This is [Series: Shopify, Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight], in which Texas Ayumi, founder of Dott Miso Inc., which runs a curated miso shop on Shopify, candidly shares the realities of running a Shopify store solo — sales figures included — while working toward the store's growth.
For installment 3, I turned my attention to Shopify's blog feature, which has now become the main pillar of customer acquisition for our site. In other words, content marketing.
This time, I combed through 182 Shopify sites that have content set up using the blog feature. What I noticed in the process was this: almost nobody is actually running their blog properly.
Blogs meant to attract customers and build a fan base, blogs that are basically just a notice board, blogs that seem to have lost sight of why they exist in the first place.
Even just looking at how each blog names itself made the gap in approach obvious. But that's exactly why the stores that are doing it properly are, without question, strong. This survey left me with something close to certainty about that.
"Is running a blog even worth it?"
"How should I actually make use of content on a Shopify store?"
If you've ever had questions like these, I especially want to think this through together with you. Let's dig into the possibilities and challenges of Shopify's blog feature together!
(Surveyed from an SEO perspective: genre, blog name, article count, last-updated date, and monthly views)
Should You Even Run a Shopify Blog in the First Place?
Compared to social media or ads, blog (article content) initiatives make it harder to see a clear connection to sales, and the production cost and difficulty are higher — I think that's the honest impression most e-commerce operators have. Especially for a store like mine that's essentially run solo, it's hard to justify spending time and money on something that doesn't directly translate into sales.
The reason I can commit to blogging with confidence comes from my past experience launching and running media outlets and growing an e-commerce business through content marketing — but setting that aside, I still want to put into words why you should do it.
First, let's organize the benefits of creating content on Shopify, and the reasoning behind them.
Related article: [Complete Guide] Make the Most of Shopify's Blog Feature | Apps for Customizing Blog Posts Included
A Blog Lets You Connect With People Who "Aren't Buying Right Now"
Social media and ads are, fundamentally, an approach aimed at "people who want to buy right now." By contrast, what you overwhelmingly encounter on the e-commerce front line are people who "added something to their cart but didn't buy," or who "keep coming back to look but are still on the fence" — in other words, people who "aren't buying right now."
Pushing these undecided users toward a purchase right there on the product page doesn't land. That's because they don't necessarily already have a specific product in mind, or don't yet believe this purchase will solve their underlying problem.
Most people who don't buy on the spot are in a phase of hesitation — "which one is actually good?" or "do I even need this in the first place?" Resolving that hesitation is the blog's job.
By conveying not the product itself, but the underlying problem and its solution, the maker's intent, and concrete scenarios for how it's used, you let users see the product as relevant to them. A blog becomes a powerful point of contact for reaching "people who aren't buying right now."
You Can Design a "Stock-Type" Point of Contact
Another major characteristic of a blog is that "the information doesn't just flow away."
A social media post instantly scrolls off the timeline, and once you stop running an ad, its exposure drops to zero. A blog post, on the other hand, stays put once it's published. It gets found through searches for words in the user's own vocabulary, gets revisited, and directs readers on to other articles. It's content where points of contact accumulate and deepen over time.
Because "stock-type" media doesn't disappear, it can turn "people who aren't buying right now" into "people who will buy eventually," letting you build trust ahead of time. That said, this also means "it takes time before you see results (sales)."
Unlike a Product Page or Landing Page, It's "a Place Where You Cultivate Reasons to Be Chosen"
From a trust-building standpoint, you could also try to pack information into and carefully build out your product pages or landing pages. But where a product page prioritizes a UI that makes buying smooth, a blog post is a place for cultivating the reasons a customer chooses you.
For example, the kind of information below isn't so much material for a decision right before purchase — it's meant to build a sense of conviction and empathy at an earlier stage.
- The story behind how the product came to be, and the maker's stance
- Actual usage examples, recipes, and concrete use-case scenarios
- A deeper look at real users' impressions and experiences
By letting this kind of information exist as a standalone article, it becomes a path that makes people naturally want to buy here — without feeling like they're being sold to.
A blog is a point of contact that builds trust in your shop, standing upstream of the buy-or-not-buy decision — which is exactly why I think brands that steadily keep up owned media and content see more repeat, name-brand purchases and more fans.
