A test plan is a precious written document that describes the testing strategy for a software or hardware project. It is a document that outlines the scope of testing, the resources needed, the test environment, and the test cases that will be executed. Its purpose is to ensure that the testing process is thorough and complete and that all necessary tests are conducted systematically and coordinated.
It acts as a detailed document to ensure the proper working of the software. The output from the testing phase is directly related to the quality of planning that went into it. These testing plans are usually developed during the development phase to save time for executing tests and reaching a mutual agreement with all the parties involved.
Serverless architecture has been gaining momentum in the past few years as a popular way of building and deploying applications. It eliminates the need for developers to manage and maintain servers, allowing them to focus on writing code and delivering features. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of implementing serverless architecture in your CI/CD pipeline.
CI/CD, or Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment, is a practice that allows developers to deliver changes to their code frequently and reliably. It automates the process of building, testing, and deploying code changes to production. By implementing serverless architecture in your CI/CD pipeline, you can reap a number of benefits.
As we have seen in our previous article, artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming many aspects of our lives, including the world of art. With the help of machine learning algorithms and generative models (i.e., a machine “learns” a piece of information and uses it to generate a new image), AI can now create works of art that are often indistinguishable from those created by human artists.
AI-generated images are a type of art that is generated through algorithms that analyze patterns and styles in existing art and use this information to create new and original pieces. AI-generated art can take many forms, including paintings, sculptures, music, and even fashion.
Data quality testing is the process of validating that key characteristics of a dataset match what is anticipated prior to its consumption.
According to Gartner, bad data costs organizations on average an estimated $12.9 million per year. In fact, Monte Carlo’s own research found that data engineers spend as much as 40% of their workday firefighting bad data.
2023 is gearing up to be the year platform engineering goes mainstream. As budgets tighten, businesses want more insight into what engineering is doing, and platform teams look to simplify the developer experience — helping to do more with less.
The discipline of platform engineering aims to remove bottlenecks and help accelerate the speed at which application teams deliver value to end users. To abstract out the complexity of engineering in the cloud-native world. To take care of what Syntasso’s Abigail Bangser calls “non-differential but not unimportant work” — security, Kubernetes, cloud deployments, observability, compliance, and more.
A unified analytic database is a holy grail for data engineers, but what does it look like specifically? It should evolve with the needs of data users.
Vertically, companies now have an ever-enlarging pool of data and expect a higher level of concurrency in data processing. Horizontally, they require a wider range of data analytics services. Besides traditional OLAP scenarios such as statistical reporting and ad-hoc queries, they are also leveraging data analysis in recommender systems, risk control, customer tagging and profiling, and IoT.
As Java developers, we all have it installed on our computer: the Java Development Kit, also known as the JDK. The first version was just a few megabytes and could be saved on a few floppy disks. Many years later, it has grown multiple times. In this article, we will deep dive into the files of the JDK and come up with statistics about them.
In this study, Temurin JDK 20 for Windows x64 has been used.
Formatting a blog post is easy enough to do. But when you’re trying to piece together a lot of information from across the internet and other sources, it can feel a lot more complicated than it is. In this guide, we’re breaking down the best way to format any blog post in six simple steps, so you can confidently write posts that are optimized for search and easy for your visitors to read through.
The 3 Best Blogging Platforms for Formatting a Blog Post
When you’re formatting a blog post, it helps a lot if you’re already using a good blogging platform. It’s even better if that platform has an easy-to-use interface, drafting features, and access to plugins for checking SEO-approved formatting, like Yoast.
Here are our favorite blogging platforms from the many options available to you:
We’ve broken down the process of properly formatting a blog post into six simple steps. Follow our guide and your posts will be formatted well for SEO and general readability every time.
For this tutorial, we’ll be using WordPress as our blogging platform, as it’s the most popular choice on the market (and likely to be what you’re already using). Best of all, Hostinger gives you an easy path to taking care of web hosting on the cheap while also getting you up and running on WordPress if you haven’t set up your blog already. You can get started with Hostinger today for just $2.99 per month.
