change unless the targets change)
  • target4 will be the fourth target if exists, otherwise a random selection of the target(s)
    (the selection does not change unless the targets change)
  • ...and so on

The maximum target index is 12, so the last possible prefix would be target12 – this is directly related to the maximum node limit being 12.

The reason there is the possibility for random selection is that it ensures that planning your target variables does not have to be perfect always, and that always they will have a value, regardless of the node setup!

Example

The amount of targets a page receives is based on the campaign's design. Below is an example of B0 having two targets:

B0 is targeting 2 nodes, so will receive 2 targets

In this example, we could use target1 for A0 and target2 for A1, like [target1:name] and [target2:name]

Another example with 4 targets would be:

C0 will have 4 targets

Like the previous example, on C0 we can use target1 for B0 and target4 for B3, so [[target1.city]] and [[target4.city]]

Internal Variables

To create even further, more advanced linking, we can leverage the internal variables of the target page.

Let's say we have two targets and therefore two products we are linking to:

<h1>Best Dog Toys 2024</h1> Content... <ul> <li><a href="[[target1.this_url]]">Buy [target1:name] for $[target1:price]</a></li> <li><a href="[[target2.this_url]]">Buy [target2:name] for $[target2:price]</a></li> </ul>
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The important part of this example is the usage of the internal variable, this_url – this allows us to link directly to the product we are referring to, unlike [LINK], which may not line up.

You have access to all internal variables on the target page, so there is a lot of freedom in what can be created!