I’ve been an ecommerce SEO specialist for about 10 years.
This blog and my YouTube channel are designed to help you, as an ecommerce business owner, get better at SEO by understanding how it works.
In this post, I’m going to talk about why ecommerce stores should blog.
Blogging for Ecommerce SEO: A Guide to Success
Many ecommerce store owners blog because they’ve heard it’s good for SEO, but they don’t necessarily understand why. As a result, they spend a lot of time and effort creating blogs that bring no real value to their business.
My goal is to help you understand how blogging can grow your organic traffic and sales while avoiding common pitfalls, so you don’t waste your time, effort, or money.
I’ve written about blogging strategies before. In this article, I’m looking at some of the finer tactics you can use to make your online store’s blog work harder for you.
Why Blogs Matter for SEO and Ecommerce
SEO, or search engine optimisation, is about making sure your website appears higher in search engine results—primarily on Google.
Think about this when creating your next piece of blog content: Google serves results based on what people are actively searching for.
I hate to be the one to break it you, but no one is searching for updates about your team’s latest awards night or how long Jerry has worked in your accounts department. While such blogs may be interesting for your existing customers, they won’t attract new visitors or customers.
Instead, your blogs should focus on answering queries that will lead to a purchase. For example, if you sell luxury charcuterie products, writing about “how to milk a cow” might attract traffic, but it’s irrelevant to what you’re selling.
You need to produce content that aligns with your business goals—this is where the sales funnel comes into play.
How to Use Your Sales Funnel to Master Ecommerce Blogging
The “sales funnel” is a term used to describe the process a customer moves through from vague interest in your product or service to actually purchasing it.
Think of the sales funnel as being split into three stages: top, middle, and bottom. I’ll stick with the charcuterie example to walk you through it.
- Bottom of the Funnel: is where the action happens. People here are ready to buy and just need to find the right product at the right price.
They’re using transactional queries in Google to get the results they need, for example, “charcuterie gifts” or “charcuterie subscription”.
Searches like this should lead directly to your product or category pages. - Top of the Funnel: is the other end of the spectrum. Here, people are using Google out of interest in a subject, which is why they’re know as informational queries, these are far removed from making a purchase.
Now, top-of-funnel queries can be great for building traffic and authority, they’re not ideal for generating immediate sales.
Examples include “charcuterie recipes” or “is chorizo made of pork?”.
If you’re new to blogging or have limited resources, avoid these for now. - Middle of the Funnel: This is the sweet spot for blogging.
These queries come from potential customers who are deciding between options and need more information before buying. Examples include “best artisan charcuterie boards” or “differences between artisan charcuterie and supermarket deli meat.”
These searchers are closer to making a purchase, so you should be creating blog posts to meet the search intent of these queries, providing the information the reader needs.
If you do this well, and include clear “calls to action” within and at the end of each post, you’ll find that these do a great job of promoting curious visitors to satisfied customers.
Think about the post you’re reading right now as an example.
I’m deliberately targeting ecommerce owners wanting to find out more about the right way to blog in their online store.
If I do a good job of answering these queries – and I hope I have – then many of you reading this will go away and put my advice into practice.
However, some of you will be far too busy running your business to actually *do* the blogging. You’ll read this article, watch the video, realise that I’ve already been doing this for years, and you’ll click here (or complete the contact from below) to ask for my help.
In a nutshell, that’s exactly what a blog should do.
Read more about sales funnels in this post.
Examples of Ecommerce Blogging: What Works and What Doesn’t
This section in best read alongside the video at the end of the post.
In it, I’ve shared the rights and wrongs of three different artisan charcuterie suppliers and how they’re blogging.
Field & Flower
Field & Flower, a meat subscription service, has an active blog, so they’re clearly pro-blogging. However, they’ve fallen into the trap I’ve highlighted at the top of this article: too much of their content focuses on behind-the-scenes updates, such as company news.
This simply does not attract new traffic.
“How to Host a Pre-Christmas Gathering,” is better because it’s at least in the sales funnel, but it’s a solid example of a top-of-the-funnel post.
It is ranking well and may even be bringing them traffic, but misses opportunities to link to relevant products and has no call to action at its end. Without these, the blog isn’t converting readers into customers.
A better example is their blog about the “Top Five Health Benefits of Venison.” This middle-of-the-funnel post targets potential buyers but still lacks product links or a strong call to action.
Overall, they’re making a good effort but have missed easy opportunities. They don’t need to change a lot before their blogging will begin to pay off.
Great Glen Charcuterie
Great Glen specialises in venison charcuterie and has a sparse blog.
While some posts, like “Why Wild Venison is a Sustainable Meat Source,” are great ideas for middle-of-the-funnel content, the execution falls short.
The posts are too brief and lack depth. Remember, the whole point of writing this content to begin with is to get new visitors who might be in the mood for buying your products.
To get new visitors, your posts need to rank on Google. And, to do that, Google needs to understand a) what they’re about, and b) that you know what you’re talking about. It can only do that if it reads a fair chunk of content with relevant words, phrases and headings within it.
Very short blog posts with no headings will almost never rank.
Comparing Great Glen’s posts to more robust examples from competitors highlights how much potential they’re leaving untapped.
Somerset Charcuterie
Somerset Charcuterie has a limited blog with eight posts over the past year.
Their content is largely top-of-the-funnel, like recipes, although their “Gypsy Eggs” recipe is a stand-out blog because it ranks well and includes a product link to their spicy chorizo—a great example of integrating products into blogs.
To improve, Somerset Charcuterie should focus on creating more middle-of-the-funnel posts, such as “How to Elevate Your Charcuterie Board with Gourmet Meats.”
If they produced content like that with the linking that they’ve already demonstrated, I’m sure they’ll see a good return on their investment!
How You Should Be Blogging
The key to successful ecommerce blogging is creating middle-of-the-funnel content that answers specific queries, demonstrates your expertise, and seamlessly links to your products.
For example, a blog about “Holiday Charcuterie Ideas” could highlight your best-selling meats, link directly to product pages, and include compelling calls to action like, “Click here to make your holiday board unforgettable.”
Need help making your own ecommerce blog work harder?
I offer several monthly SEO packages to suit e-commerce stores of all sizes and budgets. And that includes blogging strategy and implementation.
If you’re not ready to make that leap yet, why not opt for my comprehensive SEO video audit to work out why you’re not ranking as high as you’d like and what you need to do about it.
Let’s get your blog making sales!