Step 1: Get Started with Hostinger
Before you actually format a blog post, it’s a good idea to get signed up with a blogging platform so you have somewhere to post your content and you can access some of the tools in this guide.
Since we’ve oriented this guide around using WordPress, let’s show you how to get that set up through our favorite WordPress hosting provider, Hostinger.
Head over to Hostinger’s home page, go to Hosting in the top menu, then click WordPress Hosting.
Hostinger with Word Press offers a range of feature rich and affordable plans to new users.
Scroll down until you find the list of plans, then choose the best one for you. I would recommend starting on the WordPress Starter plan because you get a free domain and a lot of really versatile features, plus you can always upgrade in the future.
By choosing the WordPress Starter plan, you can benefit from a free domain name.
Once you’ve determined your plan, click Add to cart.
You’ll then need to select your hosting term period. The longer your plan’s commitment, the lower the monthly rate will be. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to pay the total upfront. That means if you opt for a three-year commitment at $2.99, you’ll pay $107.64 for your hosting plan at checkout.
By signing up for a longer plan, you can a discount on most of Hostinger’s plans.
For new bloggers, 12 months is a good place to start. That way, you’re not committed to two more years if you abandon this blogging project after one year, but you have enough time to both get value from the hosting plan price and determine success. Fortunately, at the time of this writing, Hostinger’s monthly rate for WordPress hosting stays the same whether you choose a one, two, or three-year contract.
From there, you just need to create your account by filling in your details, then enter your payment information to finish checkout.
Once you’ve completed the purchase, you can then go to your dashboard to view your new account. This will come with a free domain that we’ll choose later and WordPress integrated automatically into your new site.
Step 2: Do SEO Keyword Research
SEO consideration should be a big part of your blog content planning in general.
If you want your post to rank on Google, you’ll need to include SEO keywords in your title, intro, headings, and within your text, so doing some research before you start writing your post will really help you identify what types of headings you’ll need to use and how you’ll structure your post.
SEO research can be a little bit complicated, so we’re not going to break it down in depth in this post (you can read our detailed SEO guide if you need help), but there are lots of free tools that can help you identify words in your niche that are high in search volume but low in traffic.
I’d recommend using either Ubersuggest or Semrush’s free version if you can’t afford a paid subscription to an SEO tool. There’s also a tool called Yoast SEO that is extremely useful for editing and placing SEO keywords. It’s a plugin that you can add to WordPress, and when you upload your blog post as a draft, it can scan the post and let you know how and where your SEO can be improved.
The Yoast SEO tool can help you plan your SEO in posts and identify areas for improvement to boost your chances of getting ranked on Google.
This includes things like telling you if you have used your keyword enough times (or too much) in the content, if your headings are using the right words, and how to structure certain aspects of your language to improve visibility in search results.
This is one of the reasons I suggest you get signed up with Hostinger with WordPress before you format your blog post, because you’ll get access to Yoast at no extra charge as part of your Hostinger WordPress hosting plan.
Step 3: Write Your Title
The first thing your readers will see will be your blog post title.
Now, this may be a little controversial. Although I’m including this as the third step in this guide, you can honestly write your headline at any point, including as the last step. Sometimes, it helps to get a clear view of your blog post as a whole before settling on a headline.
Whenever you choose to tackle this step, your headline should be fewer than 60 characters long and needs to be relevant to the post while hinting at the value the reader will get from reading. A good way to do this is to use rhetorical questions or to use a headline with numbers that teases a list in the post. For example:
Is Natural Deodorant a Scam?
The 5 Fastest Ways to Cook a Potato
Rhetorical questions pique curiosity and cause readers to open and read the blog post to find the answer. With lists, people like numbers because they are comforting and definitive and lists are easy to read.
Studies have found that odd numbers in headlines also get better results and click-through rates, so if you can create a list with an odd number, you’ll boost your chances of writing a great headline.
