LinkedIn Articles: What Sets Them Apart & How to Write Them

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Key Takeaways:

  • LinkedIn articles are long-form content published natively on LinkedIn. They live on your profile, get indexed by Google, and surface in LinkedIn search results long after you publish them.
  • Feed posts drive reach. Articles build the kind of credibility that makes someone want to hire you, work with you, or trust your expertise.
  • The strongest use case for articles is distribution, not creation. Adapt existing content rather than starting from scratch.
  • Performance starts with the headline. Specific, opinionated titles outperform vague ones every time.
  • Articles are increasingly picked up by AI-generated search answers, making them a quiet but growing visibility channel outside LinkedIn itself.

Most brands still treat LinkedIn like a feed-first platform. Post a thought, collect some likes, move on. That works well enough for reach. It does almost nothing for credibility.

The shift worth paying attention to is not about posting frequency. LinkedIn now surfaces content through search and AI-generated answers that reach well beyond your first-degree connections. The professionals and brands showing up in those spaces are not the ones with the most followers. They are the ones publishing LinkedIn articles.

LinkedIn articles are one of the most underused assets in organic LinkedIn marketing right now. I’ll cover what makes them different from feed posts, how to use them as a distribution channel, and how to write them in a way that actually gets read.

LinkedIn Articles Aren’t New, But Their Role Has Changed

LinkedIn launched its publishing platform more than a decade ago under the name Pulse. Most marketers filed it under “things we should probably use” and forgot about it. The format has since been rebranded simply as LinkedIn Articles, and the ones paying attention to what it has become now have a real head start.

An example Linkedin article.

What changed is how LinkedIn itself handles content discovery. The platform acts more like a search engine than it used to. Older articles get resurfaced to relevant audiences. Search queries on LinkedIn increasingly pull from published articles, not just profiles. And because LinkedIn articles are public and hosted on a high-authority domain, Google indexes them. A well-written piece can appear in organic search results for months after publication, reaching people who have never heard of your brand.

Most marketers make one of two mistakes here. They either ignore articles entirely, or they copy-paste from their company blog and treat it as done. Neither approach takes advantage of what the format uniquely offers. It is worth noting that articles are available to both individual profiles and company LinkedIn pages, which means the opportunity exists at every level of your presence on the platform.

The deeper issue is that articles require a different strategic mindset than feed content. They are not built for the scroll. Discoverability on LinkedIn works differently than most marketers assume, and that distinction is worth understanding before you publish your first piece.

Why Articles Play a Different Role Than Feed Posts

Feed posts are built for speed. A sharp observation, a quick take. They generate engagement quickly and lose most of it within 48 hours. That is not a flaw, just the format doing what it was designed to do.

Articles operate differently. They are not competing for attention in a scroll. A reader who finds your article through LinkedIn search or a Google result is already in a different mode. They are not skimming a feed but are likely looking for something specific, and are willing to spend time with it.

That behavioral difference is what makes articles valuable for credibility in a way feed posts aren’t. Publishing a well-structured argument on a topic you have real expertise in signals something that likes and comments cannot. It shows you can develop an idea past a single take. The people making decisions about who to hire or work with notice that and they are very much not counting your impressions.

There is also a practical career and business case that rarely gets discussed. The people who evaluate you before a hiring decision or a pitch are not reading your feed. They are searching your name. A LinkedIn profile with published articles on relevant topics sends a different signal than one without. It is the difference between someone who has opinions and someone who has a body of work.

Content on Neil Patel's Linkedin profile.

The Real Opportunity: Articles as a Distribution Channel

The framing that kills most LinkedIn article strategies is boiling it down to: “We need to create more content.” More is not the problem. Distribution is.

Most marketing teams are already producing content that never reaches its full potential audience. Blog posts with strong insights get two weeks of traffic and fade. Bylined pieces in trade publications get shared once, then disappear. Presentations from industry events are often never seen again outside the room where they were given.

LinkedIn articles give that content a second life. Take a blog post, extract its central argument, and adapt it for LinkedIn’s format and audience. The original piece stays on your site. The article links back to it and drives qualified traffic from readers who found the piece through LinkedIn search or Google. This extends the shelf life of work you already did without doubling the workload.

A Linkedin article based on on-site content.

The same logic applies at the individual level. An executive’s byline in an industry publication reaches that outlet’s audience once. The same argument published as a LinkedIn article reaches their network, their followers, and anyone searching that topic on the platform for months afterward.

This is the reframe that makes articles sustainable: they are a distribution layer, not a content creation obligation. If your team treats every article as a net-new piece, it will always feel like too much. If they treat it as an adaptation of something that already exists, the lift is manageable and the compounding visibility adds up over time.

How to Write LinkedIn Articles That Actually Perform

Performance starts before the first sentence. Your LinkedIn headline is the only thing most readers will see before deciding whether to click. Vague titles get scrolled past while specific, opinionated ones get clicked. “Thoughts on the Future of B2B Marketing” is invisible. “Why Most B2B Content Strategies Stall at the Awareness Stage” signals a real argument and a reason to keep reading.

Once someone is in, lead with the insight. Most articles lose readers in the first two paragraphs because the writer is still warming up, providing background, explaining what they are about to say. Skip that. Start with the argument. The context can come later (if it is needed at all) structure matters more on LinkedIn than on a traditional blog also, since readers on the platform skim before they commit. Short paragraphs and clear transitions help them orient quickly. The occasional subheading does not hurt either. A reader who skims and grasps the structure is far more likely to slow down and read closely than one who hits a wall of text and bounces.

Tone is the variable most writers underestimate. LinkedIn articles perform better when they sound like a person who has a real position, not a brand running a content calendar. Opinionated works. Specific works better. “Here is what we have seen hold up across dozens of campaigns” lands differently than “Here is what the research suggests.” Readers can tell the difference between lived experience and summarized consensus and respond accordingly.

One practical tip: write the headline last. Draft the piece, find the sharpest sentence in the whole thing, and ask whether it belongs at the top of the article or in the headline. The answer is usually both.

Close with a soft call to action. The article should be valuable on its own, but it can still point somewhere. A forward-looking question to spark discussion, a brief observation that invites a reply, or a link to a related resource all work. Hard sells do not belong here. The goal is to earn the next click, not demand it.

One step most people skip: after publishing, go into the Manage tab and set a custom title and description for your article. These fields are what search engines use in place of your on-page headline, so taking two minutes to optimize them for a target keyword meaningfully improves how the piece gets found off-platform.

Where LinkedIn Articles Fit in a Modern Content Strategy

Most content strategies have a gap between awareness and action. Social content gets attention. Your website converts it. What sits in between is often nothing, and that gap is where brands lose the consideration battle to whoever showed up with more substance.

LinkedIn articles fill that gap. They are where a reader who already knows you exist decides whether your thinking is worth trusting. That is a different job than a feed post or a homepage. It is the consideration stage, and most brands leave it completely unaddressed.

Think about how buying decisions actually get made in B2B. Someone sees a post, looks up the author, skims the profile, and then either moves on or goes deeper. Articles are what “going deeper” looks like. A series of well-argued pieces on a specific topic does more to establish authority than any amount of engagement metrics on short-form content. It is proof of thought, not just presence.

Your owned content still handles the conversion. An article should not be trying to close a deal. It should be building enough confidence that a reader wants to take the next step on their own.

The brands doing this well rarely talk about it as a content strategy. They talk about it as a sales and trust-building motion. That reframe is worth borrowing.

The Missed Opportunity: LinkedIn Articles and AI/Search Visibility

Here is something most LinkedIn content guides do not mention: your articles can show up in Google before your company website does.

LinkedIn’s domain authority is among the highest on the internet. When you publish an article there, you are borrowing that authority. A well-structured piece on a specific professional topic can surface in Google organic results, featured snippets, and AI Overviews faster than a comparable post on a newer company blog that is still building its own search presence.

A Linkedin article appearing in Google AI Overviews.

 For brands that are early in their SEO journey, that is a meaningful shortcut. And the opportunity is only growing: LinkedIn is now the second most cited source in AI-generated answers, trailing only Reddit.

A chart showing the top cited domains on LLMs.

Source: Semrush

Most marketers measure LinkedIn articles by what happens on LinkedIn. Reach and engagement matter, but they miss the larger picture. A piece that generates modest engagement on the platform can quietly pull in search traffic for months. The people finding it that way were never in your feed. They were looking for an answer, and your article was there.

AI-generated answers tend to pull from sources that are credible and publicly accessible. LinkedIn articles are both. If you are not publishing them, you are not in that conversation at all.

FAQs

How do you post an article on LinkedIn?

For individual profiles, go to your LinkedIn homepage and click “Write article” in the post creation box. For company pages, click “Create” and then “Publish an article.” Both paths take you to LinkedIn’s native publishing editor. Add a headline, body text, and a cover image, then hit Publish. After publishing, share the article to your feed with a short caption to extend its initial reach.

What do LinkedIn articles look like?

LinkedIn articles have their own URL and display with a headline, a cover image, and a full article body. They live on your profile under the “Articles and Activity” section and can be shared across the platform or externally.

