What is a ‘Shopify Blog App’ and How Does It Work?
Shopify Blog apps enable you to add a blog to your Shopify Store. They provide the necessary features to manage the blog and increase sales of your Shopify store. The exact features available differ based on the app chosen. SEO-related features and upselling tools are some of the necessities in this regard.
Having a blog attached to your Shopify store helps to increase visitors. You can in turn convert these visitors into customers. The conversion rate depends on how relevant your blog is to the products available in your Shopify store and how the blog is set up. This is generally achieved by showing links to your products on the blog pages, and by also showing products related to the context of the page.
Best Shopify Blog Apps
Detailed Review of Shopify Blog Apps
1) Blog Studio
Shopify Rating - 4.2
Key Features:
Blog Studio is a Shopify blog app that enables you to create blogs on your Shopify Store. It has a drag and drop interface to easily create blog posts. Apart from the usual tools, Blog Studio also comes with various parallax and animation effects.
The interface of Blog Studio allows you to create, delete, duplicate or change the visibility of the blogs on your Shopify store. It comes with all the built-in tools to act as a powerful text editor. You can also use the advanced editor to edit the code directly.
Pros:
- Blog Studio allows you to check the interface and layout on various devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet) while creating the posts.
- Has both drag-and-drop interface and advanced code editor.
Cons:
- The app interface is not intuitive.
- Various bugs have been reported regarding the layout and rendering of posts created by Blog Studio
2) Pro Blogger
Shopify Rating - 4.7
Key Features:
Pro Blogger is a Shopify blog app that lets you create a blog and display related products and blog posts on the pages. You can add ‘buy now’ buttons to directly drive sales from the blog posts. Pro Blogger also allows you to directly display product reviews on the blog pages. You can also integrate it with Shopify Social login apps to help users share your blogs or merchandise directly to their social media feed.
To optimize the ranking of your posts on search engines, Pro Blogger can automatically build essential internal site links on your Shopify store. You can also make use of custom CSS options if required.
Pros:
- Pro Blogger has an easy-to-use interface and is reliable.
- Has only one subscription tier and provides full support to all customers.
Cons:
- ProBlogger might fall short if you want to make changes to the code and require advanced features.
3) BlogFeeder - Blog Importer
Shopify Rating - 4.4
Key Features:
Blog Feeder is a Shopify app that lets you import your blogs from external sources to your Shopify Store. This allows you to use your blogging platform of choice and import all your blogs to your Shopify Store. Blogfeeder supports WordPress, Pinterest, Tumblr, Medium, and several other popular blogging platforms.
You can import all your old blog posts at once and stay automatically synced. You can also configure a monthly sync with your other blogs.
Pros:
- Allows you to use a blogging platform of your choice.
- Blog Feeder automatically syncs any new posts that you make.
Cons:
- Blog Feeder will change the layout and rendering of imported posts and this might cause issues.
- Blog Feeder can only import blogs and lacks tools to create and edit blogs.
4) Related Blog Posts
Shopify Rating - 4.7
Key Features:
Related Blog Posts is a Shopify app that displays recommendations of related posts to the visitors of your Shopify blog. It suggests additional articles from your Shopify store once the visitor has finished reading.
You can customize the recommendations displayed based on a range of factors. These include changing the number of recommendations, excluding posts based on tags, and displaying featured images.
Pros:
- Related Blog posts can create high-quality internal links to improve Google’s crawlability of old and new blog posts.
- This app is entirely free.
Cons:
- Related Blog Posts occupy a narrow niche and only focuses on showing recommendations.
5) DropInBlog - SEO Friendly Blog
Shopify Rating - 4.8
Key Features:
Just as the name implies, DropInBlog is a Shopify blogging app with a sharp focus on SEO features. They have a powerful text editor like interface for creating blogs. Drop In Blog does not support drag and drop options. It also among the best SEO apps for Shopify that increases organic traffic to your blog.
The primary focus of this app is on improving the search engine rankings of your Shopify store. They offer a range of features to achieve this. These include proprietary SEO algorithms and features, instant SEO recommendations as you type, and optimizations to achieve significantly faster page load times for your Shopify blogs.
Pros:
- DropInBlog focuses on the core utility of Shopify blogs, a blog that ranks high on search engines and drives visitors to your store.
- Provides an easy-to-use Medium or MS Word like writing experience. Has rich formatting options.