Titles that have numbers, lists, or questions can help you attract readers for your blog post.
Step 4: Write Your Headings
The key markers for your post that will help readers navigate the content and plan which sections will be valuable to them are headings and subheadings.
A good example of headings in this very post is each numbered step. You can clearly see what each section is going to be about, which makes it easy for you to follow the guide and also come back to a specific section if needed.
Your headings should ideally use your SEO keywords, and you want them to be concise and to the point.
A lot of the time, it also will make sense to create a table of contents if your post is long, and you can use your headings to structure it (and link to the relevant sections in the post).
That can help guide your thinking about the post’s overall structure and potential headings. What would make sense if you saw it in a table of contents? What is going to clearly tell the reader what each section is about?
Headings on blog posts should be simple and easy to follow, and should be clear enough to add to a contents table.
For main headings, keep them high level. You don’t want to create a heading for every single little thing. Instead, you want your main headings (usually formatted as H2 headings in word processors like Google Docs and blog post editors in platforms like WordPress) to feel like chapter titles.
Then, for smaller breakdowns within a section, you can use H3 headings, known as subheadings. This just makes it easier for posts to be scanned by your audience and helps them move through the post easily, especially if you’re covering a lot of unique aspects of a topic, tips, or other items.
Step 5: Finalize Your Outline
Once you have your headings planned, you can start fleshing out your outline. Before your first heading, you should write an intro to the post. This should be short, between one or two paragraphs. The first sentence needs to grab the reader’s attention like your title does and introduce them to the rest of the post.
After each heading, write your main body content for each section. Try to keep this digestible and easy to scan—between 3 or 4 paragraphs is a good rule. Break up large stretches of text with things like bullet points or images (more on this in a bit) when you can. Don’t go overboard with this but remember that it can be tough for people to just read a wall of text, so breaking things up visually with subheadings, bullet points, visual elements, or numbered lists can help.
Adding bullet points to a blog post can help break up text and make it easier for readers to follow the text.
At the end of your blog post, you should write a short conclusion, summarizing the post and giving the reader a call-to-action or a parting thought that closes the post with a flourish. Some posts won’t include this and you don’t have to either, but it’s a good opportunity to include relevant links to your other blog posts or to invite readers to do something.
For example, if you’re writing a blog post about the pros and cons of hiring your moving vehicle rental company, you might end the post with a quick summary and then an invitation to book a van.
Your heading for this can just be something like “Conclusion” or “Summary”, but that can look a little unprofessional and simplistic. In this post, for example, you can see that we use the heading “Final Thoughts.” It sounds better and still lets the reader know that the post is coming to a conclusion.
Step 6: Add Images
When you’re formatting a blog post, you may want to add images or screenshots that support what you’re writing about.
These can be a little messy, because it’s not always easy to make images look good in WordPress. You’ll want to be mindful of the theme you’re using and how blog posts display on your WordPress site, so you can get a good feel for the right width and proportions for images to use.
You can get creative with the images you use, but make sure they’re relevant to the written content. You should have one main image for your blog post that appears above or just under your title called a featured image, which can also be used alongside your headline for blog category pages, on web pages, or within your blogroll.
The other images in your post should also be relevant and valuable to the content, but can also be used to break up long stretches of text. You’ll notice at Quick Sprout when we use images, they’re usually graphs, charts, or screenshots that help you understand the content of the blog post. We don’t use random stock images because they’re just that: generic. They usually don’t add much value compared to custom illustrations, screenshots, and original photos.
Adding relevant images like screenshots or graphs can help add value to blog posts and break up text.
For example, if you are doing a step-by-step guide and you’re giving instructions on how to sign up for a piece of software, you could include screenshots for each key step in the process with annotations to help users follow along and complete the steps.
You can also embed videos where it makes sense, but be aware that these can really slow down your site’s loading speed. Just try not to go overboard and weigh your site down to the point where it takes more than three seconds to load.
