Buyers Guide: How To Create One for Your Store (2026)

A buyers guide is a page that answers shoppers’ questions and shows how a specific product meets their needs. It’s one way to influence buying decisions and support online sales.

Retailers such as REI and Best Buy include buyers guides on their websites to help shoppers compare products before checkout. Small business owners use the same format to answer common questions and guide shoppers toward a purchase, without needing to field the question directly.

This article covers how to create a buyers guide as a content asset for an online store, including how to structure the page and write content that helps shoppers make a decision.

What is a buyers guide?

A buyers guide is an online article that helps customers make a purchasing decision. It covers considerations for a specific product, including functionality, accessibility, size, maintenance, price, and the differences between models or brands.

Buyers guides take a few common forms:

• Comparison guides: Compares multiple products or brands against the same set of criteria.
• How-to-choose guides: Walks through the factors to weigh before buying a specific type of product.
• Sizing and fit guides: Helps customers choose the right size, fit, or configuration.

Store owners place buyers guides on product or category pages so customers can review these considerations before checkout, without contacting customer support.

How to make a buyers guide

1. Define your audience
2. Offer product-led solutions
3. Format for fast and easy reading
4. Focus on search engine optimization
5. Add a CTA

A buyers guide combines a few core elements, including a clear sense of who the product is for and product-specific recommendations, as well as an easy-to-scan format, search-friendly structure, and next step for the reader. 

Do the following when writing a buyers guide for an online store:

1. Define your audience

Buyers guides aren’t generic documents. They address the specific challenges a shopper faces during the buying process. Knowing who you’re talking to lets you tailor content to a shopper’s values and needs.

For example, a guide written for price-conscious shoppers will highlight price differences between brands and styles.

Gather your audience information through a few methods:

• Surveys. Encourage customers and non-customers to take a survey where you’ll ask questions about their demographics (age, family, occupation), interests, values, and pain points. The goal is to discover a shopper’s challenge and what motivates them to buy.
• Digital analytics. Start with Shopify reports to see what shoppers view, search for, and buy in your store. Use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for a closer look at on-site behavior and content interests, then use research from NIQ and Pew Research Center to understand broader trends for your product category.
• Social media. Search social platforms to see what shoppers say about your product category. A search for “vacuums” on TikTok, for example, surfaces reviews and comments about specific product features.

Revisit your marketing research periodically to account for new trends or emerging customer segments. The process for defining your target audience is the same whether you’re writing a buyers guide or any other content.

2. Offer product-led solutions

You’ve done the legwork to define your audience and their challenges. Now put that information to use. Build the outline of your buyers guide around those pain points, leading with the solution.

A helpful buyers guide gives shoppers takeaways and points to consider before an impulsive purchase, says Ben Clarke, digital marketing analyst at J&J Global Fulfillment. “I remember brands when they answer the questions I was asking in my head.” 

A buyers guide built around your audience’s questions includes these key elements about your product:

• What it is. Open with a brief overview of the product, including a definition and two or three benefits of owning it.
• Types. Review the different product types available, along with the features, benefits, and use cases specific to each.
• FAQ. Address the most common questions shoppers ask about the product before buying.
• Considerations. List what shoppers should evaluate before purchasing, such as price, size, materials, durability, compatibility, and warranty coverage.
• Social proof. Add customer testimonials or reviews that reflect real experiences with the product. Reviews and testimonials on your store must comply with the FTC’s rule on consumer reviews and testimonials, including disclosing any material connection between the store and the reviewer.

Include any other sections relevant to your product. For example, a first-time microwave buyer needs details about features, use cases, and installation tips, while someone upgrading a fitness tracker needs guidance on timing the upgrade.

Match each section of your buyers guide to a specific question or pain point from your audience and market research.

3. Format for fast and easy reading

A buyers guide should be easy to scan. Use the following checklist to format your guide:

• The 80/20 rule. Place 80% of the most critical information in the first 20% of the guide.
• Jump links. Make it easy for readers to find the information they want by making keywords clickable.
• Bulleted lists. Break long explanations into scannable list items.
• Plain English. Average 15 to 20 words per sentence in simple language.
• Images. Use images that support the point being made in the surrounding text.

Images and videos can also break up long sections of reading. MIT neuroscientists found the brain can identify an image seen for as little as 13 milliseconds. Repurpose this content for social media to promote your buyers guide.

Wayfair uses an infographic to show the different mattress types side by side, rather than describing them in a block of text.

4. Focus on search engine optimization

Nine in 10 (92%) Americans say they buy things online, according to Pew Research Center. Optimizing a buyers guide for relevant search terms puts it in front of shoppers who search for product information online.

For example, LG ranks for keywords with strong purchase intent, such as “microwave sizes” and “microwave buying guide.”

Meanwhile, Best Buy’s buyers guide appears in search results for “microwave ovens,” alongside the standard product listing.

Use SEO-friendly keywords in headings and subheadings to answer what shoppers search for, not what you assume they’re searching for. 

Follow these tips for optimizing your buyers guide for search engines:

• Find a target keyword in an SEO tool such as Ahrefs. Make sure it’s related to your product, such as “microwave buying guide” or “television buying guide.”
• Include the keyword in your page title and URL.
• Send your guide through an optimization tool such as Clearscope. It will check whether the article matches the intent of online shoppers.

5. Add a CTA

A buyers guide helps shoppers make a confident decision. A CTA gives them a clear next step once they’ve found the information they need. 

Use CTAs in two ways:

• At the end of your guide: Once people finish reading, direct them to a relevant page. Best Buy, for example, invites people to shop coffee makers or find a nearby store.
• Next to select products: If you’re mentioning multiple products throughout the guide, place relevant CTAs near each one. REI hyperlinks to a product page directly in the product’s title, but a button placed near the product will work the same way.

Buyers guide examples

Publishers and retailers across different industries use buyers guides to help shoppers evaluate products before buying. The following examples show how three organizations structure, format, and place these guides.

Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports, and MacRumors

Established publishers structure their buyers guides around a few consistent elements: how they evaluate products, a clear way to compare options, and a path to act on the decision. These examples show what these elements look like in practice.

For example, Good Housekeeping’s fitness tracker guide for women explains how the Good Housekeeping Institute tests each model, then breaks down its top picks with use cases and where to buy. 

Similarly, Consumer Reports’ wireless speaker guide walks through buying considerations and includes photos identifying key features to look for. 

MacRumors’ iPad guide opens with a side-by-side comparison of available models, followed by more detail on each option.

REI

American retail and outdoor recreation brand REI publishes buyers guides in its “Expert advice” section. “The 6 Best Insulated Jackets of 2025: Staff Picks” walks through REI’s choices for down and synthetic insulation jackets. Each entry lists a rating, price, insulation type, weight, and best-use case.

Best Buy

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy publishes buying guides for its electronics products, including activity trackers, major appliances, and cameras. These guides use short paragraphs, headers, and section breaks instead of long blocks of text.

Create your buyers guide today

Publish your buyers guide where shoppers are already looking for product information:

• Product or category pages. Place the guide next to the products it covers, where shoppers are already comparing options.
• Your store’s blog. A blog post lets the guide show up in search results for shoppers researching the product category.
• Email newsletter. Send the guide to your subscriber list to reach shoppers who already follow your store.
• Social media. Break the guide into individual posts or a carousel to reach shoppers browsing the platform.