How Investopedia is growing its page views and visits

A year ago, an Investopedia employee alerted new CEO David Siegel that page views for the personal finance site’s short selling tutorial had increased dramatically shortly before a day in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down 1,000 points.

Siegel wondered whether its readers were consuming content in line with other market moves.

So an Investopedia team created an index of “negative” terms that its readers click on and discovered that the index typically spiked shortly before the market fell. “Research and education often happen before people take action,” said Siegel.

That discovery led to new content on the site around the “anxiety index” and illustrates how Investopedia is overhauling its content to boost its page views and site visits.

That strategy, explained Siegel in an interview with Talking Biz News, focuses on educating readers around the news, hiring big-name columnists such as Pulitzer Prize winner David Cay Johnston and providing a forum for readers to ask questions to experts.

The result: Investopedia reported a 20 percent increase in total visits to the site in the second quarter to 106.2 million and a 46 percent increase in mobile visits in the second quarter to 33.5 million. Visits from social media increased 420 percent in the quarter to 2.5 million.

“Investopedia can have a better impact on improving people’s ability to make sound and smart financial decisions better than any other brand out there,” said Siegel.

The site was started in 1999 and at one time owned by Forbes. In 2013, New York-based IAC, which owns a number of websites, acquired it for $80 million and brought in Siegel two years later to run the business. Siegel came from SeekingAlpha.com, where subscription sales increased by 300 percent during his tenure.

Siegel’s strategy at Investopedia has been to change its content from a place that was previously known for definitions of financial terms and evergreen pieces about personal finance. The editorial staff has doubled to about 20 employees since he started. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it doubled again in the next year or two,” he said.

The biggest hire was Caleb Silver, who joined in January as vice president of content. Silver was the director of business news for CNN and worked for the network for 10 years in a variety of executive and management roles. He was the executive producer for CNNMoney.com, where he helped launch the CNNMoney Video Network.

Under Silver, Investopedia began writing stories explaining issues around the markets and the economy.

“We wanted to focus on news,” said Siegel. “And the important thing is the way in which we’re going about building out news. We’re not going to be a leader in breaking news. Where we’re going to be a leader is in leveraging news to help our audience become educated around what’s going on. It makes something that could be more textbook type of content come alive, and it gives case studies for people to engage in. It’s a much better way of building content.”

Investopedia also overhauled its contributors, bringing in well-known experts such as Johnston, who writes about taxes, on topics such as financial advising, exchange traded funds and retirement. And it created Advisor Insights, where readers can ask personal finance questions to financial advisors. Since it was launched in March, Advisor Insights has resulted in 2 million page views.

Investopedia has also added a series of newsletters.

“The real underpinning is great content,” said Siegel. “And then you need to have the right distribution channels.”