THE GUIDE
Is Blogging Back?
What Businesses Should Focus on Before Publishing More Content.
TL;DR
Blogging is still valuable, but publishing more content that targets high-volume keywords or dates on a calendar is not automatically better for SEO or AI visibility. In other words, generic, easily summarized content is becoming a less dependable way to drive traffic to your website.
If you want to stay visible into today's changing search landscape, I recommend focusing on the following and in this order:
- 01Focus on strengthening your core website pages so they clearly explain your services, who they are intended for, and the value you bring
- 02Seek opportunities to build your online visibility beyond your website to support your credibility including reviews, directories, media coverage, and industry mentions
- 03Publish fewer, more purposeful articles grounded in your firsthand experience, original insights, research, or analysis.
When I tell people that I work in the space between SEO and AEO, I tend to get the same questions about blogging:
Is blogging dead?
How do I get AI tools to find and use my blog content?
Or, more recently, "I've heard blogging is back!"
And while I wish I had a cut-and-dried answer to these questions, as with most things SEO- and SEO-related topics, the responses are nuanced.
It should be simple, right? AI tools draw on online content to generate answers. So, if a business publishes more articles, it should have a better chance of appearing in those answers.
There is some truth in that reasoning. Publishing more content creates more potential source material. But volume alone is not enough.
If an article doesn't answer a question directly relevant to your business, show off your expertise, or contribute an original insight, AI tools don't really have any incentive to cite your blog post instead of a stronger source.
So if you run a business with limited time and a limited marketing budget, that is good news for you. You don't need to become a content machine posting on a weekly basis for the sake of consistency. But you do need to be more intentional about what you publish and why.
STEP 1
Focus on ensuring your website messaging is clear and easy to navigate
If you've recently lost a lot of traffic to your website, it can be tempting to blame it on underperforming blog content and dump a bunch of time into figuring out how to "fix it".
The truth is AI-generated answers are changing the relationship between search visibility and website traffic.
When people look for information online, they are not always clicking through a list of websites anymore. More and more people are asking questions directly to Claude or ChatGPT, or reading Google's AI Overviews. This means people can now get their answers directly without visiting the websites the information came from, which is good for convenience but bad for web traffic.
So until we start to see a different trend, I tell my clients to prioritize making sure their website clearly explains what makes their business different, the results they help their clients achieve, and what makes their business unique. Just like you don't want to make a potential client dig for this information, AI doesn't want to dig for it either.
Within a few minutes of being on your website a potential client should know
- What you do
- Who you help
- What is included in your services
- How your process works
- What clients can expect
- What part of the world you're located in
- How your pricing or engagement structure works
- The questions prospective clients ask most often.
STEP 2
Invest in building your digital footprint beyond your website
Once your website clearly explains your business, the next step is to strengthen the places where other people and organizations confirm your credibility.
23%
Only 23% of those citations came from the brand's own website.
77%
The remaining 77% came from outside sources, including news articles, reviews, forums, directories, and other companies' websites.
The sources AI tools used also changed depending on the question. When people asked factual questions about a product's functionality or integrations, the company's website was the most frequently cited source. When people asked what customers thought about a company, 82% of citations came from outside sources.
For a service business, the practical takeaway is simple. Your website should be the clearest source of information about what you do and how your business works. Outside sources help verify your experience, reputation, and credibility.
HELPFUL EXTERNAL SIGNALS MAY INCLUDE
- Detailed client reviews
- Accurate business and industry directory profiles
- Memberships in relevant professional associations
- Interviews, podcast appearances, and contributed articles
- Local or industry media coverage
- Mentions and links from clients, partners, and trusted organizations.
This does not mean trying to appear everywhere at once. Focus on the places your prospective clients already use and trust.
The irony is that as AI becomes more common, the signals that help businesses stand out are increasingly human. Firsthand experience, clear perspectives, trusted relationships, and recognition from others all help establish that your expertise is real.
STEP 3
Focus on a few articles that add strategic depth to your business presence
Once your foundational website pages are strong and you've brushed up your digital presence beyond your website, then you can spend some time focusing on writing thought leadership and think pieces related to your business.
Extra points if you can get an external publication to agree to publish your article and then link out to it from your website and vice versa, but that isn't always feasible so blog articles are another great way to help demonstrate how you think, what you know, and where your experience is different.
Keep in mind, this is different from choosing a keyword and rewriting information that already exists on dozens of other websites.
The strongest topics often come from the work you are already doing. You might choose to:
- Answer a question that comes up repeatedly in client conversations
- Explain a decision clients frequently struggle to make
- Share a pattern you have noticed across several projects
- Walk through a real example or case study
- Add your perspective to new research or an industry change
- Publish original research, testing, or analysis if that is part of what your business does.
Your article doesn't need to contain a groundbreaking idea. But it does need to contribute something specific that reflects your experience, perspective, or expertise.
If you have a lot of published blog articles you also may want to spend some time archiving some of those articles that aren't performing well so that your more thoughtful, relevant articles can really shine.
THE BOTTOM LINE
So, is blogging back?
Not exactly, because useful blogging never really went away.
What is changing is the value of publishing large volumes of general, easily summarized content and expecting dependable search traffic in return.
For a small business, a more realistic strategy is to take these three steps.
- 01Make the pages that explain your business clear, complete, and current.
- 02Publish articles when you have something useful and specific to contribute.
- 03Build credible signals beyond your website that help others verify your expertise.
You may end up publishing less often. But each piece of content will have a clearer purpose and a stronger connection to the business you are trying to grow.