TOFU, MOFU and BOFU: what each stage of the funnel is for, and what to make for it

• TOFU, the top: someone has a question. Teach them, and ask for nothing.
• MOFU, the middle: they know the problem and are comparing ways to solve it. Help them choose.
• BOFU, the bottom: they have nearly decided. Give them a reason to choose you, and make it easy.

The audience gets smaller at every step down, and closer to a decision. Most content fails not because it is bad but because it is all at the top, with nothing waiting further down.

The intent labels come from Google's own guidelines for its search quality raters, the people who assess whether results meet what a searcher wanted. The September 2025 edition sorts searches into four intents: Know, Do, Website and Visit-in-person. The first two map onto the funnel almost exactly.

The reader: someone with a question, who may not know your name or even that their question has a solution you sell.

Google's word for it: a Know search, where the intent is "to find information or explore a topic".

What it is for. Being found, being useful, and being remembered. Nothing else. A top of funnel piece succeeds if a stranger leaves knowing more than they arrived with, whether or not they ever come back.

What to make

• Explainers: what something is and why it matters
• How-to guides: the steps to do a thing, properly
• Definitions and glossaries: short, accurate answers to common questions
• Original data: something nobody else has counted, which is also the most linkable thing most sites can publish

What people search

• what is keyword research
• how does SEO work
• types of SEO

How you know it is working

• Impressions and clicks rising in Search Console for the questions you wrote for
• New visitors, and the share of them arriving from search
• Other sites linking to the piece because it answered something well

The mistake. Asking for too much too soon. A "book a demo" button on a beginner's explainer is a request nobody at that stage can say yes to.

The reader: someone who knows their problem and is now weighing up ways to solve it. They are researching, not yet buying.

Google's description of it. The rater guidelines have a section on product searches that reads like a definition of the middle of the funnel. Most product searches, they note, do not clearly signal one intent. Before buying, people research the product through reviews and specifications, compare the brands, models and prices on offer, and browse the options. The guidelines tell raters to rate highly the results that help people do exactly that.

What to make

• Comparisons: honest ones, including where your own option is worse
• Buyer's guides: what to look for, and what to avoid
• Free tools and calculators: something people use rather than read
• Templates and checklists: a head start on doing the work
• Case studies: what happened when someone else made the choice

What people search

• best keyword research tools
• ahrefs vs semrush
• free salary hike calculator

How you know it is working

• Return visits, and readers moving from one page to another
• Tool usage and downloads
• Email sign-ups, if you ask for them here

This is where to ask for an email, in exchange for something worth having. The backlinks article on this site offers the spreadsheet of 249 sources behind its charts, and lets readers take it without the form if they would rather. That second option costs some addresses and buys a great deal of trust.

The mistake. Comparisons that are really adverts. A reader in the middle of the funnel has usually read three of them already, and can tell a comparison written to inform from one written to sell.

The reader: someone who has nearly decided. They need a reason to choose you, a reason to choose now, and nothing in the way.

Google's word for it: a Do search, where the intent is "to accomplish a goal or engage in an activity". The guidelines' own examples of that goal include downloading, buying and obtaining something.

What to make

• Pricing pages: clear, complete, with no "contact us for pricing" if you can avoid it
• Demos and free trials: a way to try before committing
• Proof: case studies with real numbers, reviews, testimonials
• You versus a competitor: the page people search for when choosing
• A contact or booking page that asks for as little as possible

What people search

• ahrefs pricing
• semrush free trial
• your brand name plus reviews

How you know it is working

• Enquiries, demos booked, trials started and sales closed
• The conversion rate of the page, and what each conversion cost

The mistake. Making the last step harder than it needs to be. Long forms, hidden prices and a required call before anyone can see the product all lose people who had already decided.

The same subject needs a different page at each stage. Here is keyword research, followed all the way down.

That last column matters. For many topics the bottom of the funnel belongs to whoever sells the thing, and a publisher's job is to own the top and the middle well. On this site, the comparison of keyword tools is a middle of funnel piece, and the pricing pages it links to are the bottom.

Google's rater guidelines name four kinds of search intent. Two map onto the funnel directly, and two are signs that someone is already near the bottom.

Someone searching for your brand by name is a Website search, and is usually much closer to buying than someone asking a general question. That is why branded searches tend to convert so well: the funnel was done before they typed.

Different channels are better at different stages. Running organic search and paid side by side, as I do, the useful question is never which channel is best, but which stage each one is serving.

The site you are reading is built as a small funnel, which makes it easier to show than to describe.

TOFUReadTypes of SEOBacklinks in SEOBlog writing format

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MOFUUseTools to find keywordsSalary hike calculatorThe 249 source spreadsheet

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BOFUDecideThe recordWork with me

I am not going to quote conversion rates for any of this. There is no honest benchmark that holds across industries, products and price points, and a number borrowed from someone else's funnel tells you nothing about yours.

• Everything at the top. The most common one by far. A blog full of explainers with nothing for a reader who is ready to choose.
• Judging the top on sales. A top of funnel piece is measured on reach. A great explainer that never directly sells anything is doing its job.
• Gating too early. An email form in front of a beginner's guide trades the reader for an address they would not have given anyway.
• One page trying to do all three. A post that explains, compares and sells at once usually does none of them well.
• No path between stages. Every page should point to the obvious next step, so a reader who is ready to move down has somewhere to go.

Partly. Real buyers do not walk it in order. They loop back, skip a stage, read a comparison before they understand the basics, and research on a phone before buying on a laptop. Some marketers prefer to draw it as a loop for exactly that reason.

But the three stages remain the most useful way to ask the question that matters: for a reader at each point in deciding, do you have something worth their time? Use the funnel to decide what to make and what to measure. Do not use it as a script you expect people to follow.

If you are starting from the top, the different kinds of search work behind it are laid out in types of SEO.

A funnel only works if there is something at the bottom worth reaching. Most content plans start at the top because that is the easiest place to write. The better ones start at the bottom, work out what someone needs to see before they decide, and build upwards from there.