Are you struggling to get any conversions from your blog posts?
Not sure what type of blog post you need to write?
Lots of online stores find this hard!
Blog posts are a great way of getting more users to your site; they increase trust in your brand, support your SEO efforts and help users on their purchasing journey, but they don’t always convert into paying customers.
But today, I will show you a great strategy to create converting blog posts to add revenue to your store!
We are going to look at lower-funnel keywords for our blog posts. These keywords come much later in the customer journey, almost at the purchasing point.
Quick note – Lower funnel, middle of the funnel, BOFU, MOFU – Whatever they are called, these are the blog posts which help convert users.
So what are these lower funnel keywords?
These keywords generally have a higher intent behind them. They are searched by people who are nearly ready to purchase but need more information before pulling out their wallets.
Here is a simple overview:
Top of funnel – These are users in the discovery stage; they are looking for a solution to their problem, generally looking for informational blog posts.
Mid/Lower funnel – There are users who have already identified the solution to their problem and are now browsing their options before making a purchase.
Let’s put it into a real-world example –
Example – A user has a houseplant that has been slowly dying, they search for information on how to save their houseplant and learn they need to buy a new plant pot. But the user still isn’t sure which is best for their houseplant and needs more information on specific plant pots before purchasing.
This is where your blog post comes in, it will capture the user at this point in their journey, provide recommendations for their needs and link back to your products to purchase.
You could create an article titled Best plant pots for houseplants to capture this search, showcasing your top 5 recommendations with images and CTAs linking to your product pages.
The conversion rate on this blog post will be much higher than a general informational blog post such as – how to water your houseplant.
We want to create blog posts for people weighing up their options, as they are more likely to convert.
I like to use keywords such as “best, vs, alternatives”, as these are common search queries and are perfect for capturing this search intent.
Here are examples of blog posts for a store which sells plant pots
Best indoor plant pots
Best plant pots for a monstera
Plastic vs ceramic plant pots
These blog posts are generally in a listicle style that showcases your store’s different products and the benefits of each one – Remember to include CTA links back to your products, making it easy for the user to navigate and purchase.
Here are a couple of lower-funnel blog post examples –
Eight most popular kitchen window plants
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My Cheeky Tip
If a well-known brand is operating in your niche, you could be cheeky and create an “alternative” blog post. Sometimes the user wants to shop around different retailers instead of using the big well-known brand.
For example – Bigcommerce (a website platform) has created a blog post titled “Shopify alternatives”. They know these users are shopping around for their new website platform and using this blog post to help convert them to their platform.
Check it out here – https://www.bigcommerce.co.uk/blog/shopify-alternatives/
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So how do you find these keywords?
A great way is to use Google.
Open up Google and type;
Best houseplants for
An autocomplete should appear with a list of keywords; write those down. A new list appears if you go through the alphabet for the next word in the sentence. Some may be irrelevant, but note down the ones you think fit your business well.
You can individually search for the ones you see fit, and Google will show a “people also asked box” with relevant questions, and it also gives a related keywords section at the bottom of the page. These are great for finding those longer-tail keywords.
Now that you have a list of targeted keywords, you have two options for analysing them. You can either upload this list into a paid tool or manually put the keywords into search to determine what the competition looks like and what type of content Google shows.
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My Top Tip
Target lower competition keywords; these will generally be longer tail keywords, such as
Best houseplants for a north-facing window
Whilst houseplants are a competitive niche, your site may operate in a lower competition niche, making these keywords easier to find.
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If using a paid tool, you can upload and analyse your list of keywords. Some tools also provide further keyword suggestions. Generally, they will give you a monthly search volume and a keyword difficulty score.
Once you have selected the keywords you want to target, always manually search them on Google. This is to ensure the results show blog posts instead of product pages and identify who is ranking. If large sites have already created blog posts around your keyword, I would move on to another blog post, as it can be tough to compete with large sites.
My recommended paid tools for identifying keywords
Lowfruits – This tool scrapes Google and allows you to run searches with wildcards such as “best houseplants for *”. They do all the heavy lifting to give you a list of keywords, and they also review the search results to see how easy it will be to rank well.
People also asked – This tool scrapes Google and gives endless question keywords which people are searching. It also combines the results with keyword difficulty and search volume.
Semrush – A premium tool great for analysing competitors and discovering new tools. Though take the keyword difficulty with a grain of salt (always manually check the keyword in Google).
Keywords Everywhere – A credit-based Chrome extension. It can display search volume and keyword difficulty within a Google search whilst you browse. It’s cheap, with $10 lasting me a few months!
Once you have identified your keyword, it’s time to get started on the blog post.
