Category: SEO

Content Marketing in age of AI

Content marketing in the age of AI: What works today

On By Shari MonnesIn content marketing, SEOLeave a comment

Ten years ago, content marketing was like the shiny new toy everyone wanted to play with. Write a blog, sprinkle in a keyword or two, post it on social media, and voila: you were “doing content marketing.” Fast-forward to 2025, and it’s safe to say the game has changed. Dramatically.

Yet one truth remains: content marketing is still the most powerful way to show your expertise, build trust, and most importantly, warm up your prospects before they become customers. The difference now is how you do it, who you’re targeting, and what tools you use to get it right.

Let’s look at what works today, what’s changed since 2015, and how you can position your content to resonate with the right people in the right way.

AI Is Reshaping Content

We can’t talk about 2025 without talking about AI. From generative writing tools to predictive analytics, AI has reshaped every part of the content lifecycle: research, ideation, creation, and distribution.

But here’s the catch: while AI can help you write faster, analyze trends, and personalize campaigns, it can’t (and shouldn’t) replace human insight. Your expertise, your stories, your voice: that’s what cuts through the noise. AI helps scale, but it doesn’t inspire trust by itself.

Think of AI as your assistant, not your ghostwriter. Use it to test headlines, build outlines, or crunch data, but let your brand’s voice and insights shine through when it comes to creating your content. Importantly, make sure you incorporate your internal experts and Key Opinion Leader’s (KOL) ideas and insights into your content.

Zero-Click Searches and Schema Markup

Alongside AI, search itself has evolved. AI-driven platforms no longer just point users to lists of links—they provide direct answers. This shift has given rise to what’s known as Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Instead of focusing solely on ranking in traditional search results, AEO is about structuring content so it can be pulled directly into featured snippets, voice assistants, and AI-driven answers.

A result of this new paradigm is the rise of zero-click searches. A zero-click search occurs when search engines provide answers directly in the results, eliminating the need for users to visit external websites. That means it’s no longer enough for businesses to rank in the top three positions of the search results. Today, you need to appear in those instant-answer boxes.

You can increase the chances of being chosen for these placements by:

  • Using schema markup.
  • Making your content as clear and easy to understand as possible.
  • Directly answering customer questions in concise formats like FAQs or Q&A layouts.

Think featured snippets, knowledge panels, or “People Also Ask” sections. These are the new battlegrounds for visibility—and winning them gives your brand authority even if the click never comes.

And that brings us back to the bigger picture: visibility is only the first step. Once you’ve earned attention through AI answers or snippets, the real win comes from what your content delivers next. That’s where content marketing proves its staying power.

Why Content Still Wins

Content marketing isn’t just about filling your website with words. As Neil Patel explains in his 2025 outlook, it’s still one of the best ways to educate your audience and build genuine connections that lead to conversions.

“Content marketing remains one of the best ways to educate your audience and build genuine connections that result in conversions.” — Neil Patel, The Future of Content Marketing: A 2025 Guide

Done well, content marketing today:

  • Positions you as a trusted thought leader.
  • Provides clear, direct answers to customer questions—sometimes before they even ask.
  • Builds authentic relationships over time by showing values and personality.
  • Creates “warm” leads who already know, like, and trust your brand before they ever speak to sales.

The fundamentals haven’t changed: educating, solving problems, and building trust are still at the core. What’s different is how we deliver that content: structured for zero-click visibility, distributed across more channels, and shaped with AI insights but powered by a distinctly human voice and expert insights.

Want to dive deeper? Our short guide to creating great content is still highly relevant in 2025.

Audience First, Always

Content is only powerful if it speaks to someone’s needs. And in 2025, the buyer’s journey is more fragmented than ever. That’s why it’s crucial to align content with three key phases of influence:

  1. Problem Discovery / Brand Awareness – Spark curiosity and help people recognize a challenge worth solving. Think educational blogs, trend reports, or social videos.
  2. Education – Help prospects dig deeper. Offer guides, how-tos, webinars, and research-backed posts.
  3. Solution Seeking – Show how your product or service fits. Case studies, comparisons, ROI calculators—this is where persuasion meets proof.

