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How to add a blog to your WooCommerce store

When browsing through an online tutorial about creating a website, you might come across a distinction between blog portals and eCommerce. While this separation is helpful in directing users to the right information, don’t be misled into thinking that a blog has no place on an online sales site.

Throughout this article, we’ll explore the reasons behind integrating a blog into your eCommerce platform. We will highlight the advantages it can bring to boosting your sales. In addition, we will guide you step-by-step on how to create a WordPress and WooCommerce blog in a user-friendly manner that is both simple and efficient.

To start off, let’s clarify the meaning of a blog.

What is a blog and what is it for

The blog is a website with a long history. Back in the early days of the Internet, almost everyone had their own personal blog. Even though times have changed, it is still commonly used for personal and recreational purposes.

While this kind of blog does exist, there are actually many other types out there. In reality, a blog is a website where one or more authors contribute multiple articles. These articles can encompass personal journal entries as well as informative and promotional content. In fact, an increasing number of businesses are now creating blogs alongside their main websites to provide additional content and information to their audiences.

In this article, we will explore five reasons why adding a blog to your eCommerce website can be a fantastic idea. But in a nutshell, all you need to know is that it can greatly boost your site’s traffic, enhance your professional image, and ultimately increase your sales.

What is content marketing and what is it for

The blog is where the term “content marketing” originated, and although it includes other online content, most of its strategies focus on the blog.

In simple terms, this concept includes creating valuable content to increase the interest of your site visitors and ultimately motivate them to buy products.

One of the biggest challenges in the digital sales industry is capturing and retaining new users. With countless other websites competing for attention, it can be tough to stand out. On top of that, people typically spend only a few seconds on each site they visit. However, if you can keep potential customers engaged for longer periods of time, there’s a higher chance they’ll make a purchase or come back in the future. This is what we call building customer loyalty – creating an environment where people want to return and do business with you again.

Content marketing also requires careful consideration of written content, ensuring it meets SEO requirements. Having a blog allows for the creation of longer texts without affecting the visibility of your sales pages.

five reasons

Five reasons why your online store should have a blog

We have already discussed some of the advantages that your store can gain from having a blog. However, now it is time to delve deeper and explore five specific ways in which an eCommerce business can benefit from publishing articles. Let’s start with the most obvious one.

SEO and indexing side

1) SEO and indexing side

For anyone operating a website or online platform, the challenges of indexing are well-known. Indexing refers to the process of ranking your site’s pages and articles on search engines. This can be a difficult task that requires careful attention and effort.

Let’s consider a simple example – if your store sells light bulbs, it is beneficial for your website to appear among top search results when customers search for “light bulbs”.

The goal is not merely to show up on search engines (this occurs naturally), but rather to reach the highest rankings possible. Most searches, around 99%, do not go beyond the first page of Google and usually focus on the top five results. According to Ahrefs, a mere 0.63% of users actually make it to the second page.

This means that any text written on your site, including sales pages, must be optimized, taking advantage of all the strategies that can help with indexing: these include the use of keywords, inbound and outbound links and more.

When it comes to sales pages, there is very little room for flexibility. The content on the product page must guide the customer towards making a purchase without causing any boredom or delays in the process. That’s why having a blog can be extremely beneficial as it becomes your strongest supporter in achieving this goal.

In fact, by writing themed articles, you can integrate all the SEO techniques to improve your store’s visibility so that your sales pages perform only one task: selling.

In the past few years, there has been a misconception that blogging is no longer relevant (possibly because of the emphasis on social networks). However, this is completely false. The goal is not to build a blog with dedicated and faithful readers, but rather to drive traffic through search engine rankings. It’s all about generating organic visits.

Get started with blogging and dedicate your resources to producing specific, SEO-optimized content. Your sales will show their gratitude for it.

Answer your customers' research

2) Answer your customers’ research

When creating blog posts, it’s important to focus on a specific point: while customers do search for particular products online, the words they type into search engines are often linked to a need.

