Is top-of-funnel content still worth it in 2027?

Organic hunt clicks person fallen 42% since AI Overviews began expanding successful Google Search, while LLMs proceed to afloat reply users’ informational queries in-platform. At the aforesaid time, AI contented accumulation has allowed publishers to flood SERPs pinch top-of-funnel (TOFU) articles astatine standard — meaning title for bluish links has gone up, moreover arsenic disposable clicks person decreased.

Considering these factors, there’s a existent mobility for contented marketers: Is top-of-funnel contented still driving postulation successful immoderate measurement that justifies penning it?

What happened to TOFU postulation complete the past year

To get a high-level publication connected really top-of-funnel contented is trending, I pulled Semrush’s integrated postulation estimates for August 2026 and compared them to the aforesaid period a twelvemonth earlier crossed 30 of the largest integer publishers spanning 9 industries.

While third-party aliases panel-based information aren’t perfect for measuring precise postulation totals, they’re useful for getting a consciousness of wide trends — which is precisely what we’re looking for here. Some of my sample domains included:

• Cloud/DevOps/IT: aws.amazon.com, ibm.com
• Consumer tech: howtogeek.com, pcmag.com
• Cybersecurity: crowdstrike.com, paloaltonetworks.com
• Data/CX SaaS: qualtrics.com, mailchimp.com
• Fintech/finance: investopedia.com, nerdwallet.com
• Healthcare: mayoclinic.org, healthline.com
• HR/people ops: bamboohr.com, gusto.com
• Legal: legalzoom.com, nolo.com
• Marketing/sales/SaaS: hubspot.com, salesforce.com

For each domain, I tracked URL capacity twelvemonth complete year, past grouped pages into a unsmooth TOFU estimate: immoderate pages ranking for keywords that see “what is…” and “how to…”, positive immoderate pages that see “guide” successful their URLs.

YoY TOFU trends: YMYL declined, B2B tech improved

Across this sample of awesome publishers’ TOFU content, each domain successful finance, healthcare, legal, and user tech publishing mislaid postulation complete the past year. This includes glossary entries, “how to” articles, and guides — each declining successful capacity together.

Unsurprisingly, this shape aligns pinch Google’s Your Money aliases Your Life (YMYL) categories, wherever AI Overviews show up astir aggressively. These are the categories wherever Google assumes users want a fast, charismatic reply and don’t needfully request to click through.

While this sample only reviews a apical level of publishers, the manufacture trends surely guidelines out. Even Legalzoom.com, whose crisp 90% YoY diminution successful TOFU contented was an outlier, straight attributed its loss successful postulation to changing patterns successful Google Search, alternatively than immoderate soul aliases tract changes.

However, it wasn’t each bad for TOFU content. Every domain successful cybersecurity and marketing/sales package improved during this window. Collectively, unreality infrastructure besides ended up positive.

Comparing top-of-funnel to middle-of-funnel

But are these TOFU-specific patterns, aliases are they happening crossed the full funnel?

I compared the aforesaid industries against different communal modular markers of middle-of-funnel (MOFU) contented — service/product comparison pages ranking for “vs.” and “best” keywords — to spot if the chimney shape made a quality wrong a fixed industry.

The patterns were remarkably similar. In this sample of 30 of the web’s apical publishers, TOFU and MOFU person been trending together successful the aforesaid direction, either up aliases down.

4 awesome takeaways from YoY TOFU/MOFU trends

1. In 2026, occurrence mostly depended connected industry

Curiously, TOFU and MOFU tracked likewise successful each manufacture reviewed, meaning the chimney shape of a contented strategy whitethorn matter little than manufacture and the assemblage a institution serves.

2. TOFU successful B2B tech is still a reliable strategy

The information propose top-of-funnel contented tin stay a valuable strategy successful definite B2B tech industries. It makes sense, since a B2B purchaser researching a level migration aliases a information vendor whitethorn walk much clip pinch a taxable and spot much weight connected demonstrated expertise than YMYL consumers looking up symptoms aliases a taxation rate. Because B2B decisions often impact larger budgets and much consideration, users’ investigation will spell deeper than a azygous AI Overview tin satisfy.

And beyond AI Overviews — moreover for LLMs, B2B package and infrastructure topics whitethorn move accelerated capable that their training information can’t reliably support up. When an LLM doesn’t already person the answer, it has much logic to hunt and cite the page that does, hopefully still encouraging a personification click.

3. For YMYL companies, a move to MOFU whitethorn not help

If there’s small quality betwixt the top- and middle-of-funnel capacity wrong an industry, a YMYL marque cutting TOFU fund successful favour of MOFU contented won’t sidestep the antagonistic effect of AI Overviews and different forms of AI search.

