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BOFU keywords
Posted by on April 22, 2026 at 2:25 amSaw a post on r/bigseo yesterday where OP had 47 blog posts written by an agency and zero revenue to show for it. All the content was top-of-funnel: "what is X", "why is X used", "how does X work".
This is the most common mistake I see small and mid-sized businesses make with SEO.
TOFU keywords make sense once you have brand equity and a conversion engine. For a company still establishing digital presence, they're a cash drain. You pay for content, you get traffic, the traffic doesn't buy, and eventually someone has to explain why SEO "doesn't work".
The rough hierarchy I use when auditing a client's keyword strategy:
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Bottom of funnel: "[brand] pricing", "[brand] vs [competitor]", "[brand] reviews". People already know you exist and are validating the purchase.
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Middle of funnel: "[category] software for [use case]", "[competitor] alternative", "best [category] for [vertical]". People know they have the problem, they're shortlisting vendors.
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Top of funnel: "what is [category]", "how does [thing] work". People are still learning the space.
Early-stage businesses should start at #1 and #2 and only move to #3 once the first two are producing pipeline. Most agencies invert this because TOFU is easier to write and easier to show traffic graphs for.
Experienced folks already know this SEO rule. This post is meant for small / medium business owners who are in the middle of vetting agencies for their SEO mandate.
Please, please ask your agency if they are aware of the BOFU vs TOFU split they would be working on. If they don't have a clear and concise answer, you'll be burning $ for vanity metrics like traffic and impressions.
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