Each piece of content should have a clear persona in mind. You’re not writing for “everyone”—you’re writing for that one ideal customer, in their moment of need. If you’re unsure where to start, check our post on how to create buyer personas.

And one thing that too many marketers overlook: content should also actively support the sales team and sales cycle. The most effective strategies don’t happen in a marketing silo. They’re informed by the real-world questions and objections sales teams hear every day. 

By checking in regularly with sales, you can uncover what your key personas actually struggle with, and then create content that helps define or solve those problems. That way, your marketing not only builds awareness but also arms sales with tools to move conversations forward.

Promotion Makes the Difference

Great content alone won’t cut it—it needs to be seen to make an impact. A brilliant blog hidden on your website is like a book no one knows exists, and that’s where distribution comes in. 

The strategy starts with optimization, not just for traditional search engines but also for answer engines, so your content has a chance to surface in snippets, chat results, and even voice assistants. 

From there, promotion across multiple social platforms extends your reach, while email nurturing campaigns keep your brand top of mind. Selective paid ads can amplify high-performing pieces, and the right partnerships—whether with influencers or industry peers—can spread your message far beyond what your own channels can achieve.

Content Marketing: Old vs New Way

Old Way (2015)New Way (2025)
Blog once a month and hope for trafficConsistent, multi-channel strategy with SEO, AEO, video, and social integration
Write for search engines (stuff in keywords)Write for people first, then optimize for search and answer engines
Generic buyer personasData-driven personas with real behavioral insights
Mass email blastsPersonalized, segmented nurturing journeys
Focused only on blogs + white papersMix of blogs, podcasts, short-form video, and interactive formats
Measure page viewsMeasure engagement, conversions, and pipeline impact
Promotion = “share on LinkedIn”Integrated distribution across social, search, paid, and influencer or KOL channels

Wrapping It Up

Content marketing in 2025 isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing better. Clearer personas. Smarter promotion. Real human voices (supported by AI). And above all, delivering value that builds trust and warms up prospects before the sales pitch ever begins.

We’ve come a long way since 2015, but one thing hasn’t changed: great content, done right, is still your most powerful marketing tool.

5 common website design mistakes that kill your SEO

On By Shari MonnesIn SEOLeave a comment

Website design isn’t just about how your website looks. How it functions and its ability to attract (and convert) website visitors into new leads are critical in today’s competitive digital landscape. Yet, many website designs still have some common (but easily corrected) mistakes that are killing their SEO.

The trifecta of powerful website design today is one that attracts the right audience, generates leads, and accurately represents your brand and tone of voice. While it’s not an easy task to create a site that successfully does all three things, it’s not impossible either.

For brand managers and website designers, the primary focus is often on the site design – how it looks and whether or not it presents an appropriate brand image. This may lead to a tug of war between form and function. But you must not overlook the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in attracting the right audience and delivering leads. After all, your website isn’t just a pretty face, it needs to work for you as well.

Don’t let any of these five common website design mistakes destroy your SEO.

1. No on-page optimization 

Some website designers are so focused on how a web page looks — and brand managers about the message it conveys — that they forget about how well it functions from an SEO perspective. If you want to keep your website ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs), then you need to implement essential search engine optimization strategies that help crawlers find your content easily and rank it higher.  That starts with the content that is on the page.

Write your pages using the language and keywords your potential customers would use when searching for your products or services or for solutions that meet their needs. Make sure each page addresses a specific topic.

Add important keywords to your page headlines (especially the H1 and H2 headings) and subheads. As you write your content, focus on structuring it in a way that answers important questions, and include those questions in the subheads.

