Vesna Scepanovic 
AI Overviews now appear on nearly 1 in 5 Google searches. But does that mean what you publish is invisible or just misaligned?
It’s tempting to give up on informational content. If Google’s just going to summarize your hard work into a box with no link, what’s the point?
But while clicks may be down, search intent is sharper. And AI still needs high-quality sources to power those summaries.
This shift marks one of the most important content marketing trends of 2025. So here’s how to adapt your strategy to stay relevant, visible, and valuable in an AI-shaped search landscape.
You don’t need to abandon informational content. You just need to rethink how you’re creating it.
The Rise of AI Overviews and the Fall of the Click
AI Overviews were introduced to make search more efficient. And they’ve done just that. Too well, in fact.
Where users once had to visit a site to get an answer, they now see a condensed summary right on the search results page. The result is less friction, fewer clicks, and far fewer reasons for someone to visit your site.
Studies show just how deep this impact goes. Pages that used to dominate the #1 organic spot are seeing their click-through rates drop by more than 30% when an AI Overview is present. Even when your content ranks, it may no longer matter because the summary box has already answered the question without providing context or credit. For non-branded, informational queries, the drop is even steeper.
And while search impressions are on the rise, that doesn’t translate into traffic. In fact, the gap between visibility and actual visits is widening fast. You show up, but users don’t follow through.
Among all the emerging content marketing trends, this one hits closest to the core of how we measure success. Rankings aren’t what they used to be. What matters now is what gets seen, what gets clicked, and what gets trusted by both users and machines.
So if your strategy still leans heavily on top-of-funnel content to drive awareness and leads, it’s time to rethink what that content needs to do.
Not because your content is bad, but because the rules are different now.
Search Intent Is Changing, Too
It’s easy to focus on what’s disappearing: traffic, clicks, top-of-funnel reach. But something else is shifting behind the scenes, and it might be even more important.
The users who still click are doing it with purpose.
According to BrightEdge, search impressions have surged by more than 49% year-over-year, yet click-through rates on informational queries have dropped by about 30%. In other words, users are still searching, but they’re getting answers directly from AI Overviews instead of clicking through to websites.
But lower traffic doesn’t mean lower value. The readers who do click are more engaged. They’re looking for context, detail, and human perspective, and these are things a summary box simply can’t offer.
This shift reflects one of the most important content marketing trends of the moment: Less traffic. Stronger intent.
Informational content still has a place. But to stay relevant, it has to go beyond surface-level answers. Instead of attracting traffic, you need to attract the right attention. And that requires rethinking how you plan, structure, and write every piece of content going forward.
Smarter, Not Smaller: Surviving AI Summaries
The solution isn’t to stop creating informational content. But we do need to stop creating it the way we used to.
In 2025, the most successful content marketing strategies are leveling up. Informational content is evolving from keyword-driven explainers to trust-building, AI-visible, conversion-aware assets. If it doesn’t serve users and answer engines, it risks falling flat.
Here’s how teams are rethinking their approach in response to today’s content marketing trends:
Build Topical Authority, Not Just Pages
It’s getting impossible for thin, one-off blog posts to stand out. The brands that are getting noticed treat topics like ecosystems, not isolated entries.
That doesn’t mean you need to build a massive content hub. But it does mean thinking beyond the single keyword: Interlink related pieces. Answer the follow-ups. Go deeper where it counts. Prove you understand the bigger picture, and not just the search term.
Structure Content for Retrieval
AI doesn’t read like a human. It extracts. So your content must be clean, scannable, and modular:
- Lead with concise answers
- Use clear H2s and H3s
- Include FAQs, tables, lists, and schema where relevant
These small adjustments can go a long way toward making your content more fetchable.
Cover What Comes Next
Answering the main question is just the start. You can increase your chances of visibility by exploring the follow-ups: comparisons, objections, and related use cases.
For example, if you’re writing about “content marketing trends,” you might also touch on:
- How AI is changing content discovery
- Whether zero-click search kills blogging
- What happens to TOFU content in this environment
The more useful your content is across the full search experience, the more likely it is to earn visibility, even without the click.
Bring in Real Human Insight
When everything starts to sound the same, your expertise is what stands out.
- Include commentary from team members
- Share internal data or client examples
- Add context that AI can’t create
Content that reflects lived experience, like other people’s insights, original examples, or lessons learned, builds trust and sets your brand apart in both human and machine eyes. It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. It just has to be real.
Format for Flexibility
Informational content doesn’t have to stop at a blog post. Leading marketers now repurpose high-performing content into:
- Short-form videos and carousels
- Podcasts or voice search snippets
- Interactive tools or calculators
- Email sequences and gated downloads
Diversifying format is one of the fastest-growing content marketing trends, and it makes your effort work harder across platforms.
Shift the Funnel Focus
Top-of-funnel content is getting squeezed the hardest by AI. But that doesn’t mean it’s game over, just that decision-stage content is playing a bigger role.
Focus more on:
- “What to expect” explainers
- Product/service comparisons
- Case studies and how-to implement guides
If someone’s still clicking, they’re likely closer to taking action. Meet them there.
Make It SERP-Proof
When the SERP becomes the summary, direct channels matter more than ever. So build relationships that don’t rely on AI:
- Grow your email list
- Create branded newsletters
- Launch owned communities
- Offer downloadable content or tools in exchange for contact info
The more control you have over how you reach people, the less you have to depend on what AI decides to show.
Make Your Informational Content Work Smarter
Not every click is gone. And not every answer lives in a summary box. But the way we create content should change.
If your blog still reads like it’s trying to win SEO in 2018, AI won’t care, and neither will your readers. Informational content isn’t dead, but the habits behind it should be.
One of the clearest content marketing trends of 2025 is the shift from publishing more to publishing smarter: cleaner structure, sharper focus, clearer value.
At Zlurad, that’s exactly what we help you build. From strengthening your technical SEO foundation to optimizing for AI visibility, we help brands stay useful to both people and machines.
Curious how your content holds up under AI pressure?
Get a free technical SEO report and see what’s helping and what’s holding you back.
Because no matter what changes, quality content built on solid SEO will always earn trust.