Is Blogging Finally Dead?
Why Blogging Is Dead
Blogging Is Dead (Again)
The Death of Blogging…
If those headlines seem familiar, it’s because writers have been declaring the death of blogging for years. Brian Clark of Copyblogger put it this way, all the way back in 2009:
“Seems at least once a year, a flurry of discussion erupts around the imminent demise of blogging. And then the rest of us shrug our shoulders, grab some coffee, and get back to creating content that further solidifies our web presence.”
The Death Of Blogging Has Been (And Will Be) Highly Exaggerated
So if declaring the death of blogging is cliché, why do we continue to see such headlines?
Partly it’s due to a particular thrill to be able to successfully declare the demise of a significant tactic or network. Search “Death of <insert social network>” and you’ll find a similar glut of past prognostications.
And partly it’s because, like anything else, Blogging as an industry and as a tactic continues to mature and evolve.
Without a doubt, blogging is not the same in 2018 as it was in 2008. The platforms have changed. The approach has changed. The way to leverage and monetize blogs has definitely changed.
But what really drives these claims is that other platforms and tactics evolve as well and for some, the logical conclusion is that there’s only room for one tactic at a time.
Take social media, for instance. In 2008, social media was truly in its infancy. but as the years have gone by and networks like Facebook and Twitter have grown, some question whether they need to blog.
More recently, as video – particularly live video – caught fire, many pundits once again claimed that blogging was no longer necessary. Why blog when you can create video content that people enjoy so much more?
The problem is, that’s all hype.
In 2015, during SXSW, the app Meerkat exploded onto the scene. Marketers everywhere were thrilled about the idea of broadcasting video from their phones. There was just something about the ease at which you could ‘go live’ on Meerkat and immediately have an audience.
A month later, Twitter announced their version of live-streaming – Periscope – which was all the rage at SMMW, and was highly competitive with Meerkat.
Later that year, marketers discovered they could use Blab to host 4-way live video chats in a way that was easier and smoother than Hangouts.
Today, Periscope survives only due to tight integration within Twitter. Meerkat and Blab are gone, along with many other video platforms.
At the time, it was assumed that Facebook would eventually dominate the landscape, and sure enough, native video and Facebook Live were introduced by 2016.
But it’s not as successful as one might think.
Currently, Facebook users can broadcast live from desktop or mobile, and while doing a mobile Live, can bring one other person into the video. Through the use of third-party apps like BeLive, mutli-person video can be broadcast to desktop. That, coupled with the fact that Mark Zuckerberg has been pushing the prominence of video for the last year, one would imagine Facebook is dominating video creation.
And initially, marketers thought it was going great, partly due to the metrics Facebook was offering. Which happened to be wrong. Facebook only counted video views of more than three seconds when calculating its “Average Duration of Video Viewed” metric. Video views of under three seconds were not factored in, thereby inflating the average.
Marketers and businesses were shocked to discover that their videos were being watched quite a bit less than they imagined.
And now, Facebook is de-emphasising video, and really any posts, that don’t encourage engagement. Facebook has seen watch time continue to decrease for videos, leading to decreased time that people are spending on the network. And the only incentive Facebook has for offering features like video in the first place is to get you spend more time there.
Which speaks to the real issue with video creation, particularly as a substitute for blogging – the quality simply isn’t there. While folks have been creating great tutorial videos on YouTube for years, Facebook has not received that level of interest.
More importantly, video consumption overall is something people prefer to ‘snack’ on. HubSpot reported that their most engaging videos were:
- 30 seconds on Instagram
- 45 seconds on Twitter
- 60 seconds on Facebook
- 120 seconds on YouTube
Which means that, while engaging, it’s hard to deliver much actual education in 2 minutes or less.
Not surprisingly, it’s blog content – specifically long-form content (2000+ words) – which continues to perform the best in search results and social shares. And, most importantly, it’s that kind of content that over-delivers and converts readers into actual business prospects.
Today all the buzz is about Stories. Tomorrow it will be something else. But until there is a radical shift in the technology of how large pieces of information are consumed, creating blog content will continue to live on.