I've written in more detail about the relationship between media and e-commerce, so please check out the article below too if you're interested.
6 Trends I Found From Visually Surveying 182 Sites
That said, relying only on my own experience isn't very convincing, so I went and surveyed the state of blogging on other Shopify stores.
From among domestic and international stores built on Shopify, I picked out sites using the blog feature. I actually opened every single URL one by one and checked for the presence of a blog, its content, update frequency, title labeling, and so on. The survey covered 182 sites. Just endless clicking.
Beyond just other companies' blog operations, simply looking at how they used design and apps taught me a lot — enough that I felt like it somehow made my own shop more sellable too. If you're buying miso, buy it from Dott Miso.
That aside, here are 6 trends I noticed in how Shopify blogs are run, after surveying 182 shops.
The Most Common Blog Title Is Simply "Blog"
I charted the blog titles from the sites surveyed this time.
The most common was "Blog," at 30.2%. Next came distinctive names like "◯◯ News" or "About ◯◯," at 29.4%. Then came Column, Magazine, NEWS, and Helpful Info, in that order. Among sites that simply titled their blog "Blog," some really were just a daily-diary style blog, so "Blog" fit; others gave the impression they'd just gone with "Blog" without much thought.
I felt that this blog naming choice reveals a clear difference in stance — whether the store sees its blog as "media that conveys the brand's world view," or treats it as "just a place to dump information."
Blog Titles That Caught My Eye
- A Deodorant You Read
- All Things Whetstones
- Read This, and Your Hair Gets Beautiful.
The Blog Block Isn't Even Placed in the Menu
In this survey, only around 60% of sites actually had the blog block set up to appear in the menu bar. On the rest, the blog either only appeared in a section on the homepage without being listed in the menu, or was tucked away in a second-tier navigation item — in other words, the blog wasn't structured to be easily noticed in the first place.
No matter how diligently you update your articles, it means nothing if users never see them. I feel that a proper design for conveying content needs to include where and how it's shown, not just the content itself.
How the path to the blog is designed clearly reflects a store's intent — how it positions its content and how it wants to use it. Whether or not that intent exists is what determines whether a blog ends up as just a pile of articles, or actually functions as media.
The Blog Title Doesn't Match Across the Site
One thing I found to be a surprising blind spot: at around 27% of the sites surveyed, the blog title shown in the menu bar didn't match the title on the actual blog listing page.
For example, the menu might show "Reads," while the page it links to says "Blog." Some cases had a display mismatch so odd it clearly looked like a setup mistake that had simply been forgotten.
It's a small thing, but for users it can create the anxious feeling of "wait, is this even the right page?" — which I think is a point that affects trust in the site.
(I noticed my own site's title wasn't a perfect match either.)
Individual Article Titles Often Have No Real Meaning Behind Them
Beyond just the blog's own title, differences in approach also showed up in the titles of individual articles.
Some titles properly worked in search keywords, like "hats summer recommended," while others were more like poetry with no way to guess the content, or, surprisingly often, titles that looked like leftover drafts — things like "January 17, 2023" or "memo."
Even if the content of an article is solid, it won't get read if the title doesn't match or is confusing. Just as a title directly affects CTR in SEO, whether someone decides to read a blog post also depends heavily on the title.
The title is the reader's first point of contact — the first impression. Whether it reflects your intent in publishing and your brand's world view can make a big difference in how well an article draws in readers.
Article Content Falls Into 3 Patterns: SEO-Type, User-Satisfaction-Type, and Notice-Type
Nearly all of the blog operations I surveyed this time could be sorted into the following 3 patterns.
- SEO-type
- User-satisfaction-type
- Notice-type
"SEO-type" articles are clearly built with search keywords in mind, covering a wide range of keywords — from ones directly tied to the business, to ones with no direct connection to any product. The title, headings, and length are all structured according to what you'd call the standard SEO template, showing that the main goal is search traffic.
Next, user-satisfaction-type articles focus on enhancing the user's experience before and after purchase — sharing the brand story, suggesting ways to use the product, and so on. These are often built around emotionally resonant content — the maker's intent, concept, and usage scenes — rather than targeting a specific search keyword.
Finally, notice-type articles are written for a purpose close to internal PR — announcing new product launches, event information, business-hour notices, and the like.