Having a plan to regularly update your content, especially adding deeper content for topics and keywords that are most important to your page, will boost your SEO, as well.  Search engines reward websites with recent and frequently updated content with higher rankings (that’s one reason blogs are so important).

An internal linking strategy that includes linking the on-page content from subcategory topics back to core topic pages is also essential. You can do this by creating text links on your page from important keywords back to longer “pillar” pages with content that covers that topic.

On-page optimization is a permanent work in progress — not something you can do once and then ignore.  You must regularly review your keywords to understand what you are currently ranking for.  SEO tools such as Google’s keyword planner or Mangools KWFinder will help find the important keywords to start, and then track how you rank on them.

2. Ineffective page, URL and image naming

Failing to name your images properly (including both the image file names and the alt text that appears on image hovers), page meta titles (which appear in browser windows), and URLs with your keywords is a common mistake. But don’t think this means stuffing a list of keywords into your alt tags. That sort of outdated (and questionable) practice will actually hurt your rankings.

Instead, use alt tags to provide clear explanations about your page and image content. Don’t leave the name of your pages, images and URLs up to your developer or the person uploading your content, or worse, let them be randomly generated by your CMS. Create a focused plan for page naming that addresses your website keywords and page content. The titles, URLs and alt tags for each page should be unique and reflect the keyword topics of that page. 

What matters is relevance. Describe and name page content in a way that is meaningful to your audience. Think about the questions your audience has, and answer them.

It’s also important to make sure that you are optimizing your alt tags to ensure your website is accessible for all, including those with vision impairments.

3. Bad user experience 

In today’s fast-paced digital world, website visitors have expectations about what a site should look like, how it should function and what sort of content should be found on it. Websites with hard-to-find content, unanswered questions, or convoluted user journeys are just a few examples of poor user experiences that can negatively impact your engagement rates. This, in turn, can lead to a decrease in visitor retention or raise your bounce rate.

Readers “vote” for your site with their eyeballs and visit duration. The longer they stay on a page (because they are reading or watching relevant content), the more search engines will reward your site with higher rankings. But it’s also important that your content is relevant not only to your target audience but also relevant to the keywords for which you want to optimize your page. (Refer back to point number one).

Some SEO experts suggest that Google ranks pages based on the number of words on the page. So don’t think you can rely solely on flashy images or videos without any words to create high-quality content. Indications are that the best ranking websites have front pages with around 1,500 words. 

On the other hand, using too many words when fewer would be more clear, not including call to action buttons, and failing to include short subheads for easier page skimming, makes a site harder to navigate. 

A successful website uses design to help showcase the important content and direct the readers to what matters. The easier it is for them to find what they are looking for, the longer they will stay on your site. (And perhaps come back again or tell others about it by “sharing” your content).

4. Missing mobile optimization and poor mobile experience

Today, more than 54% of all website traffic comes from mobile devices, and 92.1% of people access the internet using a mobile phone. This means that mobile optimization is more important than ever before. 

The first step to mobile optimization is making sure that your website’s content is visible on a small screen. The content should be easy to read and quick to load as well. Other important considerations are the size and placement of images, video and amount of text on the page. Mobile sites often condense longer text or reflow columns in logical order.

A mobile-first design means creating pages first for mobile viewing, and then scaling this up for desktop viewing (which is the opposite of how some websites are designed).  Responsive design (pages designed to adjust and reflow to fit the window size automatically) is another way to address mobile design. Be sure you take mobile optimization into account when designing your website.

How well optimized for mobile is your site?

5. Slow website load times and site performance issues

A poorly designed site, such as one with extraneous code or too many large, heavy graphics, will load slowly. This is a kiss of death to your website SEO. Speedy page load times are essential to an optimized website.

Google has stated that page load times factor into site rankings. The assumption here is that faster loading makes happy visitors, and happy visitors are what Google is after, and you should be as well.

Website owners can improve the speed of their website by using a CDN or caching plugin, which can reduce the amount of time it takes for a request to be fulfilled. However, this type of “lazy-loading” or “preloading” solution might not be quite as effective if your website has many dynamic requests, such as videos or other types of media.