For example, if a customer is interested in purchasing sneakers, their search is more likely to be influenced by the purpose for which they intend to use the shoes. This is why there are great article concepts within this specific area, such as “Top hiking shoes” or “Recommended running shoes” and similar ideas.

Offering articles based on your users’ research is a great way to get better rankings. There are free online tools, such as AnswerThePublic, that can give you ideas for topics to cover on your blog.

In the end, not only will your articles be better positioned, but they will be embraced by your potential buyers. They will see it as a valuable resource made specifically to their needs. If I’m searching for top-notch hiking shoes and come across an article that addresses my exact query, it’s definitely a welcomed advantage.

Advantages for social media

3) Advantages for social media

We talked earlier about social and how many people see these new platforms as the evolution and replacement of blogs. But a good online seller knows that blogs and social networks actually go hand in hand.

If you have an online store, you will know that managing social media is not an easy job. Very often it is difficult to find content to post on multiple social media but, at the same time, your online presence must contain a certain consistency and frequency.

One of the mistakes you can make is to create a social profile and never update it. If a customer visits your profile to get an idea of your portal and sees that the last update is weeks, months or even years old, your profile will be very affected.

A regular publication of content on the blog allows you to use it on social media: not only by directly sharing the article (and thus generating traffic to your shop), but also by rephrasing the content intosmall pieces and creating engaging images that have a higher chance of going viral on social networks.

The secret of success? A great social media manager and a fantastic writer for your WordPress blog.

Increase of authority

4) Increase of authority

Authority is a crucial factor that people always seek in a portal. Especially for online stores, where having authority can affect the level of trust customers have when making payments on your platform.

To clarify this point, let’s consider the action of buying something from Amazon. We have complete confidence in their trustworthiness and expertise, and we don’t hesitate to make a purchase. However, not all online stores can enjoy the same level of reliability or reputation as Amazon.

Creating a blog can be extremely beneficial for an online store, especially for newly launched stores that may face skepticism from potential customers. If a store lacks industry recognition and has limited information on its website, it becomes difficult to generate sales as many users are hesitant to even create an account. Establishing a blog helps build credibility and authority for the store, ultimately increasing its chances of attracting new customers.

On the contrary, the presence of blogs (if used correctly) helps to create instant credibility. If a blog is well managed and provides informative and quality content, it demonstrates the company’s experience and knowledge of its industry.

Content that best meets the public’s needs includes how-to articles, product reviews, insights, and industry news. A blog can help educate and inform visitors, proving that the company is an expert in its field.

All of this increases the chances of conversion from a casual user to a loyal customer.

Single and targeted

5) Single and targeted

The Internet is a coin with two sides: on the one hand, you find an enormous potential, with the possibility to reach customers all over the world with a simple click. On the other hand, there is a huge competition: unless you sell a product or service that is unique in the world (and unfortunately this is rare), you will have to find a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd and your competitors.

Writing a blog and posting quality articles can be an excellent way to stand out from others. Despite the fact that a blog is important to an online business, many companies fail to take advantage of this valuable tool.

Writing articles that focus on a specific product can generate significant exposure and visibility. This strategy is especially effective for products with lower sales, as it helps to highlight them and ultimately increase the number of purchases.

In summary, there are many benefits to using a blog. Now let’s explore the process of integrating it into your website.

How to add a WordPress blog with WooCommerce

Luckily, creating a blog on WooCommerce is extremely easy. WooCommerce, a popular WordPress plugin used by many web hosts, allows you to turn a regular website with a blog into an eCommerce platform. However, it’s important to note that the blog still exists, but is now hidden within the new setup.

If your store does not have a blog page, you can easily create one in just 60 seconds using this handy guide.

First you need to create the new page that will become your blog. To do this, go to Pages > Add New:

Add pages

You don’t need to provide a lot of information on this page, just a name that helps us identify it. We have chosen not to call it a “blog” before publishing it. After you complete these steps, the page will appear in the list of pages on your site:

Blog page

Now all you need to do is tell WordPress that this is the page where the articles will appear once they are published. To do this, scroll down to Settings > Reading:

Reading settings

Here are several settings that can come in handy, let’s see them together:

  • Home page – Here you can select the home page displayed by your customers when they land on your site.
  • Posts Page – Then you will have to go and insert the Blog page you just created.
Select posts page

Once this is done, you can choose the behavior of the blog in the options below, including the number of articles shown.

