Is Blogging Dead in 2025? I Looked at the Data

Every few months, someone declares blogging dead.

SEO is finished. Organic traffic doesn't work anymore. AI killed content marketing. Social media is the only thing that matters now.

I've been hearing variations of this for years.

And every time, I look at the companies actually doing well with content, and they're all.. still blogging.

So I decided to look at the actual data instead of the doom-and-gloom headlines. Here's what I found.

The Numbers Don't Lie

Let's start with the hard data, because feelings don't matter when we have facts.

SEO delivers an average ROI of 748 percent.

That's not a typo. Seven hundred and forty-eight percent.

For context, that means for every dollar you put into SEO and content, you're getting back $7.48 on average.

Show me another marketing channel with that kind of return.

Here's another number.. organic leads convert at 14.6 percent. You know what outbound marketing converts at? 1.7 percent.

That's not even close. That's not "blogging is dying." That's "blogging is one of the most effective marketing channels available."

Most teams see positive ROI within 6 to 12 months of investing in content and SEO. And the returns compound in years two and three.

This is not what dead looks like.

My Personal Take

I don't think blogging is dead at all.

I think bad blogging is dead. I think lazy blogging is dead. I think generic, AI-generated, zero-value blogging is dead.

But good blogging? Companies that actually put in the work, create genuinely helpful content, and understand their audience?

They're crushing it.

I see it all the time. Businesses building entire customer acquisition engines on the back of quality content. Startups competing with established players by outwriting them. Personal brands generating six figures from organic traffic.

The companies struggling with blogging are the ones treating it like a checkbox. "We need a blog because someone said we need a blog."

They publish once a month. The content is generic advice anyone could have written. There's no unique insight. No real expertise. No personality.

That kind of blogging is dead. And good riddance.

But if you actually do a good job at it? If you create content that's genuinely better than what's already out there? If you demonstrate real expertise and give people information they can't get elsewhere?

You'll do fine. More than fine.

Who's Still Winning with Blogging

Let me give you some examples of companies absolutely killing it with content in 2025.

SaaS companies are building massive organic channels. Look at companies like HubSpot, Ahrefs, Notion.. their blogs are customer acquisition machines.

E-commerce brands are using content to compete with Amazon. Instead of just product pages, they're creating buying guides, comparison content, educational resources that help people make decisions.

Service businesses are establishing expertise through in-depth content. Agencies, consultants, freelancers.. the ones with strong blogs are the ones getting inbound leads.

Even in saturated markets, I'm seeing people succeed with blogging. Not because the competition is weak, but because they're creating genuinely better content.

The pattern is clear. Companies that treat blogging as a real marketing channel and invest in quality are seeing results.

Companies that half-ass it are wondering why blogging doesn't work.

What's Changed (And What Hasn't)

Okay, let's be honest about what's different in 2025.

Google is more sophisticated. You can't game the system with keyword stuffing and thin content anymore. The algorithm prioritizes quality, expertise, and user experience.

AI has changed the baseline. Anyone can generate decent content now, which means decent isn't good enough anymore. You need to be actually good.

Zero-click searches are up. More searches are getting answered directly in Google, which means fewer clicks to websites. This is real, and it matters.

Competition is higher. Everyone knows content marketing works, so more people are doing it. Standing out is harder than it was five years ago.

But here's what hasn't changed.

People still need information. They still search for answers. They still want to learn things, solve problems, make decisions.

And they still click through to content that looks genuinely helpful.

The fundamentals haven't changed. Create valuable content for your target audience, optimize it so search engines can find it, and you'll get traffic.

It's just that the bar for "valuable" is higher now.

Why People Think Blogging Is Dead

The "blogging is dead" narrative comes from people who tried it and failed.

And I get it. They put in effort. They published content. They waited for traffic that never came.

That's frustrating. I'd probably declare blogging dead too if I spent six months writing articles that got zero traction.

But here's usually what happened.

They targeted keywords they had no chance of ranking for. If you're a brand new site trying to rank for "best CRM software," you're competing with sites that have been doing this for a decade. You're not going to win.

They created content that wasn't actually better than what already ranks. Google has no reason to show your article if it's just a worse version of what's already on page one.

