8 of the Best Shopify Blog Examples [Copy Their Strategy]

11/29/2022

Ask any Shopify entrepreneur how they drive traffic to their store, and nine times out of ten, they’ll give you the same answer: paid advertising.

And while Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads should be a part of your marketing playbook, there’s another traffic acquisition strategy that is vastly underrated: blogging.

Blogging doesn’t get enough credit. Seriously, just imagine what your bottom line would look like if you could attract 1,000, 10,000, or even 100,000 relevant visitors to your store each month without paying a cent for it.

In this post, we’ll look at some of the best Shopify blog examples, break down what they’re doing to attract customers, and then finish by showing you exactly how to copy their strategy.

Sounds good? Great.

8 Lessons from Our Favorite Shopify Blog Examples

Let's kick off with a few of the best Shopify blog examples out there.

For each blog, the data provided for each example is pulled from Ahrefs.

It’s only a best guess, but hopefully, it’ll put the power of blogging for eCommerce into context for you.

Let’s get to it!

1. Use Internal Links to Strengthen Your Blog Layout - Beardbrand

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 246,000
Estimated Traffic Value: $208,000
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

When it comes to content marketing, few eCom stores compete at the level of Beardbrand. Beardbrand's blog is one of the best Shopify blog examples on the web.

What they do extremely well is write in a way that appeals to their buyer persona.

Beardbrand doesn’t waste time writing for the masses. Instead, they focus their content efforts on driving engagement from those most likely to buy from them.

Through tactical keyword selection, they’ve snapped up the number one google spot for many revenue-driving keywords such as ‘beard oil vs. beard balm’ and ‘stages of beard growth.’

What’s interesting is that Beardbrand’s blog isn’t flashy or mind-blowing in terms of its design. You could replicate something similar using one of the basic Shopify blog templates.

But the key is to model how Beardbrand has kept their blog looking clean, organized, and consistent, even if you won’t win any design awards for it.

💡 Key Takeaways: Beardbrand adds a ‘You might also enjoy…’ section with links to other blog posts at the bottom of each article. You can copy this tactic by linking between your own blog posts. Internal linking helps to increase time on-site and makes it easier for Google to crawl your site.

2. Prioritize Helpful Articles Over Product Promotion - Gymshark

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 181,000
Estimated Traffic Value: $136,000
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

Fitness apparel retailer Gymshark does many things right when it comes to eCommerce, and their blog is no exception.

The blog, titled ‘Gymshark Central’ is is one of the best Shopify blog examples and it's jam-packed with helpful articles that address just about every aspect of fitness and training.

They also include articles about what’s happening behind the scenes and the occasional promotional post.

What you’ll notice is that the vast majority of articles they write provide the reader with value.

They target keywords where their audience is searching for help with a specific problem.

For example, let’s suppose you want to refresh your arm workout. So, you hop over to Google and type ‘arm workouts.’ Here’s what you’ll see:

And if you’re like most people, you’ll click on that link and land on Gymshark’s Shopify blog (this post alone drives around 29k visits to their site per month).

However, within the post, Gymshark doesn’t push their products. Instead, they simply show you six arm exercises (complete with gifs) that you can use in your next workout. It’s the perfect example of creating content that matches the reader’s search intent.

Notice they don’t hard-sell because they know the vast majority of people who visit their blog aren’t ready to purchase yet. Such visitors are at the top of the ecom sales funnel and are only discovering that Gymshark exists.

However, with the right retargeting strategy, Gymshark knows it’s possible to re-engage these visitors at a later date and nudge them down the funnel towards a purchase.

💡 Key Takeaways: The focus of your blog should always be on providing value to your potential customers. It’s okay to mention your products here and there when it fits naturally. But remember, nobody wants to read one extended sales pitch after the next.

3. Use Images & Breaks to Create Interesting Visuals - The Farmer’s Dog

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 310,000
Estimated Traffic Value: $168,000
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

We all love our pets. Often we turn to google to learn more about them or figure out what to do when things go wrong. Pet-food retailer, The Farmer’s Dog uses it’s cleverly-named blog ‘Digest’ to help dog owners get the information they need.

By writing authoritative blog posts (that are reviewed for accuracy and certified by vets), The Farmer’s Dog positions itself as a trustworthy brand within the pet food space.

Their blog helps not only introduce readers to the brand but also fosters a relationship with them by giving away free tips and advice to pet owners. This creates a sense of reciprocity that drives readers to sign up for their products’ free trial.

💡 Key Takeaways: Farmer’s Dog Digest uses lots of images to break-up text and adds visual interest to the blog. Most of these are sourced for free from Unsplash. If you don’t have in-house photos, copy this tactic to upgrade the look of your blog.