How long should a LinkedIn article be?

Between 600 and 1,200 words tends to work well. That is long enough to develop a real argument, short enough to hold attention. Structure and clarity matter more than hitting a specific word count.

What is the LinkedIn article image size?

The recommended cover image size is 1200 x 627 pixels. Use a clear, high-contrast image that communicates the topic. Skip generic stock photography if you can.

Are LinkedIn articles credible?

They can be. Articles that reflect genuine expertise and specific experience carry strong credibility signals. The format does not make content credible on its own. The thinking does.

Are LinkedIn articles indexed by Google?

Yes. Public LinkedIn articles are indexed by Google and can appear in organic search results. This is one of the most underappreciated benefits of the format, since a well-written article can generate visibility long after it was published.

Conclusion

LinkedIn articles are not a volume play. The teams getting real results from them are not publishing more often. They are being more deliberate, using articles to deepen ideas that already have an audience and extend content that is already doing work elsewhere.

The format rewards a genuine point of view backed by specific experience. If you have content worth publishing, you have content worth adapting. Start with one strong piece, sharpen the argument for a LinkedIn audience, and publish it with a headline that earns the click. The discoverability of that article, both on and off the platform, will depend on how well you understand LinkedIn SEO, so that is worth getting right from the start.

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Google AI mode & SEO: What is it & how it works?

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Google Search is changing fast. First, we got AI Overviews. Then Google introduced AI Mode – a much more conversational, exploratory version of Search that feels a lot closer…

The post Google AI mode & SEO: What is it & how it works? appeared first on Mangools.

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How to Calculate Share of Voice (+ Why it Matters for SEO)

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Your analytics dashboard tracks clicks, but it doesn’t convey the complete picture.

When a buyer reads an AI answer that mentions your competitor, or scrolls through a Reddit thread where your brand doesn’t appear, that’s lost visibility. And it won’t show up anywhere in your traffic data.

Share of voice (SoV) captures what traffic metrics can’t.

It measures your brand’s visibility against competitors across channels where buyers actually research and make decisions.

While SoV spans social, PR, and paid media, search is where most brands should start. It’s the channel where buyers with the strongest purchase intent show up, and it’s the easiest to measure competitively. That’s what this guide focuses on.

I’ll walk you through four steps to measure your share of voice in organic and AI search. Then, I’ll show you how to turn that data into decisions that move the needle where it matters.

What Is Share of Voice?

Share of voice measures your brand’s visibility relative to competitors across multiple marketing channels.

That includes organic and AI search, social media, review sites, communities, and more.

Traditionally, brands used SoV to track their share of ad spend in a market.

Now it’s evolved into something even more valuable. It can measure your brand’s presence across every touchpoint where buyers research and make decisions.

In simple terms: SoV tells you what percentage of the conversation you own in your category, compared to competitors.

Share of Voice

This guide focuses on search SoV — both organic and AI — because that’s where buyer discovery is shifting fastest and where the measurement tools have matured enough to give you actionable data.

I find that search SoV also tends to be the foundation: once you understand your visibility in organic and AI results, layering in other channels becomes much simpler.

What Counts as a “Good” Share of Voice?

While there’s no universal benchmark for SoV, establishing one for your brand comes down to:

  • Market position: Market leaders have a higher share of voice since they own the conversation. Challengers aim for a mid-range SoV when competing against players with decades of brand equity.
  • Competitive context: In a fragmented market with 20+ active competitors, 8% SoV could put you in the top five. But in a three-player market, anything below 30% could mean you’re behind the leader.

What counts as good share of voice

Beyond these two factors, look at the broader market shifts within your category.

High SoV in a declining market can be a vanity metric. The real win is growing your share as the category grows.

How SoV Works in Traditional vs AI Search

Both SEO and AI SoV answer the same question: What percentage of category demand does your brand own?

But they measure different search contexts.

SEO SoV calculates your slice of traditional organic search traffic.

You track 100 target keywords. Those keywords generate 50,000 total monthly visits across all ranking sites. You capture 15,000 of those visits.

That’s 30% organic share of voice.

AI SoV measures brand mentions in LLM responses from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, and similar tools.

For example, you test 100 category-related prompts. Your brand is mentioned in 45 responses and cited in 15. Your competitor shows up in 30 responses with 10 mentions.

An AI visibility tool can calculate your weighted AI SoV based on mentions and citations.

Share of voice: Two different games

Try now: Curious to know how often your brand shows up in AI responses? Try our free AI visibility checker to find out.

Why Is Share of Voice So Important, Especially Now?

Here are three reasons why share of voice should be your core KPI when visibility is scattered across platforms.

Track Visibility Beyond Traditional Traffic Data

Your organic traffic data reveals only half the story.

And with zero-click searches on the rise, that half is shrinking fast.

When users get their answers directly from AI Overviews and featured snippets, a huge chunk of your visibility is never captured in Google Analytics.

This makes traffic a lagging indicator of visibility.

Share of voice is a better metric because it measures how visible you are in the consideration set, even when users don’t click your site.

Traffic vs share of voice iceberg

Think of it this way:

A user searches for the “best project management software for remote teams.”

They see an AI Overview listing five tools, including yours. The user reads it, takes no action, and later signs up for a product demo on your site.

Traditional traffic data would show this as “direct traffic” since the person went straight to the website. It wouldn’t capture the discovery that occurred in Google.

But SoV reveals that your brand appeared in the consideration set for this high-intent query.

Work Toward One North Star Metric

Your marketing team might be operating in silos.

The SEO team wants more website visits. PR wants more media mentions. The social team wants better engagement.

Each team tracks its own KPIs and optimizes for different outcomes.

But the long-term power of SoV is that it can become the one metric every team rallies around.

When everyone sees how their work contributes to the same visibility percentage, it changes how teams collaborate.

Here’s what this looks like in practice:

  • SEO team targets specific keywords to boost traffic and visibility via content
  • PR secures features in industry publications through expert quotes
  • Social drives brand conversations on Reddit and LinkedIn
  • Product wins better reviews on G2 and Capterra

Share of voice as a north star metric

This full picture takes time to build.

Start with the foundation by measuring your SoV in organic and AI search.

Once you have that baseline, you can layer in other channels over time.

Read more: How to Rank Higher (& Get More Visibility) on Google in 2026

How to Measure Share of Voice in 4 Steps

Let’s see how you can strategically calculate share of voice in four steps.

I’ll use a fictional project management software example to show how each step translates into business insights.

Step 1: Define Your Industry Landscape

Start by outlining the specific competitors and keywords you’ll track for SoV.

Without clear boundaries, you’ll either miss critical gaps or drown in too much noise.

To map your competitive terrain, pick topic clusters tied to revenue.

For a project management software, I picked these clusters:

  • Category fundamentals (like “project management 101” and “project management for freelancers”)
  • Use cases (like “agile project management” and “remote team collaboration”)
  • Industry-specific (like “construction project management” and “marketing project management”)

Pro tip: Don’t pick these topics solely based on search volume. Choose clusters where gaining visibility directly impacts your bottom line.

One way to assess a topic’s revenue potential is to map it to funnel stages.

Categorize your clusters into three stages:

  • Awareness: Where people are learning and researching, like how to manage projects
  • Consideration: Where they’re exploring solutions, like the best project management software
  • Decision: Where they’re comparing options and ready to buy, like Software A vs Software B

Your SoV at each stage tells you where you’re winning and losing in the buyer journey.

This allows you to allocate resources for maximum business impact.

Map share of voice to buyer journey

Let’s say this project management software segments the SoV by funnel stage.

It reveals that most of the brand’s visibility is concentrated at the top with almost none at the decision stage.

That’s a problem.

They’re educating the market, but invisible when prospects are actually comparing options and reaching for their wallets.

Strategic takeaway: They need to prioritize comparison pages and case studies to shift visibility toward the decision stage.

Now, define who you’re measuring against.

In search, you’re competing for visibility against two key players:

  • Direct competitors: Companies selling similar solutions like Asana, ClickUp, Notion, and Trello
  • Indirect competitors: Review sites capturing the voice of the customer like G2 and industry publishers ranking for your keywords but not competing for customers like HubSpot and Zoho

Tracking them gives you the complete picture of who controls visibility in your market and where you can break through.

Step 2: Build Your Keyword & Prompt Libraries

Create a library of 200-500 queries that capture how people search in your category.

You need both keywords (what people search) and prompts (what people ask LLMs). Together, they reveal your search visibility spectrum.

Pull SEO Data First

Collect queries where you’re already visible to your audience.

Google Search Console (GSC) is a good starting point for this since it captures actual visibility through impressions.

Impressions show every time your brand appears in results, even when users don’t click.

Go to the “Queries” tab in the “Performance” report.

Click the “Impressions” column header to sort in descending order, and export this list of keywords.

GSC – Performance – Queries – Impressions

And if you’re running Google Ads, export your PPC keyword list and filter for terms with conversions or high CTR.

You can also repeat this process with tools like Semrush.

