Website Content Marketing 2025

More Noise, Less Substance.

Content output, particularly AI-generated blog posts, images, and videos, has sharply increased. However, this surge in volume hasn't boosted engagement; instead, rates are falling, likely due to audiences being overwhelmed with low-quality or repetitive material.

Google's March 2024 algorithm update targeted this scaled content abuse by de-ranking unoriginal, shallow, or non-human-valued AI content. The key takeaway is that creators must now prioritize relevance, creativity, and user experience over sheer quantity to remain visible.

Search is Shifting—Fast.

In 2020, nearly everyone (98%) turned to search engines for answers. By 2024, that number has dropped to 61%, with AI chatbots now handling 30% of queries and social media jumping to 17%. Users are favoring conversational and personalized tools over traditional search.

With trust eroding on search, Google is trying to preserve relevance—prioritizing human insight, expertise, and originality. For content creators, it's no longer just about ranking—it's about remaining useful in an evolving search landscape.

Search Engines Losing Informational Dominance to AI

People use ChatGPT overwhelmingly for informational searches, with 93.7% of queries falling into this category—88% more likely than Google, which handles just 49.8% informational queries. In contrast, Google dominates navigational, commercial, and transactional searches. This signals a growing divide: AI chatbots are becoming the go-to for learning and understanding, while traditional search engines remain preferred for shopping, navigation, and conversions.

Search Engines Now Using AI Overviews in the Results

Search engines are now using generative AI to deliver quick, informative summaries at the top of results pages. These summaries pull from a range of sources—such as websites, knowledge graphs, and trusted databases—to give users a fast, high-level understanding of a topic without needing to click through multiple links.

While some studies by NP Digital have indicated a correlation between longer queries and the appearance of AI Overviews, it's not a definitive rule. Google hasn't explicitly stated word count as a primary ranking factor for AI Overviews. The emphasis is generally on comprehensive and relevant content.

Frequency of AI Overviews by Search Query Length

AI-Assisted Copy Ranks Better

AI-generated copy alone performs poorly (3.6/10 average across originality, engagement, SEO, and readability). In contrast, AI-assisted content, enhanced by human editing, achieves significantly better results (7.5/10). Search engines like Google prioritize E-E-A-T, and purely chatbot-generated content often lacks the necessary human oversight to meet these quality standards, risking penalties for generic, inaccurate, or repetitive content.

Original Content Performs Better Than AI-Regurgitated or Rewritten Content

Fully original content performs 2.89x better than reused or AI-rewritten material. Repurposed content delivers diminishing returns—while original content fuels authentic engagement and trust. In a digital landscape dominated by sameness, originality is your edge.

Blogging Dominates Revenue in 2025

Despite shifting trends in content marketing, blog posts remain the top performer, driving 28% of revenue while only consuming 18% of budget. This makes blogging the most cost-effective channel across B2B and B2C strategies in 2025. Webinars and email campaigns also show strong returns, while high-budget areas like social media, infographics, and videos underperform in revenue contribution.

According to statistics by DemandSage, businesses that prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI than those that don’t.

Content Marketing Budget vs. Revenue Contribution (2025)

Best Time To Publish in 2025

The highest engagement scores for blog posts occur Tuesday through Thursday, between 9 AM and 3 PM. Midweek mornings are the sweet spot for maximizing visibility and interaction.

Research indicates that morning blog posts tend to have higher click-through rates, with user engagement peaking around 9:00 AM. By scheduling your blog publications during these optimal times, you can enhance visibility and reader interaction.

Best Way to Promote Your Blog

Despite heavy usage of social media (61%), its effectiveness for blog promotion remains low at just 13%. In contrast, SEO dominates—used by 98% of marketers and delivering a perfect 100% effectiveness score. Email marketing, though underused (8%), proves highly effective at 82%, indicating a major missed opportunity. Surprisingly, paid ads, while barely used, outperform social media with a 15% effectiveness rating.

The takeaway: organic strategies like SEO and email remain the top-performing promotion channels, and underutilized tools like email marketing deserve a stronger role in content distribution plans.

