Reading time: 12 minutes
Blogging is worth it in 2026 when a blog answers buyers’ questions and shares something only your company knows. However, if it just repeats what AI already answers, it doesn’t pay off. This guide shows which businesses should start a blog, how much a blog costs to run and when to cut it.
In short
- In a US experiment, Google’s AI Overviews cut organic clicks by 39.8% on the searches where they appeared.
- In Orbit Media’s annual survey, only 13.9% of marketers say their blog gets strong results, the lowest in the series.
- In an Orbit Media study of 27 websites, service and product pages got about three times more AI visits per page than articles.
- So blogging is worth it when your blog brings your own data, cases or opinions and helps buyers decide.
Does a blog still bring traffic with Google’s AI summaries?
Yes, but less on searches where Google already answers on the results page. When an AI Overview shows up at the top, fewer people click on the results. Therefore, a blog full of “what is” and “how to” articles tends to lose visits, even without losing rankings.
A randomized experiment by Saharsh Agarwal and Ananya Sen, from the Indian School of Business and Carnegie Mellon, measured this effect. In January and February 2026, desktop Chrome users in the US searched Google with or without AI Overviews. When the summary appeared, organic clicks fell by 39.8%, and searches with no click rose by 34.5%. However, the study came out as a working paper, before peer review.
Other studies, with different methods, also measured fewer clicks with the summary, and Google disputes some of them. The numbers and Google’s response are in our guide to clicks in AI Mode and AI Overviews. As for what content is still worth producing when search brings no click, see the guide to zero-click search.
What do marketers who keep a blog say?
Perceived results have dropped too. In the 2026 edition of Orbit Media’s annual survey, only 13.9% of 1,042 content marketers say their blog delivers strong results. That’s the lowest rate in the series, which began in 2014. In the previous 12 years, the rate stayed between 20% and 30%. In addition, 18% don’t know if their blog delivers results. Orbit is a web design agency in Chicago, and it doesn’t say which countries the respondents are from. For its co-founder, Andy Crestodina, traffic to informational articles won’t come back:
“Search traffic to articles that rank for information-intent phrases has been completely torched. It will never come back to previous levels.”
Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media (2026)
Does a blog help ChatGPT and Gemini cite your brand?
Yes, as long as the article brings something AI can’t find anywhere else. AI tools read posts to build their answers, but they mostly send visits to the homepage and service pages. In other words, the article teaches AI about the brand, while the sales page gets the click.
Orbit Media analyzed Cloudflare AI crawler reports from 74 company and nonprofit websites. On the 27 sites with visit data, service and product pages got about three times more AI visits per page than a typical article. The agency calls this the “Dark Library Effect”: AI summarizes the article and sometimes cites it, but few people click. Even so, Orbit recommends keeping your content program, because it likely feeds what AI knows about your brand.
That’s why your product or service page needs to say who the offer is for, what it costs and what sets it apart. Articles, on the other hand, are among the formats AI cites most, as our guide on how to do content marketing shows. What separates a cited article from yet another summary is your own data. For example, in Orbit’s survey, publishing original research was linked to a 50% higher chance of strong results. The structure of each post is covered in our guide on how to write a blog post.
For which businesses is blogging worth it?
Blogging is worth it when customers research before they buy and your company has experts with something to say. That’s the case for B2B, software and professional services, where the sale is expensive or technical. On the other hand, for simple or impulse purchases, a blog matters little.
In Brazil, 39% of companies use blogs and content often, and 37% don’t use them at all. The data comes from RD Station’s Marketing and Sales Panorama 2026, and RD Station sells marketing software. Among mid-sized companies, frequent use rises to 53%. Overall, however, only 5% see the blog as their most important channel, behind social media, WhatsApp, paid media and email. These questions had 1,351 respondents.
| Type of business | Main goal of the blog | What comes first or alongside |
|---|---|---|
| B2B and software | Proof for buyers and AI citations | Comparisons, pricing and cases |
| Professional services | Showing the expert’s experience | One page per service |
| Ecommerce | Traffic from buying guides | Category and product pages |
| Local business | Answering questions before a visit | Business Profile and reviews |
| Simple or impulse sales | Almost none | Social media and ads |
This table is our recommendation. In B2B, for instance, buyers build their shortlist early, and the vendor’s website weighs on that choice, as our guide to B2B content marketing shows. For a local business, by contrast, a blog is worth it only after your Business Profile and reviews are in place.
How much does a blog cost, and how long until it pays off?
A blog costs mostly hours from the writer and from the subject expert, not tools. Each post takes research, an expert interview, writing, editing and updates. Meanwhile, returns take months on Google, while presence in AI answers changes from week to week.
In Orbit Media’s survey, writing a post takes 3 hours and 20 minutes on average, for an average post of 1,312 words. So, with four posts a month, that’s more than 13 hours of writing alone. Almost everyone already uses AI for blogging: 92.4%. But those who use it and those who don’t report strong results at the same rate.
To work out how much a blog costs, add up five lines:
- Expert: hours of interviews or technical review for each post.
- Writing and editing: research, drafting and checking every number.
- Design and publishing: images, formatting and an SEO check.
- Updates: reviewing older posts that still bring visits or citations.