Open your Semrush Position Tracking project (or create one for your domain).

Scroll down to the “Top Keywords” section and click the “View all” button.

Position Tracking – Overview – Top keywords

Adjust the timeline to your preferred range before clicking “Export” to download the full keyword list.

Position Tracking – Export keywords

Pro tip: Export all tracked keywords, not just the top money terms. A keyword with 20 monthly searches might seem irrelevant in isolation. But 50 of these collectively represent meaningful category visibility that SoV captures.

Layer in Competitor Intelligence

Besides your own data, track where competitors show up.

This tells you where to compete directly and where to claim ground that they’ve overlooked.

You can use Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool to find these opportunities.

Add your domain along with up to four competitors, then hit “Compare.”

Filter to the “Missing” section to find keywords with proven search demand that competitors have validated.

You need to build visibility for these terms.

For example, this project management tool could target keywords like “Gantt chart” and “project management software” to boost its SoV.

Keyword Gap – Trello – Missing keywords

Dig deeper: How to Run a Competitor Traffic Analysis (9 Steps)


Build Your AI Prompt Library

After sourcing keywords, look at how people search for your category in AI tools.

Since AI search queries tend to be more conversational, they often mirror how people talk in community spaces.

Browse Reddit, Facebook groups, and Slack communities to see how your audience phrases their needs and pain points.

For example, this post reveals that agencies want project management tools that aren’t “too corporate or complex for creative teams.”

Reddit – Project management tools

A question like that can translate directly into an AI prompt: “What’s the most user-friendly project management tool for small creative agencies?”

For decision-stage prompts, review sites G2 and Capterra (or those relevant to your industry) offer a lot of insights.

G2, for instance, lists popular alternatives for every tool.

This is a ready-made list of “[You] vs [Competitor]” and “alternative to [Competitor]” queries your buyers are likely running in AI search.

G2 – Asana – Top alternatives

You can dig deeper with Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit to find prompts where competitors show up in AI answers, but you don’t.

Go to “Prompt Research” and add any of your core topics, like “agile project management.”

Click “Analyze” to get started.

AI SEO – Prompt Research

The tool lists real prompts that generate AI responses for your category, such as “best productivity app” and “companies that use agile software development.”

Jot down the prompts relevant to your primary cluster.

Then, repeat for each of your 3-5 clusters.

Prompt Research – Agile project management – Prompts

Document Your Metadata

Finally, organize everything in a master spreadsheet with columns for:

  • Keyword/Prompt
  • Topic Cluster
  • Funnel Stage
  • Source (SEO/AI)

Once you’re done measuring SoV, this metadata will become your strategic lens.

Use it to decide which clusters to prioritize, which funnel stages are weak, and where SEO and AI visibility diverge.

Here’s what this looks like for the project management software:

Keyword Funnel Analysis

Step 3: Calculate Your SoV

Your SoV equals your estimated traffic divided by the total traffic for all tracked brands, multiplied by 100.

Track both SEO and AI SoV to see the full picture of your brand’s visibility.

Calculate SEO Share of Voice

Start by checking your rankings for all the keywords in your tracking list. Track your competitors’ rankings for the same keyword set.

Each ranking position gets an average share of clicks, like position 1 getting roughly 27%.

This will help in estimating the traffic share per keyword.

Note: These benchmarks for organic search CTR shift over time. It’s also crucial to mention that organic CTRs have been declining as AI-generated answers absorb more clicks before users ever reach the results.

Multiply each keyword’s monthly search volume by the click-through rate for your ranking position to estimate your traffic for that duration.

Then, run the same calculation for each competitor.

Use this data to calculate your SoV.

Add up the estimated traffic across all keywords for each brand. Divide your total by the combined total for all tracked brands and multiply by 100.

How to calculate SEO share of voice

This manual approach can be time-intensive, especially when tracking hundreds of keywords across multiple competitors.

Semrush handles this math automatically once you set up tracking correctly.

Go to Semrush Position Tracking and click “Create project.”

Enter your domain, target search engine, device type, and location.

Position Tracking – Targeting

The location setting matters for SoV tracking because search results vary by location.

If you set the location to the United States, but most of your customers are in New York, your SoV might look different than reality.

Pro tip: Start with country-level tracking to establish your baseline. Only segment by region later if local variations impact your business.

Then, click “Continue to Keywords” to manually add or import your keyword list.

Upload the CSV you made in Step 2 to preserve the data by cluster and funnel-stage categorization.

Then, press “Add keywords to campaign.”

Finally, click “Start Tracking” to begin data collection.

Position Tracking – Keywords

Once this setup is complete, Semrush starts collecting daily ranking data for every target keyword.

Check out the results in the “Share of Voice” tab under “Overview” in the Position Tracking dashboard.

Position Tracking – Backlinko – Share of Voice

You can also add up to four domains to see how you fare against others in the market.

Semrush tracks every brand’s rankings for your keyword set to aggregate the data into SoV percentages.

Position Tracking – Backlinko – Share of Voice

Important: While SoV is inherently relative and compares your visibility against others, who you choose as competitors shapes how you interpret your SoV.

Calculate AI Share of Voice

Your AI SoV shows how often LLMs cite your brand when answering questions in your category.

There’s no standardized way to manually measure AI SoV yet, but this two-step process gets you close:

  • Step 1: Run each prompt from your library through your AI tools of choice, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Google AI Mode, and any other AI tools your audience uses
  • Step 2: For each response, document every brand that appears — yours and your tracked competitors. Record whether each brand was mentioned, cited as a source, and whether the sentiment was positive, neutral, or negative.

Once you’ve tested all prompts, count how many times each brand appeared across all responses.

Divide each brand’s total mentions by the total number of prompts tested, and multiply by 100.

How to calculate AI share of voice

Keep in mind: This calculation gives you a directional read instead of a live metric. AI responses vary by session, phrasing, location, and platform. That’s why it’s important to test regularly and track trends over time.

Measuring AI SoV manually for 20 prompts across three platforms is doable. Doing it for hundreds of prompts while tracking how recommendations shift week over week isn’t.

That’s what Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit is built for.

Go to the Brand Performance report in Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit.

Enter your domain and click “Analyze.”

AI SEO – Brand Performance

Pick an AI platform between ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, or Perplexity.

Switch among these tools to identify any significant gaps in platform-specific LLM visibility.

Brand Performance – Paypal – Select platform

Once the report is generated, you’ll see a pie chart visualizing the distribution of SoV for your competitors.

The tool tests hundreds of prompts related to your category across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity to measure your AI SoV.

For each prompt, it analyzes AI responses for:

  • Brand mentions: How often your brand appears in the answer
  • Citations: Whether the AI links to your content as a source
  • Context: Whether mentions are positive, neutral, or negative

It aggregates this data across all tested prompts to calculate your percentage of total visibility.

Semrush – Brand Performance – Sentiment & Share of Voice

You’ll also find a section comparing each competitor against a set of business drivers specific to your industry.

These drivers are the most frequently mentioned topics for your category.

Use this data to identify clusters where you’re stronger and weaker than your competitors.

Brand Performance – Backlinko – Key Business Drivers

Interpreting SEO vs AI Share of Voice

SEO share of voice measures organic traffic while AI share of voice tracks LLM mentions and citations.

These might not always align.

You can have a strong organic share of voice (ranking on top for many keywords) but a weak AI SoV if LLMs don’t find your content credible.

And brands with more credible content can win a bigger slice of AI SoV even without much visibility in organic search.

Here’s a simple matrix to understand your data:

High AI SoV Low AI SoV
High SEO SoV You dominate both traditional and AI search.

Maintain content freshness and expand into adjacent topics to defend your position.

 You rank well, but LLMs don’t cite you.

Implement content chunking to optimize your content for AI search and create citable assets to create credibility that LLMs value.
Low SEO SoV AI tools cite your content even though you don’t rank at the top on organic search.

Improve SEO fundamentals, including title tags, internal linking, site speed, and keyword optimization.

 Focus on depth over breadth.

Create a definitive, well-researched content resource for every core cluster. This is a good start for building visibility on both traditional and AI search.

Dig deeper: Learn more about building visibility in AI search with LLM seeding.

Step 4: Establish Your Baseline and Track Trends

The final step is turning your SoV numbers into an ongoing tracking system that informs decisions.

Create a baseline dashboard to capture three levels of detail:

  • Overall metrics: Are you gaining or losing ground overall?
  • Topic cluster performance: Which topics need more investment?
  • Funnel stage breakdown: Where in the buyer journey are you least visible?

Here’s what this could look like for the project management software:

Share of voice baseline dashboard

Once your baseline is locked in, set your tracking cadence strategically.

A monthly frequency allows you to spot trends without the need for reacting to noise.

With quarterly deep dives, you can:

  • Analyze cluster-specific performance in detail
  • Correlate SoV changes with past campaigns
  • Adjust resource allocation based on what’s working

This rhythm prevents you from chasing short-term variations and missing critical shifts that impact your category.

Pro tip: Set up notifications in Semrush Position Tracking to get real-time alerts. You’re notified when SoV drops more than a certain threshold in any core cluster.

