In 2016 Te Papa wanted to increase the reach and engagement of their Matariki content. Eight years on, and traffic to this content has increased from 27K sessions (UA data) to 168K sessions (GA4 data)*.
In 2015 their Matariki content had received 22K visits (UA sessions), mainly to teaching resources and event-based content. It was already a strong kauri sapling, ready to grow.
We looked at user demand for this content; what did people want to know about Matariki?
Data showed that search terms like ‘Matariki star’ and ‘Matariki facts’ were gaining popularity in Google, and digital editor Rachael Hockridge created illuminating content based on these insights.
The sapling grew, with 27K visits to Te Papa Matariki content in 2016.
Over the last few years, this tree has grown more branches under Te Papa’s care. Senior digital editor Daniel Crichton-Rouse created dozens more pages designed to educate people about Matariki, and traffic has increased significantly.
There were 168K visits (GA4 sessions) to Te Papa Matariki content in June 2024.
These results show that Te Papa has been the kaitiaki of this content and helped it to grow. It’s also a story of Aotearoa embracing our national celebration, more of us are searching for Matariki content in Google. There are many kauri trees in the forest of Matariki celebrations, some ancient, and many just starting to grow.
* OK, so I don’t advise people to compare GA Universal Analytics data with GA4 data, as the data is collected differently. But Te Papa only found a 5.19% difference in sessions between the two data sources in a test period, which suggests that the increase is still huge!
Matariki data insights and tools
Image: GA4 Acquisition report showing the volume of sessions which include a Matariki page view in June 2024:
2024 Google demand for Matariki
GA4 data shows that 75% of the sessions which landed on a Matariki page came from Google.
In terms of NZ-wide demand, Google search volumes for ‘Matariki facts’ have remained steady at around 1K searches per month, but demand for ‘Matariki stars’ has blown up with 10 – 100K searches per month (source: Google Keyword Planner).
This is reflected in the popularity of Te Papa pages. In 2015 the Matariki star facts page was the most popular page, whereas in 2024 the Stars of Matariki page was top with 37K views.
Increasing Google demand for ‘Matariki star’ terms
Popular star searches (source: Google Trends) include ‘Matariki star meaning’ and the names of the stars, such as:
- Hiwa-i-te-rangi star meaning
- Waitī star meaning
- Ururangi facts
- Tupuarangi meaning
Image: Google Trends Rising Queries report showing the searches above:
When we search for these terms ourselves, the Te Papa page appears high in Google results. The Te Papa Search Console account shows that people are clicking through to the content from these results.
For example, the Te Papa website received 1.9K clicks from Google for searches including the term ‘Waitī’ (Source Google Search Console).
In order to further meet this rising demand, Te Papa could create separate pages for each of the Matariki stars, and promote these on the existing Stars page. This should encourage higher engagement, and more Google traffic.
Home page promotion
One of our original aims was to promote Matariki content from the home page, and a large home page banner in 2016 generated 1.5K click-throughs from the home page to Matariki content.
In 2024 there were 3K click-throughs to Matariki content from the home page (source: GA4 Path Exploration report). While this is a good increase, it doesn’t match the increase in Google traffic. It reinforces the idea that Te Papa’s success is due to strong Google performance, with good quality content that meets user demand.
Engagement
Users who visit a Matariki page on the Te Papa site visit an average of 1.98 pages per visit, and spend 1.19 minutes on the site (source: GA4 Pages and screens report). This is good engagement, however Te Papa might like to try increasing engagement even more.
They have published attractive related link cards at the bottom of each page, however scroll data shows that few people scroll to the bottom of these pages.
Image: related content cards at the bottom of Matariki pages:
Potential to increase engagement
Te Papa could add more links to related content within the body-text of popular pages. Providing links to closely-relevant content may appeal to the Google audience, who are intent on finding information that is directly related to their search query.
Increasing engagement is tough, especially for the Google audience as they usually are unwilling to explore. Te Papa could do a couple of experiments to see if body-content links encourage higher engagement.
Data provides insights and opens up opportunities, but it’s the content creators who are to thank for content success. The Te Papa editors have shared illuminating Matariki stories which have connected with tens of thousands of people.
Image Credit: Matariki at Mt John. Photo courtesy of Fraser Gunn