How Does The Frontpage of Medium Work? The Medium platform maintains two views that showcase stories to incoming users. It also features a view containing the top tags of the platform. This story provides you with an approach to get your story in each view of the homepage.

The Ranked View

The Ranked View of Medium’s frontpage shows six stories based on algorithmic scores. However, these stories must also adhere to Medium’s Distribution Standards. As a result, getting a story in the “Ranked View” is objective: Publish a story that meets distribution standards and is also ranked in the Top 6 Medium Stories by algorithmic score.

Of course, that is easier said than done.

How can you optimize the algorithmic score of a Medium story? Publish a story that receives a high amount of Read Time (over a short period of time). To do this, you must create content that readers are interested in and willing to read. In other words, you must create a story with a high Click-through rate (CTR) and Read Time.

Maximizing the Read Time of your stories is likely to improve your writing and vice-versa. The truth is that no one spends 5 minutes on a story that fails to intrigue them. So work to create stories that attract readers (with enticing headlines, featured images, and introductions), then keep their eyes glued to the screen.

What tools can you use to improve your clickthrough rate on Medium? While there are always objective measures you can take to improve your CTR, your best improvement will come from knowledge about your target audience. That said, there are several tools on the internet, such as Headline Analyzers, Image Optimization studies, and more. In addition, the Marketing (Advertising) industry also maintains many resources for CTR optimization.

What tools can you use to improve your Read Time on Medium? When it comes to tools for content creators, Medium is no YouTube. The only valuable metric you’re provided about a story is its average read time, as opposed to the retention metrics that YouTube Video Creators can access. The lack of these tools requires you to increase the number of stories you publish to collect more information about what works and what doesn’t.

Interested in more information about Content Optimization for Medium Stories? Read What Makes A Story Popular On Medium.

The Scrollable View

The Scrollable View of Medium’s frontpage shows a selection of stories in Medium’s “Staff Picks” list. As a result, getting a story in the “Scrollable View” is subject to the list’s curators: Publish a story that interests these people and also meets Medium’s Distribution Standards.

The “Staff Picks” list is heavily influenced by the What We’re Reading series from Medium’s 3 Min Read publication: Analyze the employees who curate this list to understand which stories interest them.

The Tag Page

The Tags View of Medium’s frontpage shows the most popular tags of the platform. Clicking a tag brings you to its tag page, which contains a list of stories ranked by algorithmic score. As a result, you can use the same strategy as the Ranked View to get a story distributed in a promoted tag.