Insights
Why Blogging Is Your Marketing Advantage in 2026
Lately, I’ve seen so many articles about why businesses need blogs, you’d think blogging had disappeared!
I believe brands that stop blogging in 2026 are making a huge mistake.
Yes, AIOs and LLMs will retrieve answers to most top-of-funnel questions, but where does that content live? On a blog!
You may see less clicks overall, but people who click through have high intent and want detailed information.
Because of that, your content needs to be “expert-level” to stay valuable—more depth, proprietary data, and authority.
When high-intent visitors hit your site, they’re looking for content that helps them make decisions, so I suggest producing articles around comparisons, pricing, and integrations.
I read an interesting AI discovery report from Previsible which analyzed 1,963,544 LLM-driven sessions across 12 months (November 2024 to November 2025).
One of their conclusions was that AI traffic doesn’t distribute evenly:
“It concentrates on pages where users evaluate options and make decisions, pages that disproportionately drive revenue.”
I’d argue that ‘industry pages’ also includes blog content like trends, insights, research, and case studies. There may be significant overlap, which would bump the 0.91% penetration rate Previsible shows for blog pages.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t produce ‘how-to’ or guide-style content. That has its place. But unless your piece is the definitive source on the topic, you’ll cause yourself undue frustration trying to get cited in AI engines.
Previsible wrote:
“The pages you prioritize should match where AI actually sends users in your vertical. This will inevitably change as models evolve and consumers refine discovery within LLMs.”
I believe sites that stop blogging will give the rest of us a greater opportunity to both strengthen our brand signals and teach AI who we are.
This is your 2026 marketing advantage.
Related: If you want a solid explanation of why blogging will be huge in 2026, this story from Andrew Holland hits the high points. Andrew also outlines a ‘modern blog framework.’
Quoteworthy
Blogging isn’t dead—it just got weird, broke up with Google, and joined a Substack cult. From SEO zombie posts to AI-written filler, we’ve lost the soul of writing—but the rebellion has already started. If you’ve got something real to say, now’s the time to blog like it’s 2004 (but with better fonts).
You won’t find a more entertaining read on blogging than this piece by Noah Davis: Blogging Is Dead. Long Live the Blog.
Trending Search Prediction
In my last newsletter of 2025, I listed 7 Bold SEO and AI Search Predictions for 2026.
This one is already trending (paraphrased):
"Google will push more video and social content into search results, essentially turning the SERP into a feed of TikTok videos and Instagram posts. Traditional blue links will get pushed further down."
I asked the people of LinkedIn what they thought:
At the moment, it's not TikTok and Instagram showing up, but X posts and YouTube videos. Glenn Gabe noted that Google Discover is jamming his feed with social posts and video, saying:
"How much is Google Discover stuffing X posts and YouTube videos in the feed? This morning I had 34 X posts and about 12 YouTube videos in my feed. That's insane and Google needs to refine that..."
Glenn isn't the only one noticing this. Users are asking questions in forums and in the Google Search Help Community, mainly about how to remove X posts from Discover.
Of course, there is no way to manipulate Discover—unless you turn it off in your Google app settings.
Have you seen more social posts and videos in the SERPs?
Hit reply and tell me what you've noticed—or send me your screenshots.
Featured Snippets Disappearing
Two pieces of data stood out in Serpstat’s 11-month study on 1 billion keywords and 35 million AI Overviews (AIOs).
Part 1
Google is replacing Featured Snippets with AI Overviews rather than running them in parallel. Featured Snippets remained relatively stable until Google appeared to stop showing them in Q4 2025.
My notes
I've noticed a decline in the appearance of Featured Snippets during my Google searches, though this could be influenced by my specific queries.
Featured Snippets have disappeared and returned before, and multiple factors affect their appearance. Updates focusing on content quality (E-E-A-T) can affect snippet eligibility, with some sites losing them if their content quality drops or changes.
Featured Snippets may continue declining as Google relies more on AI for context-aware answers, though query type and search intent will likely determine outcomes.
What do you think?
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Watch out for Part 2 in my next newsletter.
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