TL;DR
This post is about test strategy for testing META SEO tags across whole site and with 2 hours time limit.
When issue ZenHub card with description META SEO tags enhancement landed in my QA column, I got zero knowledge about SEO meta tags. Lets start with Kipling method. If you are not familiar with this method (I heard first time about it at European Software Testing conference 2018 talk 10 tools for 10x Testers by Anssi Lehtelä, just in case if you wonder should you attend software testing conferences), here is brief introduction:
I have six honest serving men They taught me all I knew I call them What and Where and When And How and Why and Who [source]
Lets fire up MindMup in order to create mind map based on Kipling method. As Mind maps are not best at sharing my thought process with other people, I will try to show snapshots in time, as this mind map growth in time. Note, it took me 5 minutes to create whole map.
What is the problem?
This part of mind map tells me when I am done.
Where is it happening?
Ok, this part modifies information when I am done.
When is it happening?
This information time frames my testing session.
How can you overcome this problem?
This describes actual testing.
Google search for “What are SEO meta tags” returned:
https://www.wordstream.com/meta-tags
Meta tags are snippets of text that describe a page’s content; the meta tags don’t appear on the page itself, but only in the page’s code.The only difference between tags you can see (on a blogpost, say) and tags you can’t see is location: meta tags only exist in HTML, usually at the “head” of the page, and so are only visible to search engines (and people who know where to look).
By observing pull request, I learned that developer changed a few files. meta tags are generated in helper methods, and they only differ based on page “type”. This helps me to SAMPLE whole site into CLASSES of site that have same meta tags. Language is Ruby on rails, which I can read and even create simple sites. If you are not comfortable , make a session with developer to answer your questions about Ruby specifics (this will accelerate your language knowledge!)
Lets use tool as testing assistance. Yes, this is testing automation, despite the fact that you do not write code. My heuristic for selecting Chrome extension in SEO meta tags context is that it has > 1000 users. I found Meta Seo Inspector.
This tool automatically reads meta tags (remember, they are hidden), and automates process of analyzing metrics of those tags. For example, meta tag description should be longer that 50 characters in order to be SEO effective (new SEO meta tags fact!).
Why is it happening?
Who do you need to get involved?
Who can help you?
Conclusion
Is this best method? It is not best, but it gives me confidence about how I covered the problem. I would say that is good enough method. I could miss something, but miss should not be catastrophic. And remember, with this method, you can explain HOW DO YOU TEST!
