The 20 most-viewed news stories of 2021 on NEOtrans

Print screen view of the most-viewed real estate news story of 2021

Screenshot of the most viewed NEOtrans article of 2021 — Cleveland Clinic plans to demolish the former Cleveland Play House complex on Euclid Avenue (NEOtrans). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

It’s all about the personal experience

Personal experiences matter. That’s the lesson of why one news article gets opened and another article does not. It’s why the pending demolition of the Cleveland Play House was the most-read story of 2021. It got read because people went to see a show there once upon a time, not because it was the only Cleveland-area project designed by a famous Cleveland-born architect, Philip Johnson.

Personal experiences are why the remake of a dingy bowling alley just east of Cleveland State University (CSU) was the second-most-read story. Comments on social media concerning this place were dominated by CSU alumni reminiscing about bowling a frame or getting a bite or a drink between classes.

That and other experiential stories pushed off the top-20 list the stunning news that Cleveland Clinic will build a much larger Neurological Institute than it had originally planned. That story garnered 4,772 views. But if it was published on the old Web site before the changeover, it’s doubtful it would have made the pre-Aug. 15 top-10 list.

Although no article about the new Sherwin-Williams (SHW) headquarters attracted more than the eighth-most views in 2021, there were four SHW HQ articles in the top 20. And had the two SHW HQ articles published before Aug. 15 been published on the new site with its use of semantic core, they would have attracted many more views (Pickard Chilton-TV20).

Why split the top-20 Cleveland real estate news stories?

This list of the 20 most-viewed articles on NEOtrans is split in half between the 10 most-viewed articles before Aug. 15 and the 10 most-viewed after Aug. 15. The reason for the split is because NEOtrans introduced its new Web site in mid-August along with the use of semantic core and our inclusion on Google News to attract more traffic to our articles. We also stopped promoting the old Blogspot Web site we’ve had since 2011.

Thanks to NEOtrans’ Director of Digital Advertising Iryna Tkachenko for her efforts which achieved documented results almost immediately, causing monthly views to rise from 13,000 in July to nearly 100,000 in October. And this doesn’t include the number of views of our articles appearing on NewsBreak.

So an article that was published by NEOtrans after mid-August would invariably attract more viewers than if it was published before mid-August. There simply is no comparison between the two sites in terms of their ability to reach a wider audience. With that, we present the 20 most-viewed articles in 2020….

Print screen view of George files development plan for property sought for Irishtown Bend Park in Ohio City.

Screenshot of the old NEOtrans blog site that we used for a decade until this past summer when we transitioned over to the new site (NEOtrans).

Ten most-viewed articles after Aug. 15, 2021

Cleveland Clinic to demolish ex-Cleveland Play House — 16,713 views
Near-downtown bowling alley to become entertainment venue — 10,210
Great Lakes Brewing Co. to start Scranton Peninsula work — 7,730
Large apartment building planned in Lakewood — 6,932
County offers large East Cleveland property — 6,584
Two Tremont markets fade in a rite of passage — 6,199
Is Downtown Cleveland in Target’s bullseye? — 6,156
Sherwin-Williams HQ construction starts (PHOTOS) — 5,645
Ten Cleveland schools OK’d for new uses — 5,624
Sherwin-Williams HQ groundbreaking date set — 5,151

Ten most-viewed articles before Aug. 15, 2021

George files development plan for Irishtown Bend land — 6,567 views
Mid-rise apartment complex planned for Gordon Square — 6,361
Amazon to be first tenant at Brook Park’s ex-Ford site — 5,439
Cleveland’s lakefront may get boost from new stadium, trains, ships — 5,398
Sherwin-Williams HQ design sheds box, may boost height — 4,713
Detroit-Superior subway deck is on a new path — 4,624
Seventeen 10+ story projects may seen construction in the next year — 4,566
Seven proposed office towers in Cleveland? Yep, seven. — 4,435
Sherwin-Williams’ HQ may alienate young talent it wants to attract — 4,291
The Justice Center plan that could transform downtown — 4,278

However, posting an article like this three days before the end of the year carries some risk, especially when one of the biggest stories of the year may only be days away from happening. If that story doesn’t break before midnight Dec. 31, 2021, then NEOtrans will have a good start on its list of top stories to post at the end of 2022.

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