Social Media Driving Blog Traffic

LinkedIn is the clear leader, generating the most blog traffic with 204 sessions, followed closely by X (formerly Twitter) at 194 sessions. Facebook and Pinterest still hold strong positions, while platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and TikTok trail far behind.

Emerging and visual-first platforms like TikTok and Instagram, while popular, are less impactful for long-form content promotion.

Which Social Sites Drive The Most Blog Traffic

Fresh, Unique & Actionable Content

The most successful blog posts score high on two critical traits: they offer new & unique insights and are actionable—both scoring a 9/10 in importance. But popularity isn’t just about originality; it’s about solving a real problem your reader is facing.

That means updating outdated information, linking to credible sources, and making the content clear, useful, and benefit-driven.

Be Mindful Of Writing Tone

This data reveals that tone has a measurable impact on conversion rates. Urgent (+6%), Conversational (+5%), and Informal (+4%) tones outperform all others, likely because they feel direct, relatable, and actionable—prompting users to engage quickly.

The takeaway: if you're writing to convert—whether it's a blog page, call-to-action, or email—use a tone that’s clear, natural, and confident, not fluffy or theatrical. Urgency and conversation win when paired with substance.

Match Blog Content Length To Intent

Long-form blog content—particularly around 2,500 to 3,000+ words—generates the best performance for backlinks, SEO and sharing. Blogs under 1000 words may work for mobile or quick reads but tend to perform better for comments. Anything below 400 words are labelled "Garbage."

The takeaway: Always prioritize user experience over content length.

Long Verse Short Blog Content: What Length Produces The Best Results

How Images & Video Boost Blog Traffic

Adding multimedia to blog posts significantly boosts organic traffic. The biggest gains come from images, which lead to a 5.18% increase, particularly when blogs include up to 7 visuals. This aligns with current best practices: break up long-form content and support key points with relevant graphics.

Interestingly, audio leads to a slight traffic drop (-2.09%), though this result may be skewed due to limited data.

Impact of Multimedia on Organic Blog Traffic

Best Blog Content Formats For Backlinks

When it comes to earning backlinks, not all content is created equal. While list posts, infographics, and guides perform decently, original tools generate far more links than any other format—an average of 319 backlinks, nearly double the next best performer, original research.

Why? Tools are evergreen, useful, and reference-worthy. Whether it's a calculator, grader, quiz, or generator, interactive tools give people a reason to return—and to share.

Content Formats Proven To Generate Links

When Content Ranks Best

NP Digital data suggests that content age can influence ranking performance—but it's not a hard rule. According to Google, ranking depends on a mix of factors, including industry, competition, content quality, and other SEO factors. While newer content often takes time to gain traction, high-quality, well-optimized posts can still rank quickly, especially in less saturated niches.

The "sweet spot" of 6-12 months is an observation but shouldn't be taken as a universal guarantee.

Blog Posts Deliver Compounding Organic Traffic Growth

This chart highlights the long-term payoff of consistent blogging. While videos start strong and peak early, blog posts show steady, compounding growth—surpassing videos in traffic by Month 5 and continuing to accelerate through Month 12, ending with a 210 traffic score compared to 125 for videos.

Images, while helpful for user experience, contribute the least to organic traffic directly. Their impact is minimal on their own without supporting text or context.

Organic Traffic Over Time by Content Type

Email Blogs to Your Audience

If someone’s on your email list, they’ve already raised their hand. These aren’t cold leads. They’ve opted in, they want to hear from you, and they’re far more likely to engage, convert, and buy. Nurture this audience with value, consistency, and relevance—and you’ll keep your highest-converting channel thriving.

The Average Buyer Needs 11.1 Touchpoints—Are You Visible Enough?

In 2021, it took an average of 8.5 interactions before a customer made a purchase decision. In 2025, that number has climbed to 11.1. Buyers now research across more social media platforms, review sites, and stages of the funnel before converting.

To stay competitive, brands must meet users where they are—and that means using more than one channel. Social media, blogs, email, video, and SEO all play a role in creating those essential touchpoints. It’s no longer about one perfect post—it’s about consistent visibility across multiple channels to guide the journey.

Social Search Is Surging—Especially Among Younger Audiences

In 2021, just 1% of users turned to social media for search. By 2024, that number skyrocketed to 17%, with a forecasted rise to 21% in 2025. The shift is being driven largely by younger users who increasingly bypass traditional search engines in favor of platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit.