Your job is to make sure the page is visible in the navigation menu. By default, in the WordPress dashboard, it automatically adds all top-level pages to the menu. However, if you are using a custom menu, you just need to go to Appearance > Menu and select the Blog page.

When finished, the page will appear on the right and on your website:

Appearance menu

How to add a blog post on WooCommerce

After setting up your blog, the next step is to add articles to it. Luckily, this task is straightforward on WordPress and follows a similar process to creating a posts page or adding products for sale on WooCommerce.

To add a post, go to Posts > Add New:

Add new post

At this point, you will find yourself on a blank page where you can add a title and choose how you want to compose the article:

Add tile option

There are two important elements to consider on this page. The first is the black “+” in the white section. This special icon allows you to select and insert some content blocks into your article. Whether you want to include quotes, images, galleries, lists, or simply a paragraph of text, you can choose from these options:

Block options

When thinking about the article, it is important to consider its features. On the other hand, you will find a summary that lets you choose the visibility of the article and decide to publish or highlight it on the blog. Also, there are different features at the bottom of the page. Let’s look at them together:

Different features
  • Categories – You can create an article category and/or assign it to an existing one. Categories are the best tool to simplify the navigation of your customers within the blog by dividing articles by topic.
  • Tags – Similar to categories but often more specific: in the tags you usually insert keywords that can be used by your customers to filter the articles of your blog.
  • Featured Image – Similar to the one offered for products in WooCommerce, again we talk about a main image that will be placed at the top of your article.
  • Summary – Add a small text that will be displayed as a preview on the blog.
  • Thread – Contains options to allow post comments and pingbacks and trackbacks.

To create a blog article, you don’t need any additional knowledge because WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface.

How to connect the blog in WooCommerce

At this point, your website will have two functions to perform. Therefore, there’s no need to create any link between the two. But it could be helpful to showcase WooCommerce products in blog articles. There are two ways to do this: link the blog with the store to increase sales, or create an external blog on a separate domain and allow communication between both portals.

Let’s see how.

How to add WooCommerce products to blog posts

Adding products to the article page using the block editor system we discussed before is very simple. To add products, click on the “+” button and type “products h” in the search bar:

Adding products

You have different options, but we suggest using the “Hand-picked products” block or the “products by category” block to display relevant products related to the article’s subject. For example, if you select the “Hand-picked products” block, you will see:

Select product

Now you can select which items to display by clicking the box. After selecting, click “Done” and they will appear in the article:

Product displayed

How to keep your blog active

In conclusion, here are some tips for managing your blogging platform. As we previously mentioned, creating and publishing articles is not a difficult task. Nevertheless, if your goal is to create a successful blog, the process can be more complex.

So here are some tips for creating content for WooCommerce:

  • Get to know your audience – The best way to create engaging content is to learn about your clients and identify their needs. Set articles on troubleshooting rather than promoting a product or service (this will happen organically in the article).
  • Invest in a copywriter – Writing high-quality articles can be best-handled by experienced professionals in the field. They know what titles to give your articles, how to write them in an SEO key and be consistent in publishing.
  • Encourage participation – You can transform a boring article into a captivating resource that grabs your audience’s interest by using surveys and inquiries, distributing informative pieces about current events, and using visuals and personal endorsements.

Being patient is crucial to achieve the best results, particularly when dealing with search engine indexing. It can take many months for your website to achieve its maximum potential. Consider such a delay as an investment in the future success of your WooCommerce store, and you will certainly receive great results!

  • Tips on how to create eye-catching content, how to manage customer comments, how to promote your blog, etc.
  • Use of related keywords, such as “WooCommerce blog management”, “content creation for WooCommerce”.

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