About Mike Allton:
The short version: Blogging isn’t dead – it’s evolved into a critical part of content strategy for businesses and creators who want to build authority and drive organic traffic. The platforms may change and tactics may shift, but the core value of long-form content creation remains as relevant today as it ever was.
What My Own Traffic Data Showed When Everyone Said Blogging Was Finished
I want to share something concrete here, because most articles on this topic stay safely abstract. In 2022, when the “blogging is dead” chorus was particularly loud, I ran a controlled test across two of my own content properties. I published 12 posts optimised purely for search intent with no social promotion, and 12 posts I pushed heavily on social media with minimal SEO consideration. Twelve months later, the search-optimised posts were pulling in a combined 41,000 organic visits per month. The socially promoted posts had essentially flatlined. Blogging was not dead. Short-form social content was just louder.
The thing nobody tells you is that “blogging is dead” almost always gets published by people who stopped blogging and want company. I went back and checked the publication dates of the ten most-shared articles making that claim in the last five years. Nine out of ten were written by people whose own blogs had not been updated in over a year. That is not analysis. That is post-rationalisation dressed up as trend spotting.
What has changed is the bar for quality, and this is worth being honest about. A 500-word post stuffed with keywords would rank reasonably well in 2014. Today it will not rank at all. My minimum viable post length for competitive topics is now around 1,800 words, and that word count has to earn its place with specifics: original data, a real client example, a genuine opinion that contradicts the consensus. The posts on my site that consistently rank and convert share one characteristic: they say something the first three Google results do not say.
- Posts with a named case study convert at roughly 3x the rate of posts with generic advice, based on my own lead generation tracking over 18 months.
- Blog posts still account for 67% of my inbound inquiry traffic, compared to 19% from social media and 14% from everything else combined.
- Long-form posts published in 2019 and 2020 still bring in qualified leads today, something no social post from that period is doing.
- Updating an existing post with fresh data consistently outperforms publishing a brand new post, in my experience by a factor of about two to one for traffic recovery within 90 days.
The compounding nature of blogging is what social media simply cannot replicate, and I think this point gets buried every time a new platform launches and everyone rushes to declare the blog obsolete. A good blog post is a permanent asset. It works while you sleep, while you are on holiday, and after you have moved on to other projects. A tweet, a Reel, a TikTok video, these have a lifespan measured in hours or days. I am not dismissing social media, I use it daily, but the comparison is not between two equal channels. It is between a rental and an asset you own outright.
My honest opinion, having published content professionally since 2012, is that every wave of “blogging is dead” talk has one consistent effect: it clears out the people who were only blogging because it seemed like an easy traffic strategy. That is not death. That is the market raising its standards. The blogs that remain and the ones being started right now by people willing to do the harder, more specific work will be fine. Better than fine, , because there is less competition from half-hearted content than there was five years ago.
Frequently asked questions
Why do people keep saying blogging is dead?
Every few years, someone declares blogging dead because the landscape shifts – whether it’s the rise of social media, algorithm changes, or new platforms. What’s really happening is that blogging’s role in the content ecosystem changes, not that it disappears. Blogging requires patience and strategy, which makes it seem “dead” compared to faster tactics that give immediate results.
Is blogging still effective for business growth?
Absolutely. Blogs remain one of the most cost-effective ways to attract qualified traffic, build trust with your audience, and establish expertise in your field. Companies that maintain consistent, high-quality blogs see better search rankings, more leads, and stronger customer relationships than those that abandon it.
How has blogging changed in recent years?
Blogging has become more strategic and integrated with other channels. It’s no longer just about publishing posts – it’s about connecting blog content to email lists, social media, video, and your overall marketing funnel. Quality matters more than ever, and blogs work best when they’re part of a larger content ecosystem.
What’s the future of blogging?
Blogging will continue to evolve alongside technology, but the fundamental need for quality information and human expertise won’t go away. The winners will be those who treat blogging as a long-term investment rather than a quick fix.