Cons:
- DropInBlog only focuses on SEO optimizations. You will need other apps to upsell efficiently and monitor conversion rates.
6) Instablog Auto Post To Blog
Shopify Rating - 5.0
Key Features:
Instablog is a Shopify app that enables you to create blog posts on your Shopify store from Instagram posts and stories. It is especially useful for small businesses with no dedicated content writers. As Instagram is a popular marketing medium, pulling posts directly from Instagram streamlines things.
Instablog also has SEO features like hashtag to keyword converter and ALT text for images. You can also link specific products to each blog to drive conversions.
Pros:
- Has a code-less installation process. Installs instantly.
- Instablog focuses on SEO features equally along with importing posts from Instagram.
Cons:
- Has an extremely limited number of reviews. The Shopify rating might not be reliable and indicative of stability.
7) Blog Articles in Collections
Shopify Rating - 5.0
Key Features:
Blog Articles in Collections is a Shopify blog app that enables you to convert your product pages into blog posts or buying guides. They provide a range of page formatting features. You can also group products by collections and have a specific blog for them. Blog articles allows your store to connect to many must-have Shopify apps for easy selling.
Blog Articles in Collections aims to increase the sales conversion rates of your Shopify store by making your product pages more interactive. This can prove fruitful in the case of certain products. Converting your product page into a buying guide can also be used to upsell.
Pros:
- Blog Articles in Collections allows you to create blogs right into your product slots.
Cons:
- Blog Articles in Collections does not have the required SEO features.
- Replacing your product pages with blogs might make your site less intuitive.
8) Blog & Page Builder by Reputon
Shopify Rating - 4.8
Key Features:
Blog & Page Builder by Reputon is a blog app for Shopify that allows you to draft content in Google Docs and import them to your Shopify store as blogs. Once you have created a document and imported it from Google Drive, Blog & Page Builder by Reputon converts it to a blog with proper HTML code and alignment on your Shopify store.
Blog & Page Builder by Reputon also allows you to modify and improve your blog design with their page builder tools.
Pros:
- Blog & Page Builder by Reputon supports the import of documents from Google Drive. You can use familiar text editors to create your documents.
- Automatically updates your blogs when the source document on Google Drive is changed.
Cons:
- Has a negligible number of reviews. Shopify rating is not reliable.
- Undiscovered and unreported bugs might exist due to the limited user base.
9) Related Products and Blogs
Shopify Rating - 3.8
Key features:
Related products and blogs is an impressive blog app for shopify. With the Better Related Blog posts extension, you can display relevant products from any of your stores on each post. The Extension also allows us to sync up with other articles published about that specific topic.
You'll be able to improve SEO and Site internal linking through Related products and blog App because its fully customizable in every way imaginable - speeding up installation times too thanks to abundant features such as intuitive design options or developer-friendly code.
Pros:
- This blog app has a simple interface that provides a user-friendly navigation.
- Related product and blog app offers automated facilitation to build internal site links required for SEO.
- There are extensive customization options that can beneficial in this blog app for shopify.
Cons:
- Customer service can be inconsistent with this blog app.
- Related products and blogs app have a lot of issues with multi-language support.
10) Bloggle: Blog SEO & Blog posts
Shopify Rating - 4.9
Key Features:
The Bloggle App is a well configured tool for creating, editing and publishing engaging content. With this app, you can design your blog in an easy-to-read layout with videos integrated into posts to boost their effectiveness on any device!
Bloggle app lets you create templates from your best articles hassle-free. You can also schedule publication dates manually or use one of several automations tools to simplify the setting up of blog posts.
Pros:
- Bloggle app is an easy-to-use app with simple design and navigation.
- It is very easy to integrate SEO elements into your blogs with this app.
- You can also enjoy a comprehensive customer service that is highly responsive with Bloggle app.
- Bloggle app can be an expensive option for a lot of business start ups.
- This blog app can have glitches and bugs that come up frequently.
Selecting the Best Shopify Blog App
Most of the top blog apps for Shopify have similar sets of features but their implementation is significantly different. While some support creating pages directly on your Shopify Store, others only support importing them from some sources.
Apart from the features on offer and the implementation of the same, there are several other factors that you need to consider before choosing a blog app for your Shopify store. We are listing some of the most important pines below to act as quick reference points.