These platforms offer faster, visual, and more peer-driven discovery experiences. For brands, this means traditional SEO alone is no longer enough. If you're not showing up in social feeds, you're missing a growing share of search traffic.

Search Is Fragmenting—And Google Isn’t as Dominant as You Think

While Google still leads in daily search volume with 13.7 billion searches, it now accounts for only 27% of total search activity across platforms. Alternatives like Instagram (6.5B), Baidu (5.0B), Snap (4.0B), and Amazon (3.5B) show that users are turning to a wide variety of platforms for discovery.

And even within Google, the value of that dominance is shifting. According to SparkToro, nearly 60% of Google searches now end without a click, as users find what they need directly on the results page.

Search Is Happening Everywhere—But Most Businesses Aren’t Ready

While most businesses invest in traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO), only a small fraction have adopted Search Everywhere Optimization—the strategy of being discoverable across all major platforms.

As shown in the chart, adoption is just 2% among small businesses and only 5% among medium-sized companies, with large enterprises leading at 14%. That’s a gap—especially considering how often people search on TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, app stores, and social platforms instead of Google.

Adoption Rate of Search Everywhere Optimization by Business Size

Short-Form Video Dominates 2025 Ad Budgets

In 2025, short-form video claims the largest share of social media ad budgets at 28%, far outpacing static images (17%) and carousel ads (14%). The reason? That’s where users are spending their time—and attention.

Whether it’s TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, snackable video content aligns perfectly with user behavior, offering fast, immersive storytelling that drives higher engagement and conversions.

YouTube Is Still the King of Long-Form Video

When it comes to long-form video, YouTube dominates with an average watch time of 3 minutes and 6 seconds—blowing past LinkedIn (0:46), Instagram (0:27), TikTok (0:26), and Facebook (0:18).

The data is clear: while short-form content rules on most platforms, YouTube remains the go-to destination for deeper, more sustained viewing experiences. It’s the only platform where users consistently engage with long videos—making it ideal for educational content, product demos, interviews, and brand storytelling.

Average Watch Time For Long-Form Videos By Platform

Want More Shares? Think Visual and Snackable

NP Digital worked with 58 companies and analyzed over 4000 pieces of content over a 3-month period and videos got the most shares.

Why? Visual and snackable content is easier to consume, quicker to understand, and more likely to spark engagement on social media.

Want More Leads? Build Interactive Tools and Quizzes

The top lead-generating formats are tools, calculators, and interactive content, responsible for 22% of all leads. Quizzes and surveys follow closely at 14%, while blogs account for 10%—strong, but not leading.

Tools offer personalized, useful outcomes that solve a problem or reveal insight in real time. They're also highly shareable and memorable, making them ideal top-of-funnel assets.

Free Interactive Tools Work!

Offering free tools like calculators or assessments can dramatically boost lead volume—this example shows a 339% increase, from 138 to 606 leads per month. However, it’s not all upside. While lead quantity rises, close rates typically fall. In this case, the conversion rate dropped from 5.0% to 2.2%.

It’s volume over precision—but with the right backend strategy, you can turn traffic into traction.

Effectiveness Of Free Tools In Lead Generation

Engagement Varies Widely by Generation

This heatmap shows a clear pattern: every generation engages differently with content formats. Baby Boomers lean into email newsletters and text-based posts, while Gen Z and Gen Alpha are all-in on short-form videos and visuals. Millennials and Gen X are versatile, engaging strongly across most content types—especially long-form formats and webinars.

Optimal Social Posting Strategy in 2025

Posting expectations are high—brands are expected to publish multiple times a day across platforms like X, Threads, and IG Stories, with TikTok and Instagram demanding 3–5 posts per week. Pinterest and Google My Business trail behind at 1 per week. This frequency is unsustainable for most teams without help.

That’s why 83% of marketers now use generative AI to keep pace, according to HubSpot. From drafting captions and hashtags to creating images and DM replies, AI is the quiet force behind social media output. While every team applies its own creative guardrails, one rule is near universal: AI supports the content—but humans still shape the voice.

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