No single type is inherently better — the key point is whether the content is designed to match its purpose. In fact, several stores had it well designed, striking a good balance between SEO- and user-satisfaction-type content, or building mainly around notice-type posts.
What I found hardest to read were articles that didn't fully commit to any of these. Not ranking in search, offering little value to readers — a middling kind of content where it's unclear "who this was written for, or why." You might wonder, "does that kind of blogging really happen?" but I came across it surprisingly often.
Update Frequency Is Sharply Polarized
When it came to update frequency, there was a striking polarization. Of all 182 sites, only around 30% were consistently updating at least once a month, while the vast majority updated irregularly, or had effectively stopped updating for months or even years at a time. Some blogs hadn't been updated in over a year, to the point that I wondered, "is this store even still operating?"
Of course, a higher update frequency is never a bad thing. Continuously publishing content helps build trust with search engines and increases exposure opportunities in search.
That said, frequency isn't everything. For example, even an article released back in 2023 still ranked within the top 3 for its expected keyword when I looked it up. It was a very niche topic, but I thought it was a genuinely good article, and sure enough, it still ranked highly. This is a good example of how, if you write a quality article, it can keep delivering SEO results even with a low article count and even after time has passed — proof that a blog functions as a kind of accumulating asset.
Even without a high update frequency, strategically placed quality articles reliably become a path leading customers to your store.
5 Stores That Made Me Go "Oh!" With How They Use Their Blog
While surveying 182 sites, several blogs made me think "I want to copy this!" — here, I introduce 5 Shopify stores that especially made me go "Oh!"
I paid close attention to how each store positions and makes use of its blog, and what creative touches they added.
Related article: [Complete Guide] Online Store Examples Built on Shopify! Introduced by Genre
Knife Specialty Store: KIKUMATSU's "Helpful Info"
Image source: KIKUMATSU
KIKUMATSU, which sells knives made in Seki, Gifu Prefecture — a region famous for bladesmithing — runs a blog called "Helpful Info," and true to its name, it's genuinely packed with useful information. The writing is clear, concise, and carefully put together, paired with images that make it very easy to read, and related products are naturally displayed within each article, creating a path from reading straight into a purchase. Categories within the blog (care instructions, gifts, comparisons, etc.) are also clearly organized and displayed, and the titles seem designed with search terms in mind, suggesting it's also SEO-strong. Overall, it left me with the impression of a really well-balanced operation.
Stationery Selection: Ten no Shigoto Dougu-ten's "column"
Image source: Ten no Shigoto Dougu-ten
Ten no Shigoto Dougu-ten's "column" reads almost like scrolling through social media — genuinely enjoyable. The articles are packed with real photos of the products in use, and YouTube videos are embedded throughout, making it feel less like reading and more like experiencing the products firsthand.
Creating this kind of content naturally takes time and money, but that's exactly why the instantly-recognizable originality and high-quality first-hand information become such a solid point of differentiation. The way the blog article thumbnails are made is also very instructive, and I felt that the visual consistency ties directly into the brand's world view.
Also, since image- and video-centered content like this can be repurposed across a blog, a newsletter, social media, and ad creative, I'd expect it to have a strong return on investment.
Non-Alcoholic Beer: BRULO's "Non-Alcoholic Beer BRULO Magazine"
Image source: BRULO
BRULO is the sole Japanese retailer of the non-alcoholic beer series BRULO. A distinctive feature of the articles they produce is that each one lists a named supervisor. Having a named supervisor not only builds a sense of reassurance for users, but also tends to earn favorable evaluation from search engines. In this survey, sites that specified a supervisor were genuinely a small minority.
Beyond just non-alcoholic beer, they cover a wide range of related themes, like "pairing beer with food" and "columns about diet and eating habits," naturally encouraging readers to browse across the site by branching out from one interest to another — I felt this reflected solid design as a customer-acquisition medium.
Apparel: 10YC's "News"
Image source: 10YC
10YC's blog category "News" mainly covers exactly what you'd expect — pop-up store appearances, product restock information, and the like. Even so, among the news-type blogs I surveyed, it stood out by far for being stylish and easy to browse. The articles are very carefully structured — with a table of contents inserted, links used within the body text, and highly legible column layouts — designed so users can quickly grasp information, and even as "news," it had a real sense of polish as a piece of reading material.