4. Create Expert-Backed Content for Your Target Audience - Made in Cookware

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 37,600
Estimated Traffic Value: $11,400
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

Finding people who know a lot about cookware isn’t easy. And given that a new set of pots and pans can be expensive, it’s only natural that you’d have a few questions before you decide to make a purchase.

In the absence of a pro cook, you’d probably turn to google to find out things like “What’s the best wok for deep frying?” or “What’s the best size skillet for my needs?”.

Searching for such questions on Google leads you to one place - Made in Cookware’s ‘Beyond the Burner’ blog.

But this blog isn’t only aimed at driving organic traffic to their store. MadeIn also uses it as a space to build a relationship with existing customers.

For example, they post tutorials on how to get the most from their products as well as recipes, interviews, care tips, techniques, and kitchen tricks.

This approach is an awesome way to differentiate themselves from other cookware retailers. They’re able to tell their brand’s story and transform themselves into something bigger than just a company that sells pots and pans.

💡 Key Takeaways: MadeIn regularly collaborates with chefs to create unique content for their readers. Think about how you can partner with experts in your niche to boost visitor trust and deliver content that stands out from the rest.

5. Use Your Blog as an Extension of Brand Voice - Muse Blog

Monthly Blog Traffic: 5,700
Estimated Traffic Value: $2,800
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

Biofeedback company Muse has an awesome product strategy, but they've an equally awesome blogging strategy . Muse uses its blog to attract budding meditators, showcase their expertise, and back-up their product’s benefits.

One thing to note is their blog’s clean and minimalistic design. The blog creates a sense of peace, but also a feeling of scientific advancement. This is no accident. Muse uses their blog’s visual design to give the reader a sense of the feelings they want their products to evoke.

💡 Key Takeaways: Think about how you want customers to feel about your products. Style your blog using colors and typography that reflect your your brand’s image and voice to match those same emotions. Use Mailchimp’s free style-guide to hone your ecommerce brand tone.

6. Create Non-Product-Focused Content - Brooklinen

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 3,000
Estimated Traffic Value: $1,000
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

How interesting can a blog about bedding be? Surely, nobody wants to read about sheets, right? Well, that’s where the idea of developing a blog that touches a wide range of topics related to your niche comes in.

Case in point, sheet manufacturer Brooklinen’s blog. Instead of drilling down on just writing about sheets, Brooklinen has created a lifestyle resource aimed at readers who’ll have an interest in their product.

They cover topics like beauty, interior design, and wellness. All of these topics are loosely related to Brooklinen’s offering but never try to over-sell their products.

Brooklinen truly understands what motivates their audience and creates content to reflect that. Their posts enhance the value of their brand.

After reading, you’re no longer just buying bed sheets; you’re getting something much more seductive than that. You’re buying into the Brooklinen lifestyle, and that’s something other brands can’t offer.

💡 Key Takeaways: Don’t limit yourself to writing about your products. Thinking more broadly about your audience’s interests and aspirations will give you more topics to cover and help you create a brand they won’t forget.

7. Use Humor as a Content Marketing Tool - Tushy

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 69K
Estimated Traffic Value: $15,600
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

The last of the Shopify blog examples comes from Bidet supplier Tushy. They have a unique (and hilarious) blog that they use to communicate their unique brand voice.

It mightn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but with record sales during the pandemic, it’s fair to say Tushy’s marketing is working for them.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s the ‘best position to poop in’ and you asked Google (incognito mode, of course) you’d probably end up on Tushy’s blog. The writing is super casual and informal. It almost feels like you’re reading a text from a friend.

It’s certainly not for dinnertime appropriate, but that’s not a problem when it’s attracting 7,000+ visitors to the brand each month.

💡 Key Takeaways: Adding personality & humor to your blog is a great way to win your visitors’ hearts and minds. Offering a mix of entertaining posts and helpful content gives your audience everything they’re looking for.

8. Use Design to Improve Reader Experience - Heights

Estimated Monthly Blog Traffic: 34.2K
Estimated Traffic Value: $19,500
Top 3 Posts by Traffic:

Shopify's basic blogging template is well-designed. However, customizing your blog allows you to create a more memorable on-page experience.

Page design won't be the making or breaking of your blog. However, page design is important to create a completely branded feel, boost content readability and improve on-page SEO.

Braincare brand Heights understands this. Their blog page is designed with an air of clinical minimalism in mind. A few other things they've customized are:

Updated font to match primary and secondary brand-fonts.
Narrowed paragraph width to make sentences more approachable.
Added a table of contents to aid navigation
Included CTA blocks to learn more about their product (see below)

These design changes visually hook readers, make the content easy to consume and, ultimately, drive more conversions.

But hold up, don't you need a proficient coder to implement these changes? No, actually you don't. There are a number of page builders for Shopify that allow you to create customize blog pages with ease.

