Testing Blog Templates

Introduction

Your blog is a key part of your content strategy, and testing different blog template designs can help you understand which layouts drive more engagement, time on site, and conversions. Whether you're testing a new blog index layout or individual article templates, A/B testing allows you to make data-driven decisions about your blog's design.

While blog templates aren't directly supported in Intelligems Template Tests, you can test them using a Split URL test combined with Shopify's ?view= query parameter. This approach lets you split traffic between your current blog template and a new design without needing a full theme test.

How It Works

Shopify allows you to display alternate templates by appending a ?view= parameter to any URL. For example, if you have a blog template named blog.new-design.json, you can preview it by visiting:

https://your-store.myshopify.com/blogs/news?view=new-design

The suffix after blog. in your template filename becomes the value for the view parameter.

Setting the Test Up

Before getting started, make sure you've added the Intelligems script to your Shopify theme and created the alternate blog template you want to test.

1. Confirm your template suffix — Find your new blog template in your theme files. If it's named blog.new-design.json, your suffix is new-design. Test it by visiting your blog URL with ?view=new-design appended.

2. Create a Split URL test — In the Intelligems app, navigate to A/B Tests → Create New Test → Content Test → Split URL Test. Give it a name and description.

3. Set up your redirect:

   • Origin URL (Control Group): Enter your blog URL (e.g., https://your-store.myshopify.com/blogs/news)

   • Variant destination URL: Enter the same URL as the origin

   • Query Parameters: Click the + button to add a parameter. Enter view as the key and your template suffix (e.g., new-design) as the value

4. Select "Redirect Every Time" — This ensures visitors consistently see the same template throughout their session, rather than potentially switching between templates on subsequent visits.

5. Set your test goals — Choose the metrics you want to track (conversion rate, revenue per session, etc.) and launch your test!

Tip: This same approach works for any template type that isn't directly supported in Template Tests, including article templates (article.new-design.json), search templates, and more.