1) Subscription Cost
Even though most of the best blog apps for Shopify are priced affordably, it is important to consider the overall subscription cost while looking for Shopify blog apps. While some of the options on our list are free, others need a subscription to access the full range of features.
Do keep in mind that you might need to use several different blogging apps to manage your Shopify blogs. This is especially true if you need a wide range of features and are importing articles from several sources.
2) Range of Customization Tools Offered
When you are creating a blog on your Shopify store, the range of customization tools should be one of your topmost priorities.
Customization tools allow you to match the theme and layout of your blog posts with the overall theme of your store. In case you are importing your blogs, they are also necessary to fix the inevitable formatting errors.
While some Shopify blog apps offer text editor like or drag-and-drop customization tools, others will allow you to edit the code itself. You need to look at your technical expertise and choose accordingly.
3) Integration with Other Shopify Apps
You will need to use several Shopify apps to make the most out of your Shopify blogs. These will include Shopify upselling apps, other blogging apps, or recommendation apps.
Therefore it is necessary to look at how well the app you are choosing integrates with your existing ecosystem. Glitches regarding these can cause issues on your Shopify store and lead to loss of sales.
4) Customer Support
While glitches can be avoided up to an extent, they are inevitable in the long run. Therefore it is necessary that the Shopify blog app you are choosing has proper customer support channels.
You might also need to contact support when you are installing the app, or in case the app is causing issues due to the other apps present on your Shopify store. It is always desirable that the app has instantly available support through live chat or phone calls. If your preferred blog app does not provide customer support, then you can choose a Shopify customer service app to help your provide a better shipping experience for online shoppers.
5) Reliability of the Software
The overall reliability of the app should be an important consideration. The Shopify blog app should be able to render and format pages properly and should not cause glitches in your Shopify store.
Having a blog app that can properly render posts (especially imported blogs) significantly cuts down on the time you require to check and properly format the pages.
6) Integration Into Your Existing Ecosystem
In case you are already using external blogging platforms, it is desirable that the Shopify blog app you are choosing can integrate with the preexisting platforms and import the blogs to your Shopify store. They are generally synced automatically and significantly streamlines the entire blogging process.
In case you have dedicated personnel to manage your content related requirements, your app should be able to integrate with the platforms they are using. The same holds true for your marketing department.
7) Audit and Analyze
It is paramount for business owners to understand the engagement created through their blogs. So, auditing and analyzing customer traffic and the impact generated by the blogs will help you control and monitor your blog posts more effectively. Therefore look for the best blog app for Shopify that offers data analysis and reports for your blog posts.
8) Reputation and Reviews
A simple criterian to rate an app would be to look at the reputation and reviews of the product. You can easily find customer reviews on the Shopify app or other third-party websites. That should provide you with the track record of the app's reputation since its introduction, making it easier for you to make a decision.
Overall Recommendation
All of the best blog apps for Shopify have their own strengths and advantages. Apart from the basic necessary features, they also have their unique tools and features. Most of this is dependent on their approach to creating or importing blogs.
If you are looking for a powerful Shopify app to manage your blog pages from the Shopify platform itself, Pro Blogger and Blog Studio can be good options for you.
If you already have a marketing department that uses social media to post, Instablog ‑ Auto Post To Blog and BlogFeeder ‑ Blog Importer can be good options.
If you are primarily focused on SEO optimization and want tools to automatically and efficiently manage them on your Shopify store, do check out DropInBlog ‑ SEO Friendly Blog.
If you are looking for some niche features like blog recommendations, you can check out Related Blog Posts. This can be used in combination with the other blog apps for Shopify as per your requirements
FAQ
1. Which are the best Blog Apps for Shopify?
Some of the popular Blog Apps for Shopify are Pro Blogger, Blog Studio, Pop Ups, DropInBlog ‑ SEO Friendly Blog, and related Blog Posts.
While choosing the best Shopify blog app, you will need a thorough overview and understanding of their strengths, and the ease of implementation with your existing business practices.
2. How to choose the best Shopify Blog Apps for your eCommerce business?
To choose the best Shopify Blog app for your Shopify store, you need to consider several factors such as the subscription cost, customer support, customization tools on offer, and overall reliability.
You will also need to consider where you will be sourcing the content from and the required range of features for your business. You can also look at using several related apps in tandem to make the most out of your Shopify blogs.