How to Improve Share of Voice

Not every fluctuation in your SoV requires action.

Here’s how to strategically diagnose gaps in your SoV and prioritize the right tactics to fix them.

1. Close Visibility Gaps

Clusters with <10% SoV mean you’re almost invisible.

This is especially damaging in decision-stage queries.

If you have less than 10% visibility when buyers search “best project management software,” you’re not in their consideration set.

At the same time, look for opportunities where competitors dominate, but you can compete.

For example, if your project management tool serves creative agencies but you have zero visibility for “project management for creative teams,” that’s your opening.

Potential Solutions

Diagnose the cause:

  • Search your weak clusters and compare what ranks against what you have
  • Check if you lack topic coverage, content depth, or basic optimization
  • Look at which competitors dominate and what formats they use

Build topical authority for major business themes.

Create one pillar page with multiple supporting articles.

Build backlinks to your pillar content to establish visibility across every query in that cluster.

For example, if we learn that the project management software needs to gain decision-stage visibility, we could prioritize comparison content.

Build pages targeting “[Your Brand] vs [Competitor]” and category buyer’s guides.

2. Solve Efficiency Problems

Compare your SoV to actual traffic.

A cluster like “what is project management” might give you a high SoV.

But if only 1% of that traffic converts, you’re likely burning money on the wrong audience.

You’re winning visibility in areas that don’t drive business outcomes. And competitors are capturing high-intent buyers.

Potential Solutions

Diagnose the cause:

  • Check if you’re ranking for awareness content when you need decision-stage visibility
  • Look at your traffic-to-conversion ratio by cluster
  • Identify if your content attracts the wrong audience (students vs. buyers)

Reallocate resources to high-intent clusters.

Instead of producing more awareness content, shift the budget to bottom-of-funnel content.

This includes comparison pages, case studies, and ROI calculators that target buyers ready to evaluate solutions.

Update existing comparison pages with current data and competitive intelligence.

3. Address Competitive Threats

Keep tabs on competitors gaining ground in your strong clusters.

If a competitor gains over 5% SoV in your strong clusters, it’s an early sign that they’re targeting your territory.

That gap can widen unless you respond to maintain your market share.

Diagnose the cause:

  • Analyze what new content or tactics they launched
  • Check if they’re winning on review sites, community platforms, or organic search
  • Identify if they’re capturing a format you’re missing (video, podcasts, tools)

The fix depends on where your competitors are winning.

If competitors actively feature on review sites, optimize your profiles. Run campaigns to source reviews from happy customers.

If they’re visible on community platforms, proactively engage in communities like Reddit and Slack.

Prioritize Based on Effort vs. Impact

Not all gaps matter equally.

Focus on opportunities that will actually move your revenue pipeline.

Start with high-impact, low-effort wins. Then invest in high-effort moves that compound over time.

High Impact Low Impact
Low Effort
  • Optimize content ranking #5-10
  • Claim existing review site profiles
  • Update comparison pages with current data
  • Claim industry directory profiles
  • Minor content refreshes on supporting pages
  • Social engagement in established channels
  • Guest commenting on industry blogs
  • Newsletter mentions in partner publications
High Effort
  • Build authority in community spaces (Reddit, forums)
  • Create comprehensive hub content for weak clusters
  • Earn citations from AI-referenced sources
  • Develop thought leadership for industry publications
  • Content for saturated topics without authority
  • Channels where your audience isn’t active
  • Platforms AI tools rarely reference
  • Keywords outside category relevance

Making SoV Your 2026 North Star

Share of voice captures how often you show up across the fragmented platforms where buyers make decisions.

Get started by measuring your current SoV across SEO and AI search with the steps in this guide.

Pick the gap that costs you the most revenue, and strategize the best ways to close it.

Next step: Build your AI optimization gameplan to capture visibility in the fastest-growing search channel.

The post How to Calculate Share of Voice (+ Why it Matters for SEO) appeared first on Backlinko.

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10 Best AI SEO Agencies for Global Brands in 2026: An Engineering-Grade Evaluation

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For global brands, AI citation is binary: your brand is either mentioned when a buyer asks “what is the best […]

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The SEO Services Report

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SEO services have evolved significantly in recent years, driven by changes in search behavior, AI-powered results, and rising competition across industries.

To give you the most accurate picture of the industry today, we’ve combined data from multiple sources, including our survey of 1,200 business owners.

In this report, you’ll learn:

  • How much businesses spend on SEO services today
  • Where companies actually find and hire SEO providers
  • What factors influence the decision to choose one agency over another
  • Why clients leave (or stay with) their SEO provider
  • Key trends shaping the future of SEO services

Let’s dive into the data.

Highlights and Key Statistics:

1. Companies spend $119.4 billion on SEO and digital marketing consulting each year in the US.

2. We found a strong correlation between higher spending and higher client satisfaction in small business SEO. In fact, clients who spent over $500/month were 53.3% more likely to be “extremely satisfied” compared to those who spent less than $500/month.

3. Most small business owners find SEO providers through referrals, Google searches, and online reviews. A small fraction of SEO clients (8%) found their current provider from online advertising.

4. When it comes to choosing a provider, 74% of business owners consider an SEO provider’s reputation “very” or “extremely” important. Monthly cost and the provider’s own Google rankings were also noted as important factors.

5. Overall, SEO client satisfaction is decidedly low. Only 30% would recommend their current SEO provider to a friend or colleague. However, we found that client satisfaction among marketing agencies was higher than that of freelancers.

6. SEO provider turnover is high. 65% of our panel stated that they’ve worked with several different SEO providers. 25% have worked with 3 or more providers.

We have more detailed and expanded findings below.

Average Monthly SEO Spend

In 2025, US organizations spent $119.4 billion on SEO and digital marketing consulting.

Our 2019 research found that small businesses spend $497.16 per month on SEO services.

However, we did discover a large range in SEO spending. Half of our respondents reported spending less than $1,000 per year on SEO. 14% spend $5k+ per year. Only 2% spend over $25k/year.

Small business SEO spending varies greatly

We also found that agencies tend to get paid significantly more than freelance SEO providers.

Specifically, agencies were 2x more likely to get paid $1k-$2k/month than freelancers, who mostly get paid in the $500-$1k per month range.

SEO agencies get paid significantly more than SEO freelancers

Agencies also tend to dominate the high-end pricing range (clients that spend $10k-$25k/year on SEO).

Agencies are 8X more likely to get paid $10k-$25k/year than freelancers

As you can see, 24% of small businesses that work with agencies spend between $10k-$25k/year, compared with 2% that work with a freelance SEO.

Sources: Infinite, Backlinko

Monthly Spend Is Tied To Client Satisfaction

When it comes to SEO, do you “get what you pay for”?

According to our data, yes.

Specifically, we discovered that clients spending over $500/month were 53.3% more likely to consider themselves “extremely satisfied” compared to people who spend less than $500/month.

Higher SEO spending is correlated with higher client satisfaction

We also found a clear relationship between dissatisfaction levels and cost.

Specifically, business owners who spent less than $500/month were 75% more likely to be dissatisfied than those who invested at least $500/month in SEO.

SEO dissatisfaction is correlated with lower SEO spending

This relationship played out whether a client worked with a freelancer, agency, or a mix of both.

Source: Backlinko

Referrals and Google Searches Are the Top Ways Businesses Are Finding SEOs

When someone wants to hire an SEO agency, where do they look?

According to our panel, most people find potential SEO service providers through word of mouth, Google searches, and online review platforms (like Yelp).

Most clients find SEO services via referrals, Google search and review sites

On the other hand, relatively few find SEO providers through online or offline advertising, or referrals from other vendors (like web designers or writers).

If you’re an agency owner or a freelancer, this is a key finding. If you know where small business owners look to find SEO service providers, you can invest resources to make sure your business has a presence in those places.

Sources: Backlinko

Reputation and Cost are Key Factors Involved In Choosing a Provider

Demand for SEO services continues to grow as search becomes more complex and harder to manage in-house. 

In fact, recent data shows that 61% of companies hire SEO agencies due to a lack of internal expertise, while others turn to external providers when they don’t have the time, resources, or results needed to scale.

Most common reasons for using SEO services:

  • Lack expertise – 26.87% 
  • Lack resources – 22.70% 
  • More cost-effective – 21.48%
  • Poor in-house SEO results – 15.48%
  • Lack sufficient time – 10.70%

But hiring an agency isn’t just about capability. Once someone finds a list of potential providers, how do they decide which one to go with?

We discovered that reputation, cost, and a provider’s own Google rankings influenced their decision the most.

Reputation and cost are key factors involved in choosing a provider

Small business owners cited client case studies and the provider’s social media presence as significantly less important.

However, even these relatively minor factors played a role in whether or not someone decided to work with a particular SEO provider. For example, 55% of our panel cited “referrals” as an important consideration.

Referrals influence more than 50% choosing a provider

Although the importance of referrals pales in comparison to a provider’s reputation (55% vs. 74%), it’s still something that influenced more than half of the people we spoke to.