Final Thoughts About Formatting a Blog Post
If you use the steps we’ve outlined in this guide, every post you write should be easy for readers to scan and optimized for search. Of course, remember that every post is different and it’s perfectly fine to get creative. As long as you keep the focus on making it simple for readers to move through your post and find valuable content quickly, everything else will fall into place.
Much has been written about the impact of AI tooling on software development, or indeed on any creative endeavor. Some of those blogs may already be written by AI, who knows? If the benefits for mundane coding tasks today are any foretaste of what lies ahead, I dare not contemplate what the next year will bring, let alone the next decade. I’m not overly worried. The price of job security was always continuous upgrading of your skillset - which is why I’m studying for the Oracle Certified Professional Java SE 17 developer exam. The OCP is reassuringly and infuriatingly old-school. It grills you on arrays, shorts, ObjectOutputStream, the flip bit operator ^, and much you’re probably not going to write or encounter. What is the point? I’ll tell you.
On the one hand, the programming profession has changed beyond recognition from when I started in 1999 and long before that. I look forward to veteran Jim Highsmith’s upcoming book Wild West to Agile. It’s supposed to be liberally sprinkled with personal anecdotes from the era of punch cards and overnight compiles. The teasers remind me of the classic Four Yorkshiremen sketch by Monty Python, boasting how tough they had it. “We lived eighteen to a room! – Luxury! We lived in a septic tank.”
Mail Exchange (MX) records, in simple English, tell the internet where to deliver your emails. These records enable email servers to know which mail servers are responsible for accepting incoming messages for a given domain.
When you are using Gmail with your Google Workspace domain, Google provides you with a set of MX records in the format ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM and you need to add five such records to your domain. These MX records point incoming emails to Google’s mail servers, which then deliver the emails to your Gmail inbox.
Priority
Host / Mail Server
1
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
5
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
5
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
10
ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
10
ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
These MX records specify the priority and destination of email messages. The priority numbers indicate the order in which the email servers should be tried.
When a sender sends an email to your domain, their email server will look up your domain’s MX records to determine where to deliver the email. The server will try the first mail server listed (priority 1), and if that server is unavailable or unreachable, it will try the next one listed (priority 5), until the email message is successfully delivered.
New MX Records for Google Workspace
Google has simplified the MX records for new Google Workspace accounts that are created after April 2023. You now only need to add one MX record to your domain. The priority value is always 1 and the destination is SMTP.GOOGLE.COM.
Priority
Host / Mail Server
1
SMTP.GOOGLE.COM
You may find the updated MX records here. Google Workspace evangelist Michael Brenzel suggest that the new MX records should be used for only new Google Workspace accounts, and that there’s no need to change the DNS records for existing Workspace domains.
In the field of IT, file extraction and processing refer to the process of extracting information from various types of files, such as text files, images, videos, and audio files, and then processing that information to make it usable for a specific purpose.
File extraction involves reading and parsing the data stored in a file, which could be in a variety of formats, such as PDF, CSV, XML, or JSON, among others. Once the information is extracted, it can be processed using various techniques such as data cleansing, transformation, and analysis to generate useful insights.
This article outlines some of the key factors to consider while choosing whether to build or buy Incident Management software.
When your organization realizes that it needs an Incident Management System (IMS), the first question is almost always, "Build or Buy?" Superficially, the requirements seem simple, and being a technical organization, you probably have the skills you need as well. With your deep knowledge of your internal setup, you can surely build one that's best suited to your needs. This may seem like a solid argument for building your own IMS; however, there are some hidden factors that you may not have considered. In this blog, we look at the costs involved in building your own IMS and help you determine if the return on investment (ROI) makes it worth building one.
Do you want to send an email to all registered users in WordPress?
Sometimes you may need to send a mass email to everyone who has an account on your website. This may include customers, members, subscribers, and even other WordPress users.
In this article, we will show you how to send an email to all registered users in WordPress.
Why and When You Need to Send Email to All Registered Users in WordPress?