What's impressive is how the overall tone and manner and thumbnail images are kept consistent, elevating what's essentially just news into content that conveys the brand's world view.
Dried Vegetables: OYAOYA's "Dried Vegetable Recipes"
Image source: OYAOYA
OYAOYA's blog block is built around the angle of "recipes." As shown on the right of the image, recipes are organized into categories by type of dried vegetable, making it easy to smoothly reach the ingredient or dish you're after — a design I hadn't seen on any other blog, and one that left an impression.
Each article opens with a compact summary of basic info — serving size, prep time, cooking time — giving it strong visibility and practicality as a cooking site. It feels less like reading material and more like polished "usable information," with a clear path designed to naturally lead users to buy the product and try making it themselves.
Every article has bright, beautiful photography, making this a content asset that raises the value of the store as a whole.
Lessons From 182 Blogs: Tips for Running a Blog That Actually Delivers Results
What I really felt after looking at 182 sites is that whether a blog is good or bad is decided almost entirely by the underlying design of how it's run — before the content itself even comes into play.
Even where individual articles were good, I saw many sites that hadn't lasted, likely because they lacked a clear design intent — a clear answer to "why am I writing this article in the first place?" Without a clear purpose and function, a blog won't last, and it won't deliver results.
So, based on this survey, here's what I've come up with as basic guidelines for running a blog that actually delivers results.
Recognize That a Blog Can Be Used for Customer Acquisition
As advertising costs keep climbing year after year, having a system that lets you capture search traffic on your own has become more valuable than ever. This is especially true for niche products or products with a strong story — since the range of relevant search terms tends to be wide and easy to anticipate, it's easier to design a path for people to stumble upon you by chance.
On social media, posts flow past in a short window, but a blog is content that can be searched for, found, and revisited. The fact that an article you wrote once can go on functioning as a customer-acquisition channel over the long term is a strength unique to blogging.
First, I think it's important to hold the premise that "a blog functions as part of your customer-acquisition strategy."
Decide Clearly First: Is It for Customer Acquisition, or for Improving Service?
A blog mainly serves two functions.
- Customer-acquisition purpose: creating touchpoints with new customers through search traffic
- Service-improvement purpose: deepening understanding of the product and encouraging purchase
For example, if the purpose is customer acquisition, you need to structure and write content based on search keywords and search intent. On the other hand, blogs aimed at improving the service more often featured things like use-case introductions, the maker's story, and a Q&A format.
Of course, it's possible for a single blog post to satisfy both purposes at once. That said, depending on which purpose you place first, everything changes significantly — the article title, structure, tone, and even how you design your headings.
Clearly defining the role your blog is meant to play, based on your store's stage and the nature of your products, is the first step toward results.
A "Sense of Recent Activity" Builds Trust
The simple fact that updates haven't stopped is, in itself, a trust factor.
Even just one article a month adds up to 6 in half a year, 12 in a year. A store that updates its information regularly gives off a sense of legitimacy just from that alone.
In fact, while surveying, blogs that were still active recently came across as more credible and gave a stronger impression of the store's overall health, compared to blogs whose last update was over a year ago.
More articles isn't automatically better, but as things that genuinely convey something to readers steadily accumulate, it reliably builds up both as substantial content and in terms of SEO evaluation.
So, In the End, Should You Make Use of a Blog? Of Course You Should!
Of the 182 sites surveyed this time, only a small handful were running their blog in a truly serious way. Stores with organized categories, content designed from a brand perspective, and consistent updates made up only around 10% of the total. Examples of stores treating their blog as a genuine asset are still very much the minority.
Which is exactly why this is an area where steadily building things up now can make a real difference. It's not a tactic that delivers short-term results, but an article read once is often revisited months or even years later.
Building a connection with "people who haven't bought yet, but are interested." Sustaining the relationship with "people who've bought once before." A blog quietly works on both fronts.
As a way to sincerely convey your store's voice, there's still plenty of room to make more of a Shopify blog. Let's keep at our blogs together!
Related article: How to Create Blog Posts on Shopify | A Guide to Writing and Structuring Articles