Interestingly, we found that a provider’s location mattered quite a bit.

Only 51% knew exactly where their SEO provider was located.

Half of SEO clients don't know where their SEO provider is located

However, 78% of US-based small businesses stated that knowing their provider’s location was “extremely” or “very” important (with 46% stating that a known location was “extremely important”).

78% of small business owners state SEO provider's location as 'Important'

If you provide SEO services, making your location clear and obvious may help you land more SEO clients.

Here’s a great example from Siege Media, which actually includes a picture of their office on their about page:

SiegeMedia – Make location clear

Sources: Leading Edge, Backlinko

The Vast Majority of Business Owners Expect SEO Services To Increase Customers and Traffic

A recent 2025 survey found that 91% of people who used SEO services reported a positive impact on website performance and marketing goals.

As such, it’s no surprise that expectations are high when working with an SEO provider.

According to our survey, the most important expectations are “accessing new customers”, “increasing traffic”, “increasing brand awareness”, and “building trust” as most important.

SEO clients value new customers, traffic and brand awareness

“Gaining social media followers”, “increasing number of email subscribers”, and “helping to attract new talent” were cited as relatively unimportant.

In fact, even though this is a common goal set by marketing agencies, only 26% of respondents cited “getting followers on social media sites” as extremely important.

Only 26% state getting followers on social media sites as extremely important

This finding is especially key for SEO providers that are taking on new clients.

For example, a newly-hired SEO provider that says, “Our first step is going to be to get more likes on your Facebook page” isn’t speaking their client’s language.

On the other hand, kicking off the client-provider relationship with: “I look forward to helping you get more targeted traffic and customers” will likely result in a more satisfied client.

Needless to say, for the relationship to last, you need to deliver on those promises (more on that later). But it does help to understand what clients hope to get out of SEO so you can mold your services and reports based on that.

Sources: Conductor, Backlinko

SEO ROI: What Businesses Can Expect

SEO is widely regarded as one of the highest-return marketing channels, with some estimates placing the average ROI at around 22:1, meaning businesses earn roughly $22 for every $1 invested.

And around 1 in 3 qualified leads (34%) come directly from SEO efforts.

However, ROI varies significantly across industries:

Medical Device – 1,183% ROI, 13 months breakeven
Higher Education & College – 994% ROI, 13 months breakeven
Oil & Gas – 906% ROI, 10 months breakeven
Industrial IoT – 866% ROI, 7 months breakeven
Pharmaceutical – 826% ROI, 9 months breakeven
Manufacturing – 813% ROI, 9 months breakeven
Biotech – 788% ROI, 8 months breakeven
Solar Energy – 770% ROI, 9 months breakeven
Commercial Insurance – 758% ROI, 9 months breakeven
B2B SaaS – 702% ROI, 7 months breakeven
Construction – 681% ROI, 5 months breakeven
HVAC Services – 678% ROI, 6 months breakeven
IT Staffing – 612% ROI, 10 months breakeven
Legal Services – 526% ROI, 14 months breakeven
Healthcare – 532% ROI, 11 months breakeven
Financial Services – 447% ROI, 9 months breakeven
E-commerce – 317% ROI, 9 months breakeven

The rapid emergence of AI also has a bearing on SEO ROI, with 39% reporting a “moderate increase” and 29% claiming a “significant ROI increase”. Only 1% claim that AI reduces their SEO ROI.

Sources: WebsiteBuilderExpert, G2, AllOutSEO, Semrush

Overall Satisfaction With SEO Services Is Low

SEO is a long-term investment, and results often take time to materialize; many campaigns require 6–12 months just to break even. 

That slower payoff, combined with unclear reporting or misaligned expectations, can leave many businesses frustrated with the SEO services they receive.

In our study, we asked our panelists to rate their current SEO provider (or the last SEO provider they worked with) using the Net Promoter Score.

The results were markedly low.

First off, we found that only 30% of small business owners would recommend their current SEO provider.

Only 30% of small business owners would recommend their current SEO provider

Importantly, 30% of our respondents considered themselves “detractors”. Which means they would leave a negative review for their last or current SEO provider.

In fact, the SEO services industry as a whole has an NPS score of 0, which is considered “not likely to recommend”.

The SEO services industry has an NPS score of 0

When we broke down the NPS scores among agencies, freelancers, and a combination of freelancer and agency, we discovered that agencies had a higher average NPS score than freelancers.

Agencies had a higher average NPS score than freelancers

However, all three types of services had fairly low NPS scores.

Sources: AllOutSEO, Backlinko

Clients Cite Lack of Education and Resources as Top Reasons for Low Satisfaction Levels

Delivering effective SEO requires significant investment in talent, tools, and ongoing strategy, something many businesses underestimate when hiring a provider.

Building comparable in-house capabilities can cost $150K–$250K+ for senior talent plus thousands per month in tools, which helps explain why expectations often exceed what lower-cost or under-resourced SEO services can realistically deliver.

NPS is a helpful benchmark. However, NPS can only tell you so much. In other words, it’s difficult to understand why SEO services have such low levels of satisfaction.

That’s why we decided to dig deeper into this finding.

And when we dug a bit deeper to understand more about what’s happening, we uncovered a few surprising insights.

First, many unhappy SEO clients fully or partially blamed themselves.

Specifically, 50% stated that “I feel like I need more training to fully benefit from what SEO offers”, and 28% told us that they “do not have the staff resources to properly benefit from SEO”.

Many unhappy SEO clients cite 'training' and 'lack of resources' as reasons for leaving an SEO provider

This means that low satisfaction levels aren’t solely due to poor quality work. In fact, many clients are simply not in a position to benefit from SEO due to a lack of resources.

Plus, even clients with resources may not make SEO a priority because they don’t have the training to fully understand how SEO benefits them.

For example, let’s say an SEO provider wants to change a title tag on a client’s site. But it doesn’t happen because their developer is swamped with a website redesign. Also, this client may not understand that this simple change can increase their Google traffic due to a lack of training. So they don’t make that change a priority. And progress stalls.

Which leads us to our second interesting finding, the importance of reporting and transparency.

27% of the clients we spoke with agreed with the statement: “I find SEO to be confusing and unclear about what services they offer.” 25% said that “I am not sure what I am really paying for with SEO.”

Many clients are unclear on how SEO benefits them

In other words, many clients are confused about what their provider is doing for them or what they’re getting out of the arrangement.

These are two points that could be remedied with better reporting and increased transparency.

I should point out that a fair number of clients stated that “I feel like SEO companies are very unreliable” and “I don’t think SEO is worth the money for my business.”

A small but significant percentage of small businesses consider SEO companies unreliable

Which means that a simple lack of results and ROI is often the culprit behind low client satisfaction levels.

However, as you just saw, there are usually non-performance-based factors at play as well.

Sources: Passionfruit, Backlinko

Turnover In the SEO Services Industry Is Extremely High

Likely due to low global satisfaction levels, we found high levels of turnover in the SEO services industry.

Specifically, we found that 65% of small business owners have worked with at least one SEO provider before:

65% of small businesses have worked with multiple SEO providers

We also found that 1/4th of our panel have worked with 3 or more providers:

25% of small business owners have worked with 3+ SEO providers

However, our data suggests that most clients don’t switch between SEO providers without careful consideration.

In fact, the clients in our panel have been working with their current SEO service for an average of 3 years. And lapsed clients give their service provider an average of 2 years to deliver before moving on.

Both existing clients and lapsed clients stay with SEO providers for 2+ years before switching

That said, we did discover a small subset of clients that do rapidly switch between different providers.

These “rapid switchers” tend to hire and fire SEO companies at a fever pitch.

For example, we classified 10% of our panelists as “rapid switchers” (worked with 3 or more SEO providers over the last year).

10% of people have worked with 3+ SEO providers over the last year

Source: Backlinko

Most SEO Clients Leave Due to Lack of Results and Cost

We wanted to know why people decide to leave their current SEO provider or switch to another company.

We referred to people who worked with multiple SEO providers as “lapsed clients”. And we asked this subset of lapsed users what went into their decision.

Here were the results:

Reasons that people switch from current SEO provider

Not surprisingly, 82% of our respondents cited “Dissatisfaction with business results” as a factor in their decision. 81% reported that cost played a large role as well.

This suggests that clients don’t look at results in a vacuum. They also pay attention to the ROI that they’re getting from SEO. In other words, delivering results for clients is one thing. But it’s also important to demonstrate the ROI that SEO has on their business. Otherwise, they may leave.

Although lack of results and cost were the two largest factors, they weren’t the only reasons that clients decided to stop working with an SEO provider.

In fact, 80% of lapsed clients stated that they found a better option on their own, which suggests that clients are happy to shop around for an alternative to their current SEO provider.

80% of lapsed clients say they 'Heard about a better option'

And 34% cited poor “customer service/ responsiveness” as a factor in their decision.

However, relatively few clients cited “pitched by a competitor” as a reason for leaving. In other words, as long as you can keep your clients happy, they’re not likely to leave. This remains true even if a competitor attempts to poach your client with a better offer.