They gave up too soon. Six months isn't enough. SEO is a 12 to 18 month game minimum. The people declaring it dead usually quit right before it would have started working.

They didn't understand search intent. Writing about what you want to rank for instead of what people actually need is a guaranteed way to fail.

They treated it like a side project. Publishing whenever they felt like it, no strategy, no consistency, no real investment.

Of course it didn't work. That doesn't mean blogging is dead. It means they did it wrong.

The Real Challenge in 2025

The actual challenge isn't that blogging doesn't work.

It's that it takes more effort than it used to.

You can't publish mediocre content and expect results. You need to be genuinely helpful, provide real insights, demonstrate actual expertise.

You can't ignore technical SEO anymore. Site speed, mobile optimization, Core Web Vitals.. this stuff matters now.

You can't just write and hope people find you. You need to understand search intent, target the right keywords, build topical authority.

You need to be patient. The overnight success stories are rare. Most successful blogs took years to build.

But if you're willing to put in that effort? If you're willing to create genuinely great content and stick with it long enough to see results?

Blogging absolutely still works.

When Blogging Might Not Be Right

Let me be balanced about this.

If you need results immediately, blogging probably isn't the answer. This is a long-term play. Most sites start seeing meaningful traffic around the 6 to 12 month mark.

If you're in an extremely competitive niche with no unique angle, you might struggle. Fighting established players on their own turf is hard.

If you don't have genuine expertise to share, blogging will be tough. You can't fake authority anymore. People and algorithms both see through it.

If you're not willing to invest in quality, don't bother. Mediocre content is worse than no content at that point.

But for most businesses, most people, most situations.. blogging is still one of the highest ROI marketing channels available.

What Success Actually Looks Like

Let me ground this in reality.

Success doesn't mean going viral. It doesn't mean ranking #1 for every keyword. It doesn't mean millions of visitors in your first year.

Success looks like consistent growth. Month over month traffic increases. Gradual improvement in rankings. Compounding returns as your content library grows.

Success looks like qualified leads. People finding your content, getting value from it, and converting into customers or clients.

Success looks like authority building. Being recognized in your space as someone who knows what they're talking about.

I launched the Apatero blog and we hit 75,000 impressions in the first month. That's not normal. Most blogs grow much slower.

But that growth was possible because we did it right. Quality content. Technical optimization. Understanding search intent. Consistency.

If we'd half-assed it, we'd be another data point in the "blogging is dead" narrative.

My Recommendation

If you're thinking about starting a blog or wondering if you should keep going with your existing one, here's my advice.

Commit to quality. Don't publish anything you wouldn't want to read yourself. Every piece should be genuinely helpful.

Pick a realistic timeline. Give it at least 12 months before deciding if it's working. Preferably 18 to 24 months for truly competitive niches.

Focus on expertise. Write about what you actually know. Your unique insights are your competitive advantage.

Invest in the technical foundation. Use a fast framework (like Astro), optimize for Core Web Vitals, get the basics right.

Be strategic about keywords. Target things you can actually rank for, especially early on. Long-tail keywords, specific problems, underserved topics.

Stay consistent. One great post a week beats five mediocre posts a week beats zero posts.

This isn't complicated, but it does require commitment.

The Bottom Line

Is blogging dead in 2025?

No. Not even close.

The data is clear. 748 percent average ROI. 14.6 percent conversion rates. Companies across every industry seeing results.

What's dead is lazy blogging. What's dead is thinking you can publish garbage and rank. What's dead is expecting overnight results.

But quality content, genuine expertise, strategic optimization, and patience?

That still works. That might work better than ever, actually, because so many people have given up.

Less competition for the people willing to do it right.

So no, blogging isn't dead. Bad blogging is dead.

If you're willing to do good blogging, there's never been a better time.

The companies crushing it with SEO and content aren't lucky. They're not gaming some secret system. They're just creating genuinely helpful content and sticking with it long enough to see results.

You can do the same thing.

Anyone telling you blogging is dead is either trying to sell you something else, or they tried it for three months and gave up.

Ignore them. Look at the data. Look at the companies succeeding.

Then decide for yourself.