Blog
At Pixel Union, most blog content is written by the marketing team. We cover a range of ecommerce topics, including Shopify news, merchant stories, and advice to help online entrepreneurs grow their businesses. We also—surprise, surprise—write about our own products and services.
This section will cover our blog audience(s), the traits of a good post, and some small-seeming but key details about posting to the Pixel Union blog.
Basics
We update the Pixel Union blog one to two times a week. We generally publish:
Product and feature release announcements (this includes Agency project profiles)
Industry news and trends (specifically focused on Shopify)
Merchant stories (usually about merchants who use our themes and apps)
And for two to three months of the year, a whole lot of BFCM content 😉
We aim to write posts that are thoughtful, well-researched, and actionable. Our main focus is giving users information they can use to improve their business, not self-promotional drivel designed to drive sales (though it's always nice when that happens).
When writing for the blog, we abide by the points outlined in the Voice and tone and Language and grammar sections. We also keep the Word list close at hand lest we forget how to spell "catalog."
Blog audience
The Pixel Union blog has a diverse audience. Some of our readers have advanced technical knowledge that far exceeds that of our content writers. Others are making their first foray into ecommerce and may not even understand the difference between a theme and app.
Unfortunately, we don't really know who our most faithful readers are (we hope to rectify that soon). Much of what we do know comes from a customer survey we ran in early 2018. It helped us identify the following five user personas:
Solopreneur - Inexperienced, lower revenue, represent ~25% of our users.
Surviving boutique - Small teams (2-5 members), slightly more knowledgable/sophisticated, represent ~25% of our users.
Thriving boutique - Small teams (2-5 members), $100,000+ annual revenue, savvy, dedicated, and efficient, represent ~20% of our users.
Established business - Larger teams (6-25 members), $1M+ in revenue, disconnected, specialized teams, successful in business but not necessarily ecommerce, represent ~20% of our users.
Incorporated - Large teams (25+ members), high volume/revenue, many unique tendencies and needs, represent ~10% of our users.
One piece of content may not appeal to both solopreneurs and established businesses. We aim to publish a mix of articles that meet merchants wherever they are in their ecommerce journey.
That said, there is a lot of common ground between all of these groups. (Shopify's Sections Parity update, for example, was good news for everyone.) We try to make our content more accessible and relevant to the widest possible audience.
Traits of a good blog post
A good great blog post is:
Actionable. We're all about "news you can use." Our blog teaches readers things they don't already know, giving them the tools they need to grow their business.
Well-researched. Pixel Union may be an ecommerce authority, but we certainly don't know it all. Always back up your points with links to relevant, reputable sources.
Well-structured. Don't bury the lede. Frontload your post by putting the main point or most important information first to ensure it gets read. Use descriptive subheadings to organize content and make it more scannable.
Tagged and keyword-ed. The best way of getting eyes on posts is to follow SEO best practices. That means adding tags, keywords, and a meta description to each and every post.
Technically flawless. Find an editor, follow this guide to a T, and you'll be golden.
Tips for publishing to pixelunion.net
Once you've written your post—and rewritten it, anguished over it, and rewritten it again—you're ready to publish queue it up for editing. Here are some to-dos before handing it off.
Use "Paste and Match Style" to strip away problematic formatting
Rather than using "Paste," select "Paste and Match Style" to move your content to WordPress. That way, you'll get all your words and none of the funky formatting. You can manually add your subheadings, links, captions, etc. in the text editor. Here's how to set "Paste and Match Style" as your Mac's default.
Add an image and meta data
We use a plugin called Meta Tags WP to add meta data and custom open graphs for social sharing. Add the image, title, and description you want to display when people share your post on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Try to summarize your post's content in a compelling way, while including any relevant keywords.
Categorize appropriately
All posts on the Pixel Union blog should fit into at least one of five categories: Ecommerce, Projects, Updates, Inspiration, and Holidays. Use the checkboxes to the right of the text editor to ensure your post shows up where it should.
Keep tags to a single display line
The tags you add in the editor will display at the end of your published post. For this reason, we try to limit them to a single display line (generally, four to five tags). Check the existing tags to ensure you're not adding duplicates.
Customize the URL
URLs should be short, memorable, and easy to type. Use the Permalink field to cut out extraneous words and emphasize keywords, separated by hyphens. For example, the default URL for a blog post might be: http://www.pixelunion.net/blog/ultimate-special-offers-shopifys-best-all-in-one-sales-app but something like http://www.pixelunion.net/blog/ultimate-special-offers-shopify-sales is much nicer.
Give your post a (short) title
Google has a fixed width for titles. That means if your title is too long—generally, more than 60-70 characters—it will get cut off. Choose your words judiciously, and use the Meta Tags WP snippet preview to ensure you haven't exceeded the limit.
Get a good image (or five)
All blog posts must be accompanied by a feature image, supplied by Monika. They must be 1,700 by 955 pixels, and they should always be accompanied by descriptive alt text.
Some blog posts also include in-line images, meaning they're embedded in the body of the post. For screenshots, ensure your browser is set to a standard width, or use Paparazzi to maximize consistency. Use the Attachment Display Settings in the Add Media window to customize the size—full size is best for keeping screenshots clear and crisp.
Guest posts
From time to time, we write articles for other blogs and companies. We adhere to our own voice, tone, and style guidelines unless otherwise specified.
If we are asked for an author bio, we provide a sentence or two about who we are and why we're qualified to speak on the topic. Whenever possible, we link to our website.
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