We also asked our “lapsed clients” panelists to describe to us why they decided to stop using an SEO service. Here’s a sample of those responses:

Quotes from clients that stopped using an SEO service

We also asked a group of users who were happy with their SEO service (“existing clients”) what they liked about it. Here’s what they told us:

Quotes from clients that are happy with their SEO service

Source: Backlinko

Existing Clients are 2x More Likely to Be Web Savvy Than Lapsed Clients

We asked our panel to self-report their level of “web savviness”.

Here were the results:

Self-reported web savviness among SEO clients

As you can see, 37% of SEO clients consider their web savviness as “somewhat” or “not very”.

The upshot here is that many clients simply don’t have the web savviness to understand key digital marketing terms, like “title tags”, “CSS”, and “backlinks”. This suggests that SEO companies should largely avoid this sort of jargon in favor of terms like “leads”, “sales”, and “first page Google rankings”.

In fact, this is backed up by another finding from our panel: that lapsed clients are significantly more likely to consider themselves not web savvy.

Specifically, we found that existing clients were 2x more likely to consider themselves “extremely web savvy” than lapsed clients.

Existing clients are 2X more likely to consider themselves 'Extremely web savvy'

This suggests that web-savvy users are in a better position to understand how their SEO service is helping them. So they decide to stay. On the other hand, clients who aren’t web savvy may not fully understand what they’re getting from their SEO provider. So they decide to leave.

Source: Backlinko

Conclusion

I hope these findings helped you get a better feel for the SEO services industry.

I’d like to thank Northstar Research Partners for helping me design and conduct the survey that formed much of this report.

And if you’d like to learn more about how this survey was conducted, here’s a PDF of our study methods.

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Top 10 AI SEO Agencies for Contractors in 2026

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The best AI SEO agencies for contractors combine engineering-level technical infrastructure diagnosis with AI Search Optimization methodology that makes contractor […]

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The April 2026 SEO Update by Yoast recap

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Each month, we host an SEO update covering the latest in search and AI. During this month’s edition, our SEO experts Carolyn Shelby and Alex Moss, cover everything from the latest advances in Agentic AI to Google’s spam and core updates and why simply publishing more content is no longer enough and in many cases actively works against you. Read this recap for the highlights or watch the April 2026 SEO Update by Yoast to delve into the latest news.

Watch the full recap on YouTube to dive deeper into these topics, hear some examples and hear the answer to audience questions.

SEO and AI news from April 2026

Google introduces new AI agent signals and infrastructure

Google added a new Google-agent user agent, signaling more explicit support for AI-driven crawling and interaction. At the same time, proposals like WebMCP aim to standardize how AI agents interact with websites, while Google leadership suggests search is evolving into an AI agent manager.

Why it matters: The web is being restructured around agent access, not just human browsing.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Ensure your content is accessible and understandable for both traditional crawlers and emerging AI agents.

Google continues expanding AI capabilities and efficiency

Google introduced TurboQuant, a new approach to AI model compression that significantly improves efficiency. At the same time, Google is expanding task-based features in AI Mode and refining how users interact with AI-driven search experiences.

Why it matters: As AI becomes faster and more integrated, user expectations and search behavior will continue to shift.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Focus on making content easy to extract and act on within AI-driven workflows.

Structured data and documentation evolve for AI-first search

Google added AI bot labels to forum and Q&A structured data, helping distinguish between human and AI-generated contributions. Google also updated its documentation with “read more” deep link best practices.

Why it matters: Search engines are adapting their systems to better interpret and label AI-generated content.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Use structured data and clear linking practices to improve how your content is interpreted and displayed.

Core updates, spam policies, and enforcement continue to tighten

Google completed its March 2026 spam update and core update, while also introducing updates to spam policies addressing tactics like back button hijacking and improving spam reporting tools.

Why it matters: Enforcement is becoming more granular, targeting both technical manipulation and low-value content.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Review your site for outdated or risky tactics and ensure a strong focus on quality and user experience.

Platforms and tools expand AI-driven workflows

Elementor launched Angie, an agentic AI for WordPress, while Cloudflare introduced EmDash as a WordPress alternative and continued work on agent readiness standards.

Anthropic released Claude Design and previewed Mythos, while OpenAI tested an AdsBot and introduced a ChatGPT ad manager interface.

Why it matters: AI is increasingly embedded directly into content creation, workflows, and monetization systems.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Evaluate how AI tools fit into your content and operational workflows, not just your marketing strategy.

Authority, trust, and content quality remain central

Google reinforced that commodity content does not perform well, while broader analysis highlights the importance of authority, freshness, and first-party signals.

Why it matters: As AI systems synthesize answers, they rely more heavily on trusted, differentiated sources.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Invest in original, high-quality content and consistent brand signals across channels.

Measurement and reporting begin shifting toward AI visibility

Bing previewed AI Citation Share, and new dashboards are emerging that map how AI systems ground answers in source content. A temporary Google Search Console glitch also highlighted how dependent SEOs still are on traditional metrics.

Why it matters: Visibility is moving beyond rankings into citation, inclusion, and influence within AI-generated responses.

Actionable takeaway:

  • Start paying attention to how your content appears in AI systems, not just where it ranks.

Also in the news…

Several additional developments are worth watching:

Yoast news

Sign up for the next SEO Update by Yoast

The next SEO Update by Yoast is on May 21, 2026, at 4:00 PM CET (10:00 AM EST). Sign up to join the live discussion or get the recording.

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Best Content Marketing Agencies of 2026

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Key Takeaways

  • Content agencies often specialize in certain industries or subsets of content marketing, such as technical SEO or conversion-focused content.
  • Our list of some of the best content marketing brands in the business covers a range of services and specialties.
  • Check out their client lists and portfolios to see if their work aligns with your expectations and preferences.
  • Knowing what to look for in a content marketing company and the right questions to ask can help you identify the ones with the abilities and capacity to help you expand and improve your content strategy and reach your marketing goals.

The content world is changing, but people still know its value. A 2023 survey from the Content Marketing Institute showed that over three-fourths of marketers indicated that content marketing generates demand and leads. 

This is no surprise when you realize 70 percent of people would prefer to learn about a company through an article rather than advertising. 

Content marketing can generate huge amounts of traffic, leads, and sales for your business. If you’re a company looking to get started with content marketing, it can be tough to find the resources and expertise you need. 

What kind of content do your customers want from you? Is that the same kind of content that creates revenue for your business? Today we’ll take a look at the best content marketing companies in the industry to help you answer those questions and more.

Agency  Best For  Ideal For  Notable Clients  Standout Approach 
NP Digital  Immediate and consistent revenue growth  Broad (B2B, e-commerce, SaaS, finance)  CNN, Adobe, Western Union, SoFi  Revenue-focused content with technical SEO built into every campaign from the start 
Seer Interactive  Big data search and content  Competitive industries like finance, banking, and mortgages  Asos, Intuit, SendGrid, Terminix  12,000GB proprietary data warehouse surfaces hidden customer trends competitors can’t see 
Brainlabs  Technical SEO  Not specified  Formula 1, Estée Lauder, Capital One, Polaroid  Built on a team of mathematicians, scientists, and programmers driving data-backed automation and testing 
Fractl  In-depth, research-heavy content  Research-intensive industries  Porch, Fanatics, Superdrug, Healthline  Research published in Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and the NYT, with a dedicated client growth division 
Column Five  Data and content visualization  Not specified (broad enterprise client base)  Deloitte, JP Morgan, Dell, Harvard University  Visual storytelling specialists covering infographics, video, interactive motion graphics, and exhibition design 
Single Grain  Conversion-driven content marketing  Businesses needing rapid turnaround or growth  Lyft, Warby Parker, Semrush, Nextiva  Entrepreneurial approach to flipping underperforming businesses through aggressive conversion optimization 
The Content Bureau  B2B content marketing  Technology, venture capital, and financial sectors; global corporations  American Express, PayPal, Microsoft, Cisco  Woman-owned agency with 80 percent of staff at 10+ years tenure, offering premium, high-attention client service 
Webprofits  Growing challenger brands  E-commerce, consumer, and retail brands scaling fast  Logitech, Philips, Nespresso, HP  “Fluid marketing” methodology blends digital strategy and performance marketing to find hidden growth opportunities 
Siege Media  Scalable SEO content  Fortune 500 companies down to small startups  Zillow, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Asana  Passive link generation through content, backed by a proprietary link management tool maintained monthly 
Directive  Performance marketing for tech companies  Tech companies of all sizes  Amazon, Bill.com, Matillion, SentinelOne  Generated $10B+ in client revenue by acting as an embedded extension of in-house marketing teams 

1. NP Digital – Best for Immediate and Consistent Revenue Growth

The NP Digital website.

NP Digital is my content marketing company. We created NP Digital in 2017 to serve the millions of people who needed help with their content marketing to grow revenue. 

Rankings are important, but many marketers still focus obsessively on keywords and content that doesn’t lead to revenue. I’ve always focused on helping readers build a business that generates traffic, leads, and, most importantly, revenue. So we have a big focus on developing high-quality content that ranks high and converts visitors into customers by aligning with user intent.

