Solutions and Best Practices (Missing)
Solutions and Best Practices (Irrelevant)
Common Reasons for Missed Articles
1. Keyword Mismatches
Articles may not meet the configured search terms or keyword criteria. For example, an article mentioning “Apple” was missed because it required a connecting term, such as “Fruit” or “Orange”
Articles may not meet a configured proximity search, meaning “Apple” was not within X amount of words from “Fruit”
Articles may be missed because the keyword appeared only in image captions and not in the main body.
Articles may mention an excluded keyword such as “Laptop”
2. Sources Not Monitored
Some articles may be missed because their sources were not being monitored at the time of publication.
Non-UK outlets may also be excluded if the monitoring focus is on UK sources.
3. Paywalls and Restricted Access
Articles behind paywalls may only allow headline and subheadline harvesting, leading to incomplete or missed coverage. These paywalls are entirely controlled by the publication, meaning an independent subscription is required to access the full article.
4. Technical Limitations
Scanning errors or delays in receiving print issues can result in missed articles. For example, a print article was delayed because the monitoring partner received the issue late.
Duplicate filtering settings may also exclude articles from daily alerts.
Solutions and Best Practices
It’s important to keep in mind that coverage can sometimes be missed for reasons out of our control (such as a scanning error, delays in receiving print, or a mis-transcription).
We’ll do all we can to investigate the issue and find the coverage for you, updating search parameters or escalating issues where required.
1. Update Search Terms and Keywords
Regularly review and update search criteria to include relevant terms. For example, using a proximity search or connecting terms may help widen the search parameters, whilst still capturing relevant coverage.
Include keywords that are likely to appear in captions or metadata to capture more comprehensive coverage.
2. Expand Source Monitoring
If you have any specific sources wanting to be monitored, let us know, and we can look into adding the source. Please note: this can take a number of months to add, due to meticulous setup and testing procedures.
Consider including non-UK outlets if they are relevant to your monitoring needs.
3. Manual Article Addition
Missed articles can often be added manually by providing the outlet, headline, publication date, and article link.
For paywalled articles, ensure that at least the headline and subheadline are recorded to allow for partial harvesting.
4. Adjust Alert Settings
Modify alert settings to include duplicates if necessary, ensuring no articles are excluded unintentionally.
What should I do if an article is missed?
You can request the team to manually add the article by providing its details, such as the outlet, headline, and publication date.
OR
You can add the article manually yourself and let the team know it was missed. They can then investigate to determine if any preventative measures are required.
Common Reasons for Irrelevant Articles
1. Keyword Mismatches
Keywords that are too broad or generic
Overly general terms match a wide range of unrelated articles, pulling in content outside the user's monitoring focus
2. Missing exclusion terms
Without exclusions, articles containing irrelevant words, topics, or job roles (e.g. "HR Manager", "dividend") are flagged unnecessarily
3. Lack of boolean logic
Not using AND/OR/NOT operators means searches can't be refined precisely enough to exclude unrelated content
4. No connecting terms
Keywords not paired with brand names, event identifiers, or descriptors results in too wide a net
5. Outdated keyword configuration
Keyword briefs that haven't been reviewed become misaligned with current monitoring priorities over time
Solutions and Best Practices
We’ll do all we can to investigate the issue and find the coverage for you, updating search parameters or escalating issues where required.
1. Add exclusion terms
Identify irrelevant words or phrases appearing in unwanted articles and add them to the exclusion list
2. Use Boolean operators
Use connecting terms to refine your results. I.e., “Apple” AND “Fruit”
Use a proximity search - identify which keywords are often mentioned together or within a certain number of words from each other (i.e., “Apple” should be within 20 words of “Fruit”)
3. Provide examples to support
Share specific irrelevant articles with the support team so they can identify keywords to exclude without affecting relevant coverage
4. Avoid generic terms
Use specific, targeted keywords — ideally paired with brand names, campaign names, or connecting terms
What should I do if an article is irrelevant?
A: You can manually delete the article by selecting the tickbox and clicking on “Delete”, or by going into the article and clicking the “Delete” button.
OR
A: You can flag the article with the team who can determine why it was picked up.
***NOTE:*** If you’d like the team to look into it, please do not delete the article. The team will remove it once they’ve completed their investigation.