# 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](https://docs.intelligems.io/getting-started/adding-intelligems-script-to-your-theme) 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.