Today, we’re one of the top content marketing brands in the business. a powerhouse global agency with one of the top 100 blog destinations in the world.

Another thing that’s different about NP Digital is the fact that we incorporate technical SEO into our content marketing planning. SEO — technical, on-page, off-page, local, etc.— it’s always a package deal with content marketing. Our status as one of the top SEO agencies means you get the best of both worlds.

We stay on top of Google’s updates and algorithms and adjust our strategies accordingly. This means the content we create for our clients automatically performs well with Google. here’s no extra work required. 

NP Digital is my way of helping everyone achieve the revenue and growth they deserve in their business. 

NP Digital’s client list includes:

  • CNN
  • Adobe
  • Western Union
  • Brightside Health
  • SoFi
  • LiquidWeb
  • ConnectWise
  • ModKat

2. Seer Interactive – Best for Big Data Search and Content

The Seer Interactive agency website.

Wil Reynolds founded Seer Interactive, which got its start as a search engine optimization company. What makes Seer one of the best content marketing companies on our list is its focus and emphasis on big data. 

Using a combination of in-house and third-party tools, they’ve built a massive data warehouse with almost 12,000 gigabytes of data they can analyze to identify new, hidden, and unexpected customer trends. 

If you’re in a competitive or cutthroat industry (e.g., finance, banking, or mortgages), this data is what you need to stay ahead of your competitors.

With Seer Interactive, their approach is SEO-heavy. That should be an important priority for every company, whether you’re big or small, but not every company is ready for Big Data.

Seer Interactive’s client list includes:

  • Asos
  • Intuit
  • SendGrid
  • Terminix
  • Think Company
  • Time Inc.

3. Brainlabs – Best for Technical SEO

The Brainlabs website.

Brainlabs was founded by Daniel Gilbert in 2012. Understanding that marketing was becoming all about data, he took the unusual tactic of hiring mathematicians, scientists and programmers to support automation and data-driven insights.

His approach paid off: Since 2020, the agency has expanded its services by acquiring other marketing companies, including the SEO-focused Distilled, a leader in the space. 

Today Brainlabs is known as one of the top content marketing agencies for technical SEO and helping companies evolve in an increasingly competitive SEO landscape. They are constantly experimenting and testing to improve conversion rates.

Brainlabs’ client list includes:

  • Formula 1
  • Estée Lauder
  • Capital One
  • Polaroid

4. Fractl – Best for In-Depth, Research-Heavy Content

The Fractl Website.

Fractl is a research-heavy, data-driven content marketing company. They’re focused on rapid, organic growth that’s driven by content marketing, data journalism, digital PR, and search engine optimization. 

Research makes Fractl unique. 

They’re always researching industry-related topics, and they share their understanding of the art and science behind newsworthy content. They share their research in top publications, leading market resources, scientific journals, and authoritative conferences around the world.

Their research has been published in MarketingProfs, TNW, The Economist, Time, the Harvard Business Review, the New York Times, Pub Con, and many other publications and journals.

If you’re in a research-heavy industry and you’re looking for a high-growth content marketing company, Fractl is a good choice. Aside from being one of the best content marketing brands, they’re one of the few companies that have a division dedicated to client growth.

Fractl’s client list includes:

  • Sapio
  • Porch
  • Fanatics
  • Travelmath
  • College Finance
  • Alcohol.org
  • NVISION
  • Superdrug

5. Column Five – Best for Data and Content Visualization

The Column Five website.

Column Five describes itself as a creative content agency. They’re primarily focused on the visual side of content marketing — storytelling, design, data visualization, video, interactive motion graphics, even exhibition design.

They are most known for their “child of the 90s” viral video on behalf of Internet Explorer, which launched their reputation as one of the best content marketing brands out there.

As a content creation company, Column Five is focused primarily on content strategy, content creation, and content distribution. They rely on a simultaneous mix of organic and paid distribution channels to draw attention to client content.

The company mantra is “the best story wins,” showing their commitment to developing great content that delivers big results. It specializes in content that is “inherently newsworthy,” making it more likely to get traffic, links, and media attention. 

The Column Five client list includes:

  • Deloitte
  • Cornell University
  • Harvard University
  • J.P Morgan
  • MetLife
  • ASPCA
  • The World Bank
  • Charles Schwab 
  • Dell
  • eBay
  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Zendesk

6. Single Grain – Best for Conversion-Driven Content Marketing

The Single Grain website.

In 2014, entrepreneur and leading marketing expert Eric Siu made a big gamble. He bought a failing SEO agency for less than the cost of a cappuccino — $2. This wasn’t the first time he’d made a seemingly risky bet — in the past he led the growth strategy for an online education company when it had just a few months of cash left in the bank. 

“A month into it, the CEO pulls me aside,” Siu recalls, “and he’s like, ‘Eric, you know, 48 people, their families, they’re riding on your shoulders right now, and if you can’t hit numbers in the next month, we’re gonna have to let you go.’”

Did I mention he was just 25 years old at the time?

Eric leveraged his marketing know-how and entrepreneurial outlook to turn Single Grain around and take it to where it is today: solidly among the ranks of the best content marketing brands out there.  

Eric Siu and the Single Grain team can do for your business what they do best: turn it around. They know how to turn a faltering business into a successful one with an approach of optimizing for conversions and focusing on rapid growth. 

Single Grain’s client list includes:

  • WineDeals
  • Nextiva
  • Peet’s Coffee
  • Semrush
  • Warby Parker
  • Crunchbase
  • Lyft

7. The Content Bureau – Best for B2B Content Marketing

The Content Bureau's website.

The Content Bureau bills itself as a premier B2B content marketing company. This agency is woman-owned, 100 percent virtual, and their team is 90 percent female, of which a third are women of color. The Content Bureau focuses its attention on the technology, venture capital, and financial sectors, working almost exclusively with global corporations that rely on them year-round. 

Many of their clients are long-term, stable clients who prefer their premium approach, exclusive attention, and veteran workforce; 80 percent of their team have been with The Content Bureau for 10+ years. 

As an organization, they give their clients lots of handholding; they’re open and transparent with each of their clients, and they deliver amazing service with their extraordinary content.

The Content Bureau’s client list includes:

  • American Express
  • PayPal
  • Royal Bank of Canada
  • ADP
  • Unilever
  • Magento
  • Microsoft
  • Cisco
  • Atlassian

8. Webprofits – Best for Growing Brands

The Webprofits website.

Webprofits is the content marketing and advertising company that was co-founded by Sujan Patel and Alex Cleanthous. Their company focuses on challenger brands in the e-commerce, consumer, and retail space that want to grow their business fast. They’ve refined their process based on real-life, in-the-trenches experience.

In fact, Patel doesn’t think of Web Profits as an agency. He calls it a marketing “hit squad,” a team of specialists who understand your business inside and out. 

What makes Web Profits one of the top content marketing companies? They use a unique “fluid marketing” approach, which combines digital strategy with performance marketing. This enables its team of experts to identify hidden correlations and connections that can point to exciting opportunities for content marketing.

This makes the Web Profits team uniquely qualified to serve challenger brands that want to make a big impact.

Web Profits’ client list includes:

  • Logitech
  • Philips
  • Nespresso
  • Swarovski
  • HP
  • LG Electronics

9. Siege Media – Best for Scalable Content

The Siege Media website.

Siege Media prides itself on taking a “scientific approach” to scaling SEO-focused content. The agency works with a wide range of companies, from established Fortune 500 businesses to small startups.

The focus of the business is on link-building. Siege Media creates content that serves as passive link generators, a tactic they say is more effective than manual outreach. Their formula results in high-impact content that produces instant results—and it’s a cost-efficient tactic, too.

Siege’s superpower is a proprietary solution for link management. Siege maintains the tool for its clients on a monthly basis, ensuring that websites are always aligned with overall goals and updates. 

This commitment to innovation and leveraging technology for content marketing makes Siege one of the best content marketing companies for the future.

Siege Media’s client list includes:

  • Zillow
  • Quicken Loans
  • Inuit Mint
  • Shutterfly
  • Airbnb
  • Healthline
  • Casper
  • TripAdvisor
  • Asana
  • ZenDesk

10. Directive – Best for Performance Marketing for Tech Companies

The Directive Website.

CEO Garrett Mehrguth founded Directive when he was just 21, focusing on SEO. Today it works with some of the world’s most prominent tech companies, helping them become more discoverable in a dynamic and often challenging industry. Since its founding, it’s generated more than $10 billion in revenue.

The agency uses a unique data-driven methodology to generate quality leads organically across the marketing funnel. The team prefers to act as a partner rather than a vendor, serving as an extension of its clients’ in-house marketing teams.

Directive’s client list includes:

  • Amazon
  • Bill.com
  • Matillion
  • Sumo Logic
  • Eden Health
  • Vyond
  • Brooklyn Solarworks
  • ActivePDF
  • SentinelOne

4 Characteristics that Make a Great Content Marketing Company

A good content marketing company will have no problem demonstrating that they have the expertise and the resources they need to make your campaign a success. These are some qualities to expect in a high-quality content marketing agency.