If you allow user registration on your WordPress site, then there are a few different reasons why you may need to email all registered users. For example, you might want to let your site’s Authors and Editors know about a new plugin you’ve added to help them write great posts.
If you run an online store, then you may be launching a giveaway or contest in WordPress, exclusively for people who have the ‘Customer’ role.
Depending on how you’ve set up user registration, you may not add all users to your email list automatically. This can make it difficult to contact everyone who uses your site.
Thankfully, there are other ways to bulk message everyone who has an account with your WordPress website.
Now, let’s see how you can easily email all registered users on your website.
How to Make Sure Your Emails Are Delivered Safely
Before we start, you want to make sure that users will receive the emails you send.
Sometimes, your WordPress hosting server may not be properly configured or email providers such as Gmail might use filters and tools that wrongly flag your emails as spam.
With that in mind, we recommend using an SMTP service provider to improve your email deliverability and make sure all registered users receive their messages safely.
WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market. It allows you to connect your WordPress site with a mailer service. This means your emails always end up in the user’s inbox, and not in the spam folder.
We recommend buying the paid version called WP Mail SMTP Pro as it allows you to send emails in WordPress using Gmail SMTP, SendLayer, Sendinblue, and more. You can also see the open and click-through rates for your emails, so you can monitor the success of your different email campaigns.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » WP Mail SMTP page.
Here, enter your license into the ‘License Key’ field.
Sending Email to All Registered Users in WordPress
The best way to email all your registered users, is by using Send Users Email. This simple plugin lets you send bulk messages based on the user’s role.
Before you get started with this plugin, you may want to check your user roles. You can then make any changes so that your users are properly organized by role.
When you’re happy with how your roles are set up, the next step is installing and activating the Send Users Email plugin. For more details, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to Email to users » Email Roles in your WordPress dashboard.
Here, you can choose which users will receive the email based on their role on your WordPress blog.
For example, in the following image, we’re messaging everyone who has the ‘Subscriber’ role.
You can now type the email that you want to send to all registered users. The Send Users Email plugin also has a few placeholder tags that you can use to add user information to the message.
For example, you can address the user by name using the {{user_first_name}} placeholder. When Send Users Email creates each email, it will replace the placeholder with the recipient’s first name.
By using a combination of plain text and placeholders, you can send a personalized email to all registered users.
When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Send Message’ button.
WordPress will now email everyone who has the selected user role.
How to Email Specific Registered Users in WordPress
The the Send Users Email plugin also lets you send an email to a small group of registered users, or even to a specific user. For example, you may want to send a follow-up email to a particular Subscriber, after sending a bulk email.
To message individual users, simply go to Email to users »Email Users. This shows a list of all your registered users.
To message a user, simply check the box next to their username.
After selecting all the people you want to email, you can go ahead and create your message.
When you’re happy with the message, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and then click on Send Message.
Field CTO is a job role that comes up more and more in software companies. There is no standard definition for this job role. As I regularly get the question about what a Field CTO does, this blog post summarizes a few general characteristics and then explores my daily life as a Field CTO. The post concludes with the answer to how you can also become a Field CTO at a software company in your career.
General Characteristics of a Field CTO
Search through business and employment-focused social media platforms like LinkedIn or jobs networks and portals like Indeed or Glassdoor. You will see many of the following characteristics, experiences, and tasks of most people that own a position as Field CTO:
As you know, React is a library developed by Facebook and can integrate with many exciting components. Developers can make their components available to the community by creating and publishing them on the platform.
This time, we'll tackle the topic head-on and demonstrate some of React's most fundamental and conventional best practices for web developers.
Ecommerce sites should provide the necessary tools that make transactions quick and easy for customers and store owners alike. But most ecommerce sellers forget about the one part of their website that works for them 24/7: their blog.
Blogging for ecommerce can deliver plentiful benefits, from marketing your products to new clientele to building a devoted fan base of lifelong customers. Let’s dive into how to get started blogging for ecommerce and what you can gain by doing so.