Two of our favorites are:

Pagefly - Create unique blog pages with this powerful drag-and-drop builder. Fully compatible with all themes on Shopify No code customization in minutes.
Shogun - Build stunning blog pages with ease. Shogun is one of Shopify's most popular page building apps. Super easy to use and comes with a limited free plan too.

📝Editor’s Note: Blogging is awesome. Upsells are too.

A great blog can drive tens of thousands of visitors to your site on auto-pilot. But how do you make the most out every customer who lands on your store? Answer: use ReConvert to create automated upsells that nudge customers to spend more money. Want to know how much extra money you could make? We analyzed 10,000+ data points from store's like yours so you can calculate exactly how much you're leaving on the table. Try it for free now!

Open Upsell Calculator

The Content Marketing Strategy Behind The Best Shopify Blog Examples (step-by-step)

As you can see from the stats above, blogging on Shopify is a great way to boost your traffic.

But most of the time, people go about it the wrong way. See, unless you’re lucky, you can’t simply pick topics out of the air, write about them, and watch your traffic grow.

Instead, you need to follow a proven and repeatable approach.

The best Shopify blogs flip the traditional process on its head. They start by figuring out what their audience is searching for and then creating blog content around those keywords.

Let’s quickly break down how you can do this too:

Step 1. Brainstorm Seed Keywords

Start by creating a list of ‘seed keywords’ by brainstorming topics that you think will interest your customers. For example, let’s suppose I’m in the business of selling gym apparel:

Off the top of my head, here’s a couple of seed keywords:

Chest workout
Shoulder workout
Back workout
Leg workout
Arm workout
Workout nutrition
Workout recovery
Cardio training
Weight training
Bodybuilding

If you’re unsure of what topics might interest your audience, browsing relevant sub-reddits or popular questions on Quora can be a great place to get inspiration.

For example, here’s an upvoted post I found on Reddit that’s teeming with keyword ideas (how to increase your bench, add 10lbs to your bench, bench press tips, etc.)

Once you’ve got a decent set of seed keywords, move onto step 2.

Step 2. Put Keywords into A Keyword Tool

Using a tool like Ahrefs or Ubersuggest, enter your seed keywords to get a host of related keywords that may be worth blogging about.

Yes, these tools cost money, but if you’re serious about growing your organic traffic, it’s an investment that’s worth every cent. (note: if you’re absolutely on a budget, Ubersuggest lets you use a limited version for up to 3 free searches per day.)

Here’s an example using Ahrefs keyword explorer:

In Ahrefs, use the ‘Phrase Match’ tab in the Keyword Explorer to unearth a vast collection of related keywords to create content around.

In Ubersuggest, simply pop your keyword into the search bar, and you’ll get a list of valuable keywords like this:

Step 3. Appraise Keywords for Volume & Competition

Next, you need to figure out which of these keywords/topics you should create blog posts around. Do this by finding the keywords with the highest number of people searching for them, with the lowest amount of competition.

In Ahrefs, use the filters for keyword difficulty (KD) and search volume (Vol) to narrow your search. Going with a keyword difficulty of less than 10 and a minimum search volume of 100 will show you the best terms you can easily rank.

Below you can see various blog post ideas that have high monthly search volumes but not a great deal of competition.

How to use Ahrefs to create high quality blogs

Ubersuggest doesn’t give the same level of granularity; however, you can still pull out high-potential keywords by looking at search volume and using the 'SD' metric as a proxy for gauging competition. It’s not perfect, but it’s an okay free solution.

For example, using the data below, it would seem wise to create blog posts along the lines of “The ultimate chest workout for men/women (according to science)”

Step 4. Think About Keyword Relevancy

When appraising keywords, it’s important to consider the search intent behind each term because not every keyword thrown up by these tools will be valuable.

You’ll notice I haven’t highlighted certain terms like ‘reddit bodybuilding’ in the above examples. That’s because searchers using these terms are simply looking to navigate to the r/bodybuilding subreddit. They won’t be interested in your blog.

Other terms like “at home shoulder workout” are clearly being used by people looking for information that’ll help them train their delts in their living room. These terms represent an opportunity to help your customers achieve their goals and introduce them to your brand.

Usually, you’ll know the search intent by using common sense. However, if you’re unsure, looking at the top 10 google search results can help you decide. If you see a bunch of mixed results (i.e., posts that cover lots of different topics) or results that don’t relate in any way to your brand, it’s best to skip over that keyword.

Step 5. Create a Content Calendar & Start Writing

Once you’ve compiled a list of high-volume, high relevance, low-competition keywords, you want to translate each of them into a blog topic and plot it on a content calendar.

One super-easy way to find additional related keywords for your blog post is to type your main keyword into Google and then scroll to the bottom of the first page to see what Google suggests as ‘related searches.’

