Unique CMS Article ID for consolidating reused content

The unique CMS Article ID lets publishers unify reused content under a single article in Marfeel, preserving the original publication date and all accrued metrics. Many publishers reuse old content by giving it a new URL and canonical. By default, this creates a new, separate article in Marfeel.

If you want to consolidate those articles instead, Marfeel offers the CMS Article ID. This identifier links old and new versions together so that traffic, engagement, and all historical data remain unified under one article.

How it works

Marfeel scans each article for a CMS ID. When a new CMS ID is detected, Marfeel attaches it to the article’s canonical URL. If a new canonical later appears with the same CMS ID, Marfeel consolidates all past and future traffic under that new canonical automatically.

Warning: A poor implementation of CMS ID could lead to inconsistencies in your data. Please read the implementation guide carefully.
Consult your account manager to validate this in a pre-production environment before promoting it to production. Any error in this implementation could result in irreversible data loss.

Implementation

Add all your domains to your Authorized domains list before implementing CMS ID.

The CMS ID is set in the HTML header as a meta property, but it can also be defined using the name attribute.

<meta property="mrf:cms_id" content="your_unique_id_for_the_content" />

Please take the following factors into consideration when implementing. Errors could affect not only your future data, but also your past data:

• The meta tag must be present in the static HTML. It cannot be loaded using JavaScript.
• Never use the same CMS ID for different content.
• If you have more than one property under the same account, ensure that IDs are unique across all properties. Using a prefix in the CMS ID helps achieve this.
• Once a new article is published under the same CMS ID, ensure that the old article is inaccessible, usually by redirecting it to the new URL.
• Verify that when the CMS ID is not present, the meta tag is not rendered at all. By default Marfeel ignores empty cms_id tags, but any content such as undefined, null, not set will be treated as a valid CMS ID.

What happens when a publisher reuses content with a new URL?

By default, Marfeel creates a new article for the new URL. To unify the old and new versions under a single article, keeping the original publication time and accrued metrics, publishers can implement a unique CMS Article ID via a meta tag.

How do I implement the CMS Article ID meta tag?

Add a meta tag with the property mrf:cms_id in the HTML header of each article. The tag must be present in the HTML source and cannot be loaded via JavaScript. Ensure IDs are unique across all properties under the same account.

What are the risks of a poor CMS ID implementation?

A poor implementation can cause inconsistencies in your data and irreversible data loss. Common mistakes include reusing the same CMS ID for different content, leaving the meta tag with values like undefined or null, and failing to redirect old articles after publishing new ones with the same CMS ID.