The Best Platforms for Ecommerce Blogging
Ecommerce blogging should come as a part of your overall web store platform. Many ecommerce site builders also sport some degree of blogging functionality, but these three are the best providers that deliver well on both blogging and ecommerce features:
If you want to get a feel for blogging platforms in general, check out our full reviews of the three brands above, plus others.
What is Ecommerce Blogging?
Have you ever read an article about a new product and just had to buy it? What about tips and tricks for using a product or service? That’s what ecommerce blogging is all about—generating organic interest in your brand and its products or services through written content.
It’s a way of marketing your online store through content that educates, entertains, and informs customers about what you do. You can use it to grow your customer base by targeting new markets and building relationships with potential customers, plus keep engaging loyal buyers with new content that keeps them aware of, engaged with, and purchasing from you.
When blogging for ecommerce, you want to strike a balance between educating people about your products and services so that customers know what to expect when they buy from you and getting them interested in what they can do, achieve, or enjoy by purchasing your products.
On a technical level, there are specific steps you must take to get started with ecommerce blogging, including customer research, topic development, and content creation. We’ll get into those details in a moment.
Why is Ecommerce Blogging Important?
As an ecommerce seller, you’re probably spending a lot on paid ads already. And while paid ads are great for encouraging short-term gains in sales, ecommerce blogging helps you build a more steady audience of long-term customers.
It’s also a way to build trust with potential customers by showing them that you’re an expert in your field and that you understand their needs, pains, feelings, and passions. You can use your blog to educate customers about your products and services, as well as answer their questions before they even ask them.
Most importantly, though, ecommerce blogging leads to more traffic to your online store, which translates to more conversions and sales. Companies with blogs see 55% more traffic than those without, and there are several reasons for this.
Ecommerce blogging gives retailers the opportunity to cover topics their customers are already searching for.
When potential customers read a company blog, they might associate its products with a solution to their problem.
Companies with blogs do more than just engage online shoppers—they keep readers on their sites for prolonged periods of time.
When a retailer becomes a source of information, its content is shared across the internet, which leads to more traffic from farther-flung sources.
Users are more likely to look for a product if they already understand where it fits into their lives and how it solves their problems.
As a search engine, it’s Google’s job to provide its users with the information they’re looking for. Many people aren’t looking for products specifically. They often type a question or a phrase into Google related to what they’re experiencing at the moment, whether it’s a need for something or a problem they want solved. When companies write about topics related to their products, it gives them a better chance of appearing in searches and ranking higher in results.
A blog can really speed up the ecommerce conversion process by quickly dispensing with an introduction to the business and its products and by drilling deeper into topics that are directly or indirectly related to the web store’s product line.
How Ecommerce Blogging Works
Ecommerce blogging is similar to most types of blogging, but it also has some key differences.
Since an ecommerce storefront is selling products or services, blog content needs to be focused on the products and services being sold to a specific degree. You don’t want it to be too salesy or pushy, but you also can’t just write about anything without tying it back to your business or offerings.
Here are the main steps that go into starting the ecommerce blogging process:
Customer research: To know what topics to include in your blog, you need to understand who your customers are and what they’re looking for. Everything from purchase data to customer inquiries and search intent can be used to guide your content strategy.
Keyword research: Although topics should speak to your target customers and their main concerns, keyword research is still important for honing the SEO of your blog posts. This research is used to identify search terms that are related to your products, as well as low-competition terms that you can use in your blog titles and content to rank high in results.
Topic development: After developing an idea of the types of topics that will be interesting to your audience, it’s time to start brainstorming ideas. Tie topics to types of posts you want to write, like examples of ways to use your product, instructional guides (like this one!) to help your clientele achieve something, or even opinionated articles offering your brand’s insights and thoughts about modern trends, just to name a few examples.
Content creation: This is when you get to work in earnest. Putting together your blog post includes writing (or finding someone to write) the post, formatting it correctly, and adding engaging visuals such as images and videos or other elements like call-to-action buttons or even embedded product listings.