- Measurement: analytics, Search Console and prompts you repeat in AI tools.
If production goes to an agency or a freelancer, see how much to charge for content production, per article or per package.
How long until blogging is worth the investment?
On Google, a new page usually takes months to reach the top, and few get there in the first year. In AI answers, on the other hand, the cited sources change within a few weeks. The numbers are in our guide to SEO and GEO ROI, which recommends judging returns over 12 months. Therefore, compare how much the blog costs over a year with what it brought in that period. To take the results to leadership, use the content marketing ROI math, with cost, leads and AI presence.
What are the alternatives to a blog, and when do they make more sense?
The alternatives range from service pages and FAQs to LinkedIn, video and newsletters. They make more sense when customers decide fast, when the topic needs a demo or when nobody has time to write. In many cases, though, they work better alongside a blog than instead of it.
Brazilian companies, in fact, already lean more on other formats. In the same RD Station Panorama, about 80% used social media formats in 2025, and 45% used newsletters and email. Blog posts stood at 25%, down from 29% in 2023.
The method, however, matters more than the format. In Orbit’s survey, the habit most linked to strong results was working with experts and influencers. Those who do it report strong results 2.6 times more often than average. Yet only 7% do it today, down from 25% in 2017.
- Service or product page: when customers already know what they want and compare price and timing.
- FAQ and comparison pages: when your sales team hears the same questions every week.
- LinkedIn and video: when trust depends on seeing who does the work.
- Newsletter: when the goal is to stay in touch with people who already know the brand.
- Google Business Profile: for a local business, before any post.
When is blogging not worth it?
Blogging isn’t worth it when the blog exists only to attract search visits, with nothing of its own to say. Starting a blog isn’t worth it either without people to publish and review steadily, or when customers buy without research. In those cases, the same budget tends to go further on service pages, reviews and ads.
Google itself describes this kind of blog. In its guide to generative AI features, it says commodity content, such as “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers”, is often based on common knowledge. As a result, it adds little for readers. Similarly, its page on helpful content lists signs of content made for search engines. One is producing lots of content on many topics “in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results”.
How do you decide if blogging is worth it for you?
To decide whether starting a blog is worth it, or whether to keep yours, answer four questions. If the answer is no to two or more, we suggest starting with service pages and coming back to the blog later.
- Do customers research before they buy? If the decision is fast, a blog matters little.
- Does your company have something of its own to say? For example, data, cases, prices or the views of the people who do the work.
- Can someone review every post? Without an expert, the text becomes one more summary.
- Can you track leads and sales? Without a form or a CRM, the blog becomes a cost with no proof.
Before cutting a blog you already have, check whether you can update outdated content that still brings visits or leads.
What we found in 9 pages on whether blogging is worth it
We analyzed 9 Brazilian Portuguese pages that came up in our searches. The searches were “vale a pena ter um blog em 2026” (is it worth having a blog in 2026) and similar terms. All 9 say yes, but only one says when a blog doesn’t pay off. Six mainly cover personal blogs, and five talk about making money with ads and affiliate links.
Only three mention AI answers, and only one treats being cited by AI as a goal. None cites a study that measures how AI summaries affect clicks. One page, in fact, claims without a source that almost half of Brazilian blogs lost over 80% of their audience. Likewise, none estimates the hours it takes to run a blog, and the only one that gives prices lists just a domain and hosting. Finally, two have 2026 in the title, but their last update was in 2023 and 2025.
Frequently asked questions
Starting a blog is worth it for a clinic once the basics are in place: a complete Google Business Profile, reviews and one page per service. According to Google, Business Profiles help services show up in AI answers. After that, the blog can answer the questions patients search before booking. See how to get AI to recommend a local business.
A blog costs mostly hours of work, and the total depends on how many posts you publish. In Orbit Media’s survey, each post takes 3 hours and 20 minutes on average just to write. So, with four posts a month, that’s more than 13 hours, without counting interviews, editing, images and updates.
Blogging isn’t dead, but its role has changed. In a US experiment, Google’s AI Overviews cut organic clicks by 39.8% on the searches where they appeared. On the other hand, AI tools read articles to build their answers. So a blog is now worth more as a source and as proof than as a traffic channel.
Yes, and almost everyone already does: in Orbit Media’s survey, 92.4% of marketers use AI for blogging. But those who use it and those who don’t report strong results at the same rate. Therefore, AI helps with research and drafts, while your own data and the final review stay with people.
Want to know how your brand shows up in AI answers today?
NotHuman is opening spots for agencies and brands to track how they appear in AI answers. Join the waitlist and we’ll let you know when a spot opens up for you.
Main sources
- Orbit Media, annual survey of 1,042 content marketers on blogging (2026).
- Orbit Media, AI crawlers and AI referral visits by page type across 74 websites (2026).
- Toulouse School of Economics, abstract of Agarwal and Sen’s experiment on AI Overviews and clicks (2026).
- AEA RCT Registry, registration of the same experiment, with country, period and design (2026).
- RD Station, Marketing and Sales Panorama, channels and operations section, in Portuguese (2026).
- Google Search Central, guide to optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search (2026).
- Google Search Central, creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (2026).
