The current marketing landscape can feel like standing on shifting ground. AI is answering questions before anyone clicks through to your site. Your LinkedIn posts get more engagement than your blog. People are fleeing for Reddit and Substack. SEO is gone, replaced with acronyms like GEO, AIO and AEO. It’s time to revisit your B2B website content strategy!
I’ve had these same conversations with smart, strategic B2B marketers in technology, healthcare, and the built environment who are genuinely wondering if their website investment still makes sense. The pressure to show up where their prospects are is real.
The fundamentals of websites, and why they exist, haven’t changed. They are becoming more valuable in a cluttered digital world. True North Content is committed to increasing focus on — and visibility for — website content.
Authority: The Zero-Click Win
In 2025, about 60% of Google searches ended without a click (SparkToro’s 2024 analysis), and AI Overviews appeared in over 13% of queries (Semrush research). When I first saw those numbers, I’ll admit I was disheartened; it feels like we’re creating content that people might never see.
But then I started paying attention to what was actually happening. When AI cites your content as the source in an overview, when you appear in featured snippets, you’re not losing visibility—you’re earning something potentially more valuable: authority. Your brand becomes the trusted source that AI systems reference when answering questions in your domain. And here’s the thing: that authority only comes from owned content on a credible domain.
We’re not losing traffic. We’re playing a different game—one where being the authoritative source matters more than the click itself.
Sticking With Owned Over Borrowed
I’m not here to judge, I see the appeal of borrowed platform: Immediate audience, easy distribution, dopamine hits from engagement. Each has its time and place, based on content and goals. It’s tempting to shift budget there because the results feel more tangible.
But here’s what I know: Inbound leads from owned content cost less and include an engaged audience over outbound tactics. People are on your site because they want to be there, read what you have to say! When you publish on LinkedIn or Medium, you’re renting attention. The moment you stop posting, you’re invisible. That’s the algorithm game of these platforms.
Owned content compounds. That comprehensive guide you published six months ago? It’s still generating qualified leads. The platform post you spent an hour crafting? It’s already buried in someone’s feed, if it even shows up at all. Owned media consistently delivers better ROI, especially when supported by smart distribution through paid and earned channels.
More importantly, you control the experience. You decide how your content gets used by AI systems crawling the web. You own the conversion paths. That’s not just a marketing asset—it’s equity in your brand.
The Customer Journey Challenge
Here’s where I see most B2B websites struggle: We create content without truly mapping it to how buyers actually behave.
The average B2B purchase is done by committee over time. Stakeholders come and go, consuming information in different ways and channels, from their own perspective. That’s a lot of touchpoints. Without strategy, solving their current challenges and proving your worth can come off as chaotic and fragmented.
This means your homepage message needs to flow seamlessly to your service pages, case studies, and resource content. When a CFO lands on your pricing page after your champion shared an educational blog post, the experience should feel continuous—not like they’ve jumped between different companies.
This means its marketers jobs to:
- View each page as a standalone resource. Make sure it has a defined “job to be done,” and fulfills its promise.
- View the journey as a whole. Are there gaps or overlap in this journey? Are there clean next steps and payouts? Is it easy to find answers? Does the journey seem like it’s one spot?
Build Your Resource Section for Your Customers
I’m going to be honest about something uncomfortable: most B2B resource sections are organized for us, not for our customers. We’ve all built those neat little categories—Blog, Case Studies, Whitepapers, Webinars. It makes perfect sense internally. It’s exactly how we create our resources.
But that’s not how your buyers think. They’re not looking for “whitepapers.” They’re looking for answers to specific problems at 2 a.m. when they can’t sleep because a decision is looming.
Modern content architecture needs comprehensive pillar pages supported by detailed content that addresses specific subtopics, regardless of how it’s package. Buyers want solution-oriented content organized by their challenges, not by our content formats. And different types of content signal different levels of buying intent—someone downloading a case study or ROI calculator is much further along than someone reading a general awareness post.
The shift we need to make? Organize resources by buyer intent and journey stage, not by what’s easiest for our CMS. This probably means giving your Resource page a hard look. Are you offering filters, prompts, personalization, tagging?
Three Actions to Implement Today
I’m not suggesting any of this is easy. We’re all trying to figure this out together. But here’s what’s actually moving the needle:
1. Optimize for AI readability
Structure your content with clear headings, concise answers, and cited data. Make it easy for AI systems to understand and reference your expertise. This isn’t about gaming algorithms—it’s about clarity.
2. Build Topic Authority
Metrics matter, and what matters is changing. Create comprehensive pillar content on your core competencies and support it with specific, detailed resources. Own the conversation in your niche instead of competing for every tangential keyword.
3. Be Intentional About Journey Mapping
If you can’t articulate which persona and which stage a piece of content serves, pause before publishing. Be strategic, not just prolific.
Reinvest in Your Website for Genuine Results
I understand the temptation to follow the crowd to new platforms or to pull back on website investment when the metrics look uncertain. The pressure to show immediate results is intense. But the marketers I see winning aren’t the ones chasing every shiny object or panicking about every algorithm change.
They’re the ones building something permanent of quality—authoritative, trusted, owned content that compounds in value every single day. Your website isn’t just a digital business card or a legacy asset. It’s still your most powerful marketing tool. And in 2026, that’s truer than ever—we just need to use it differently.
You’ve got this!