Promotion: Once you have a blog post ready to go, you need to make sure that it’s seen by those who are interested in what you have to say. Promotion includes things like email marketing, social media posting and sharing, search engine optimization (SEO), and paid promotion.
Beyond these basic steps, ecommerce blogging also requires some ongoing maintenance, such as monitoring analytics and updating older posts as they become stale or outdated in their information.
Benefits of Ecommerce Blogging
Creating an ecommerce blog comes with many benefits, some of which we touched on earlier. Let’s take a look at these advantages in-depth.
Blogging gives your brand a personality
The fastest and most effective way to show buyers who you are and what you offer is to tell your story. An ecommerce blog allows you to do this in an engaging way, while also providing helpful information and perspectives related to your products or services.
By consistently producing remarkable blog content, your brand becomes recognizable and trustworthy. It’s a way to share with customers who you are as well as what values your business holds dear. When readers recognize themselves in your brand thoughts and values, they’re more likely to become a customer and ardent supporter of your business. Blogging is a non-intrusive method that helps build an unforgettable personality for your company while reinforcing its online reputation.
You can pay less for more
Paid search, Facebook Ads, and other types of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be expensive. And you only get results as long as you’re paying for the campaign. By investing in ecommerce blogging instead, you can save money while reaching more people.
Blog posts work around the clock, whether you’re spending money on additional marketing or not. Since they sit in search engine results pages (SERPs), high-ranking blogs can garner traffic without requiring any further financial input than the initial outlay to create posts.
Your SEO rankings will improve
Google loves unique, informative content. And when your blog is regularly updated with relevant and keyword-rich posts, your chances of ranking higher in search results increase significantly. Not just your individual blog posts’ pages either, but also your root domain where your online storefront lives. That’s because you’ll be showing search engine algorithms that you’re keeping up with the latest trends and providing value to your customers.
Higher rankings mean better sales numbers
For most online shoppers, the buyer’s journey starts with a search engine. 68% of buyers search for a product on Google before making a decision on what to buy. When you rank higher in the SERPs with informative, keyword-rich blog content, you make it easier for customers to find your business and its offerings. This means more visits to your store and a better chance of turning visitors into buyers.
Readers see your products beyond a photo or landing page
It’s tough to communicate the value of your products when you’re limited to product photos and descriptions. But blog posts give readers the chance to see beyond a simple image or landing page, allowing them to understand the value of the items within your store, including unique ways to use them and benefits they might not have thought about themselves.
With blog posts, you can communicate information in a way that cannot be captured by photos or product pages alone. You can discuss problems, answer questions and offer solutions—effectively highlighting why shoppers should choose your products without the need for salesy language or intrusive marketing messaging.
Strategies for Crafting a Successful Ecommerce Blog
Ecommerce companies big and small can use their blogs to drive more sales and build brand awareness. But, for your blog to succeed, it must be well-executed. Here are some strategies to help you get started on the right foot with ecommerce blogging.
Create a detailed content calendar
One of the most important aspects when crafting an ecommerce blog is consistency. If you post regularly for a few weeks then don’t post anything for another week or two (or month), you’re going to lose some of your audience and some of your search ranking gains.
You need a regimented schedule for posting that you stick to. A content calendar typically includes:
The topics you will cover
When the posts should go live
Who is responsible for producing content
By creating a content calendar, you can ensure that your blog remains up-to-date and relevant at all times. This increases the chances of attracting customers through search engine results pages and other channels.
Don’t worry about trying to post all the time as much as being consistent. It’s better if you always publish something new on Tuesdays and Thursdays for weeks on end than to post something on five in one week then only once in the next. Be mindful of the workload your writers and content managers will be taking on and set up a calendar that allows them to produce excellent content on schedule, week in and week out.
Turn common content types into templates
Some posts will require original content with unique ways of presenting information or thoughts. But, for a lot of your content, you can turn their formats into templates that make writing similar types of posts easier and faster.