1: A Stable Team of Content Creators

Content mills produce poorly written filler content that’s mainly written for search engines. Not only is that a short-sighted approach, but Google’s algorithm is more likely to ding sites that use it—especially now that it is incorporating AI. 

The best content marketing companies have a roster of regular and consistent writers on their team. Stable writers are skilled at writing, grammar, logical consistency, and storytelling. These writers can draw your readers in, creating content that moves people towards a specific goal or objective that you have in mind. 

These writers don’t need a lot of babysitting, and they’re able to figure things out, to a certain extent, on their own. They’re dependable, and they’re able to match your brand voice. 

When you contact a content marketing company, you’ll want to ask them questions about how they run their business. 

  • How many writers do you have on staff?
  • Are they freelance or W-2? Do you use a mix of both? 
  • How many of your writers are full-time? Part-time? 
  • How do you manage your team of writers? 
  • How many years of experience does the average writer on your team have? 

When you ask companies these questions, listen to their answers carefully. Look for any inconsistencies or red flags. If you spot any, bring them up immediately and ask for an answer. 

2: Access to Publishers and Influencers

According to Derek Halpern, founder of Social Triggers, you should be spending 20 percent of your time on content creation and 80 percent of your time on content promotion. The content marketing companies you work with are no different. If you’re investing a significant amount of time and money in creating an amazing piece of content, you should be spending 4x as much time on promotion to make sure your target audience sees it.

When you’re working with a content marketing company, they should already have a list of influencers and publishers in their address book. They should also have strong connections and relationships with the right people, so they’re reasonably sure they can drive traffic to your content. 

3: Specialized Knowledge About Your Industry

In an ideal world, your content marketing provider has a significant amount of experience in your space, or the ability to connect with experts who do. At a minimum, you’ll want to ensure that the content marketing company you choose can write credibly about the topics that are relevant to your business. 

The more specialized the content, the more important these criteria are for your business. 

Industries like healthcare, engineering, or finance require large amounts of specialized experience. It’s unrealistic to expect an inexperienced company to write credibly about a highly technical topic. 

Specialization requires specialists. The more technical your business, the more important it is to hire a content marketing company with experience and expertise in your field. 

4: Content Analysis and Measurement

When you’re investing in the services of a content marketing company, you’ll want to see the numbers. The agency should be able to provide you with a detailed breakdown that includes data outlining your performance as well as the KPIs, metrics, and sentiment surrounding your content.

This information should give you the answers to the following questions:

  • Does this content move us closer to our campaign goals? 
  • Does this piece of content (e.g., blog post, whitepaper, e-book, infographic) lead to enough conversions?
  • How far are people reading into your content? 
  • Where in our flywheel are we losing customers? 
  • What do we need to change/optimize to improve our conversion rates?
  • Which content marketing opportunities are we missing, and where? 

Creating content isn’t enough. The content marketing company you choose should provide you with the actionable data you need and a comprehensive strategy to create profitable content for your business. 

What To Expect From a Great Content Marketing Company

Top content marketing agencies are able to get you up to speed on their processes and provide you with a consistent and comprehensive set of deliverables. These deliverables ensure that your content marketing campaigns stay on track and that you’re able to achieve the consistent results you need.

To do this, your content marketing provider should provide you with onboarding guidance and specific deliverables throughout the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch phases of your campaign. These should include: 

  • Content samples demonstrating your knowledge and expertise
  • The information and materials (e.g., credentials, existing content) they need from you to get started
  • A statement of work and a list of deliverables (e.g., 14 2,500-word articles each month, edits included)
  • Their process (if they’re not working with you and yours)
  • Projected campaign milestones, timelines, and calendars
  • Your point-of-contact, including their name, and contact information
  • Hours of availability
  • The best way to communicate (e.g., Slack, email, phone, chat, or text)
  • Expectations from you 
  • Their process, policies, and procedures
  • Analysis and reports, including business goals, objectives, KPIs, metrics, strategy, tactics, and risks
  • Content audits
  • Consistent updates on your campaign performance
  • Regular (weekly or monthly) calls to discuss performance
  • Consistently updated due dates and delivery timelines
  • Monthly debrief to discuss successes and failures

Here are some additional details you should also expect from your content marketing providers:

  • Good boundaries (including the ability to say no)
  • Prompt and clear feedback
  • Accurate information on various parts of your campaign, including financial, campaign, and performance data

The best content marketing companies ask a lot of questions. They make sure to provide you with the upfront information you need to vet their company and make an informed decision. Once you’ve decided to move forward, they ask you for all of the information and materials they’ll need to produce the results you want.

FAQs

What makes good content marketing?

Good content marketing is different for every business, but in general, it involves creating well-written content that provides valuable information for your target market. It also draws in qualified leads and converts them into customers at a rate that justifies your investment.

How do you track content marketing results?

Tracking content marketing results involves setting clear goals, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, inquiries, and conversion rates to use as metrics, and monitoring the results. Most content marketing agencies use analytics tools to track and measure results. 

How do you optimize for content marketing?

Optimizing for content marketing involves several steps. First, research who your target audience is and their needs. This will guide you toward topics for content development that can answer their questions and provide valuable information. Incorporate SEO to ensure your content ranks high on search engine results pages and brings in organic traffic. Finally, analyze the results to refine content topics, formats, and overall strategy.  

Which content marketing agency is best for B2B companies?

B2B companies should look for agencies that focus on long-form content, SEO, and lead generation. The best partners understand how to create content that nurtures prospects over time, not just drives traffic. Agencies with strong experience in SaaS or professional services tend to perform best here.

Which content marketing company is best for small businesses?

Small businesses need agencies that balance quality with cost. Look for teams that offer flexible packages or project-based work instead of large retainers. The goal is to get consistent, high-quality content without overcommitting your budget early on.

Which agency is best for SEO-driven content?

You want an agency that combines content creation with keyword research and technical SEO. Firms that focus heavily on search performance will build content designed to rank, not just read well. Check for proven results in organic traffic growth and rankings.

Should you hire a specialized content agency or a full-service marketing agency?

Specialized agencies go deeper into content strategy and production. Full-service agencies connect content to SEO, paid media, and conversion optimization, which can drive better overall results. If content is your main bottleneck, go specialized. If growth is the goal, full-service often wins.

How do you choose the right content marketing agency?

Start with their results. Look for case studies showing traffic growth, lead generation, or revenue impact. Then review their content quality and process. The best agencies have a clear system for research, creation, and optimization.

Conclusion

Content marketing produces more leads and revenue than traditional marketing methods. If you’re looking for a good content marketing company to help you get started, it can be tough. Use this list to identify the companies that are a good fit for your business. 

With this post, you should have a pretty good idea of the questions to ask, what to expect, and how to select the right content marketing provider. 

Invest the right amount of effort with the right company, and your content marketing will grow faster than you expect. It’s tough in the beginning, but it will take effort, push through, and keep creating really helpful content, even if it’s hard. 

You’ll see consistent revenue growth once customers realize that you’re serious about helping them solve their problems. Content marketing is the best way to show them that you understand, and you can help. With this said, combining with other disciplines is the best way to unlock your content’s true potential. Check out my lists of the best CRO agencies and top social media agencies for more information.

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LinkedIn expands Event Ads beyond its own platform

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LinkedIn Ads retargeting: How to reach prospects at every funnel stage

LinkedIn is rolling out Off-Platform Event Ads, giving marketers a new way to promote events without needing a native LinkedIn Event Page.

What’s happening. The new format allows advertisers to run Event Ads that link directly to external destinations — such as webinar platforms, landing pages or livestream sites — instead of keeping traffic on LinkedIn.

This marks a shift from platform-contained experiences to more flexible, marketer-controlled journeys.

How it works. Marketers can create an Event Ad using a third-party URL, add event details like date and format, and choose from objectives including awareness, engagement, traffic or lead generation.

Clicks send users directly to the external event page, while performance metrics remain trackable in Campaign Manager.

Why we care. Until now, promoting events on LinkedIn often meant working within platform constraints, which could fragment the user journey and limit control over registrations.

Off-Platform Event Ads remove that friction by allowing marketers to tap into LinkedIn’s targeting while keeping traffic, data and conversions on their own platforms — making it easier to scale campaigns and maintain a consistent experience.

What to watch:

  • Whether this drives higher registration rates compared to native Event Pages
  • How advertisers balance LinkedIn targeting with off-platform conversion tracking
  • If LinkedIn expands similar flexibility to other ad formats

Availability. Off-Platform Event Ads are currently rolling out globally and are expected to be available to all advertisers by May 6.

Bottom line. By opening Event Ads to off-platform destinations, LinkedIn is making it easier for marketers to scale event promotion — without forcing them to build inside its walls.

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Top 10 AI SEO Agencies for Software Development Companies in 2026

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AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are intercepting the moments where developers and technical buyers discover and shortlist software tools. […]

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