For example, here are many relevant terms for the keyword’ upper chest workout’ that we identified above.

using google search to find keywords and topics

Use these keywords to outline your article with headings and subheadings, where they fit naturally and flow well.

When you’ve done that, all that’s left to do is write your blog posts. You can do this yourself, or if writing isn’t your strong suit, you can hire qualified freelancers on sites like:

Upwork
Fiverr
ProBlogger Job Board
Contently
WriterAccess

When looking for writers, keep in mind that you usually get what you pay for. High quality blog content is essential for ranking on Google. The best strategy in the world won’t compensate for sub-par writing.

We won’t go into how to create an SEO-optimized blog post here, but if you fancy writing yourself, here are three of our favorite resources to guide the process:

HubSpot: How to Write a Blog Post: A Step-by-Step Guide
SmartBlogger: How to Write a Blog Post in 2022: The Ultimate Guide
Ahref: How to Write a Blog Post in 9 Steps (That People Actually Want to Read)

Step 6. Get Backlinks

The final piece of the puzzle that defines a money-making blog is the number of backlinks it can acquire.

A backlink is a link from another website that tells Google that your blog post is worth moving up the rankings. They’re a vote of confidence from other websites to prove your site is trustworthy and relevant. The more authoritative the website that links to you, the better.

All of the Shopify blog examples mentioned previously have a solid number of backlinks linking to their articles.

Getting ranked in the top 3 spots on Google isn’t easy for any keyword. But since you’re targeting low competition keywords, you won’t need to get a huge number before your posts start to rank.

There are many ways to get backlinks, but some of the simplest methods are as follows:

Guest post on other blogs: Reach out to bloggers in your niche and ask them if you can post on their blog. Include a link back to your blog in the post.
Reach out to anyone you mentioned in your posts: Strategically mention influencers in your post. Then let them know. This often leads to them linking to your content or sharing it with a wider audience.
Share your posts on social media & email: Getting the word out about your content drives traffic and increases others’ chances of sharing it and linking to it.
Participate in expert round-ups: Use the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) platform to connect with journalists and bloggers and share your expertise in exchange for a link.

When building links, there’s no one way to skin the cat. Using a variety of techniques is the best approach. Start with the tactics outlined above and see what works best for your blog over time.

As with everything in digital marketing, you’ll just have to play around with different approaches until you find one that hits the nail on the head.

Wrapping Up: Learn from These Shopify Blog Examples to Get More Free Traffic

Blogging on an online store has huge potential. Hopefully, the tips and tactics outlined in this post help you attract organic traffic, build your brand, boost your list, and drive real revenue.

The Shopify blog examples we looked at above are from a diverse range of niches and backgrounds. On the surface, many of the blogs appear to be worlds apart.

However, when you peek behind the scenes, you can see that successful blogs all follow the same core idea. That is, they don’t begin by coming up with topics to write about. Instead, they research what their audience is looking for and write blog posts based on the keyword data.

While the nuts and bolts of your blog in terms of design, tone of voice, and so on will be unique to your brand, using the idea of reverse engineering your posts to meet search-demand will allow your blog posts to rise to the top of the rankings and generate tangible results.

Bonus: How to Optimize Your eCommerce store for SEO

Blogging is awesome. But it's not the only way to get organic search traffic to your Shopify store. Check out this video from ReConvert's co-founder Eric to learn how to get valuable search traffic from people who are searching for products like yours. You can also check out our list of the best SEO apps for Shopify to ensure your store is optimized for search engine performance.

Shopify Blogging FAQ:

Here are some of the most common questions we see about starting a Shopify blog:

Does it Cost Money to Start a Shopify Blog?

Starting a blog on your Shopify store costs no extra money if you create the content yourself. The only thing you'll need to invest is time and effort. That being said, if there isn't enough time in your schedule to create regular blog content, you may have to hire a writer to help maintain the blog. In that case, content marketing will add some overhead to your business.

Do Blog Posts Work on Shopify Stores?

Yes! Plenty of Shopify themes support blogging on Shopify. Check out the examples in this post to see how blogging can generate sales for oyur ecommerce store.

Which Shopify Theme is Best for Blogging?

While this isn't a full in-depth rundown of the best Shopify blog themes, there are plenty of free and paid themes on the platform that support blog content.If you want a full list of the top themes, here's a great post on the best free and paid Shopify Blog Themes by SimiCart.

How Can You Monetize a Shopify Blog?

The best way to monetize your Shopify blog is to create (non-intrusive) newsletter signup popups and occasionally promote your own products where they fit naturally in the text. It's also important to not overpromote your products, since the goal of a blog is to bring organic traffic in through high-value content. Try offering visitors a small discount off their first purchase or a free downloadable guide that helps them solve a problem. It's also wise to setup retargeting ads for blog visitors - since these people know who you are and what you're about, you'll stand a much better chance of converting them with targeted ads.