For example, blog posts like “X Best (Keyword) for (Activity)” and “X Tips for (Topic)” can have formats with subheadings that you can use as a replicable outline for each post that uses that technique. This way, you can quickly write posts that meet your formatting and quality standards without having to start from scratch with each one.
Embrace a flexible business model
While it may seem like larger corporations always have the advantage, they are also burdened with certain weaknesses. Within their corporate bureaucracies, agility and change aren’t exactly common.
As a result, shifting focus for these companies can be an expensive endeavor riddled with red tape and paperwork. This process is far simpler for smaller businesses who don’t need to contend with all those barriers.
When it comes to blogging as a smaller ecommerce seller, you can quickly change direction and update your content strategy to match the latest trends or preferences of your customer base. This gives you a significant opportunity to dominate search results, capitalize on current events and trends, and grow your online presence to compete with the big players in your space.
Leverage user-generated content (UGC)
With the rise of Instagram and TikTok, plus the growth of influencer marketing, customers are more excited and enticed by transparent and authentic communication from a brand and its customers than ever. 70% of consumers factor in user-generated content in their buying decision because they trust their peers and the social accounts they follow and interact with daily.
User-generated content is a great way to showcase your products or services in real-world scenarios, proving the worth of what you offer and boosting sales from an authentic source. You can highlight or report user-generated content on your blog by creating roundups, testimonials, reviews, and feature stories—all ways of demonstrating the successful use of your products or services or the positive feelings surrounding your brand.
Let engagement data dictate your content strategy
It isn’t 2010 anymore. Keyword research alone should not be the basis of your content marketing strategy. Instead, focus on what your customers and audience are already engaged with based on their current conversations, activities, interests, and needs.
Customer data like this comes from several different places:
The questions your prospective buyers have, the comments your customers leave, the reviews they’ve written, and the conversations they’re participating in on social media are all indicators of what they are interested in. And that should be the focus of your ecommerce blog strategy.
How to Find the Right Tools for Ecommerce Blogging
Depending on your budget, your tech stack could be expansive or it could consist of a few basic tools. Before you start building your blogging strategy, you need the right set of tools to back up your efforts.
Researching and selecting the right types of software can be overwhelming—especially if you’re not familiar with all the options available in the market today. Still, there are a few essential tools you need to get started:
Web traffic analytics: You probably already use Google Analytics, but if you’re starting to build your blog, you’ll use it even more to learn more about your audience, where they come from, and what they do on your pages.
Keyword research tools: You may already have a keyword research tool like Moz, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools allow you to track keywords and identify the right topics for your blog.
Technical SEO Tool: Tools like Screaming Frog (which is free) can help you identify technical issues on your website that may prevent Google from finding and indexing your blog posts.
Email Marketing Platform: You need an email platform to capture leads and nurture them with your blog content. Options include MailChimp, ConvertKit, and AWeber.
As you grow your blog, you’ll probably want to add other tools to your tech stack. These include heat mapping tools, usability testing tools, social media management software, and social listening software. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different tools until you find the ones that work best for your business needs.
Final Thoughts About Ecommerce Blogging
Blogging is an essential tool for any ecommerce business. It can give you a competitive edge, help you connect with your customers, and increase sales. You may even be able to make money from your blog in addition to your ecommerce sales.
The key to success is to create a blogging strategy that aligns with your business goals, uses the right tools, and focuses on creating content that resonates with your customers. Then, using that data to find out what makes or breaks an ecommerce purchase, you can develop content your audience will actually want to read (and convert from).
The test strategy is an organizational-level document that describes the general test approach, i.e., what needs to be achieved and how to achieve it. This document is outside the scope of the software testing life cycle (STLC) and does not specify testing requirements for a specific project. Instead, it establishes the common testing principles for all of the organization's projects.
When software scales and the team grows, an unchallengeable need for the right test tool and strategy arises. By incorporating an effective test strategy, you can ensure a bug-free application.