These are just a few elements that you need to consider. SEO is a vast area that requires a lot of attention from SEO specialists in order to succeed. You can find out all about best practice SEO here, as well as how to devise a winning strategy.

And of course, if you would like some help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our digital team of experts.

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Blog originally published on the UP There, Everywhere website

5 common website design mistakes that kill your SEO

On By Shari MonnesIn SEOLeave a comment

The trifecta of powerful website design today is one that attracts the right audience, generates leads, and accurately represents your brand and tone of voice. While it’s not an easy task to create a site that successfully does all three things, it’s not impossible either.

Website Design Avoid Common SEO Mistakes

For brand managers and website designers, the key focus is often on the site design – how it looks and whether or not it presents an appropriate brand image. This may lead to a tug of war between form and function. But you must not overlook the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) in attracting the right audience and delivering leads. After all, your website isn’t just a pretty face, it needs to work for you as well.

Don’t let any of these five common design mistakes destroy your website SEO.

Common website design mistakes

1. Splash pages.

Starting a website with an intro screen and little relevant content is a sure-fire SEO killer. Creating entry pages (such as those with a huge graphic and only one link like “click here”), tell Google (and other search engines) that your page is nothing but a large advertisement. Quality websites have content on every page, including the home page. Make sure your home page showcases the best of you have to offer and includes copy that is frequently updated.

Splash page SEO Design Mistakes

2. Lack of compelling content.

Websites that put all the emphasis on design and have very little content are doomed to end up at the bottom of SERPs (search engine results pages). A successful website uses design to help showcase the important content and direct the readers to what matters. The easier it is for them to find what they are looking for, the longer they will stay on your site. (And perhaps come back again or tell others about it by “sharing” your content).

Readers “vote” for your site with their eyeballs and visit duration. The longer they stay on a page (because they are reading relevant content), the more search engines will reward your site with higher rankings. But it’s also important that your content is relevant not only to your target audience but also relevant to the keywords for which you’ve optimized your page. (You did optimize your page for keywords, right?)

Adding focused content to each page, so that each page is about a particular “topic” will help your website attain better SEO. Write your pages using the language and keywords your potential customers would use when searching for your products or services or for solutions that meet their needs.

3. Too many images, too little text.

A website that is made up primarily of images or worse Flash (no one is still doing that in 2015 right?), has very little meaty content for search engines to index. A picture may be worth a 1,000 words, but 1,000 words will do more for your website SEO.

Example Flash Page Bad SEO Design Example

Flash may be OK for Jim Carrey (he doesn’t need SEO) but if you want people to find your content, don’t create your entire site out of Flash, even if it is very creative, fun and beautiful.

Here again, what you need is a careful balance between what is appealing to your audience graphically, and content that will improve your website’s SEO. Finding the ideal balance between text and images is essential if you’re relying on website traffic to deliver leads. If you don’t care about people finding you on search engines, then by all means design that eye-popping flash site that showcases your design brilliance.

4. Slow page loading.

A poorly designed site, such as one with bad coding or too many large, heavy graphics, will load slowly. This is a kiss of death to your website SEO. Speedy page load times are essential to an optimized website.

Google has stated that page load times factor into site rankings. The assumption here is that faster loading makes happy visitors, and happy visitors are what Google is after, as well you should be.

5. Ineffective page, title and image naming.

Failing to name your images (the “alt” text that appears on image hovers), page meta titles (which appear in browser windows), and URLs with your keywords is a common mistake, but these are among the important elements for good on-page SEO.

Don’t leave the name of your pages, images and URLs up to your developer or the person entering your content. Create a focused program that addresses your website keywords and matches your page content. The titles, URLs and alt tags for each page should be unique and reflect the content of that page. What matters is relevance. Describe and name your content in a way that is meaningful to your audience. That’s not so hard right?