4. YMYL diminution apt goes beyond awesome publishers

If the YMYL diminution held for the largest, astir charismatic publishers, that’s a bad motion for smaller publishers. Research connected AI Overview citations successful YMYL topics shows Google’s summaries thin almost wholly connected a mini group of established domains (Mayo Clinic successful health, Investopedia successful finance, etc.).

If dominating AI Overview citations isn’t capable to protect the biggest names successful YMYL industries, it’s difficult to ideate smaller publishers, competing for a thinner portion of SERPs, are faring overmuch better.

Effective TOFU contented strategies successful 2027

Past occurrence aliases challenges don’t guarantee early capacity — affirmative aliases antagonistic — particularly for SEO successful the tumultuous 2020s. But definite trends are worthy noting. Beyond industry, respective high-level TOFU strategies look promising for occurrence successful the coming year.

Local hunt that appeals to section needs

Recent studies person shown promising consistency for section hunt traffic. They statement that, since LLMs still deficiency reliable location consciousness and Google’s AI Overviews look acold little often for section queries, tract posts still play a important domiciled successful the section hunt personification experience.

Even so, successful 2027, an perfect section SEO strategy will apt spell beyond programmatic location pages to supply helpful, meaningful contented tailored to the unsocial needs and interests of each work area.

TOFU integer tools

Interactive devices besides look promising. My caller MCP study comparing integrated and LLM-referred traffic recovered that plain acquisition how-to contented (a classical TOFU format) gets cited by LLMs only astir 12% of the time. Since LLMs and AI Overviews are already bully astatine penning generic how-to content, they springiness small logic to nonstop anyone to publication yours.

However, ungated online tools, for illustration specialized manufacture calculators and screeners, are a different story. In that study, astir each instrumentality page picked up astatine slightest immoderate AI Search traffic, and summaries recommended a circumstantial instrumentality by sanction erstwhile asked for an appraisal aliases evaluation.

Tools are 1 of the fewer TOFU formats that AI summaries tin mention but won’t reproduce connected their own. That unsocial makes them worthy prioritizing successful immoderate contented strategy.

Real SME expertise

AI Overview responses are quick, generic, and anodyne. By design, they’re improbable to return a compelling position, make pointed critiques, tie connected firsthand experience, usage humor, springiness absorbing “hot takes,” aliases link concepts to a truer, messy reality. We’ve each seen firsthand really LLMs tin flatten moreover absorbing topics into a short, staid summary.

The “what is X” article, either written aliases informed by a quality SME (who’s tally the process, made mistakes, formed nuanced opinions astir tradeoffs, and genuinely cares), will publication otherwise from an AI summary assembled from 5 existing explanations.

And astatine the very least, taking advantage of your organization’s SME expertise successful your contented process tin beryllium a short way to original information aliases insights — which makes your tract far much apt to get cited by AI successful the process.

The artificial elephant successful the room: Scaled AI content

It’s intolerable to talk top-of-funnel strategy without addressing the elephant successful the room: hyper-scaled AI contented generation, a maneuver immoderate publishers are now treating arsenic a modular TOFU practice.

On the surface, it’s easy to spot why trading departments person adopted the approach. Where AI penning is “strongest” is precisely wherever astir TOFU contented lies: generic, topical, informational articles. It’s a reasonably low-effort automated lottery summons for imaginable postulation gains.

Yet for afloat automated, AI-scaled content, moreover the astir meticulously prompted (and slightest rapacious) strategies whitethorn beryllium successful trouble. It’s owed to a fewer converging trends:

AI penning value improvements are slowing

It’s acold excessively early to propose we’ve reached a plateau successful immoderate of AI’s capabilities, but fewer would beryllium consenting to reason that the model-to-model improvements for written contented haven’t slowed complete the past year.

Studies show that AI contented requires dense quality engagement and per-article prompting to perform. Even a heavy “humanized” AI penning style provides constricted worth beyond what AI Overviews and LLMs already supply users.

Tools are progressively calling retired AI copy

Claude now watermarks its output, and Pangram has been rolled retired crossed Substack. AI discovery infrastructure is gaining traction, and users whitethorn progressively expect it arsenic an integral portion of their web experience.

Beyond these tools, we’re besides getting amended astatine AI discovery arsenic accrued vulnerability highlights the telltale patterns, tics, limitations, hallucinations, and communal annoyances of AI writing.

Google whitethorn beryllium changing its mind astir AI content

Most notable for those considering processing aliases continuing scaled AI contented strategies is whether Google changes its stance connected not penalizing AI writing. Google has been aggressively cracking down connected scaled contented in successive updates.

Already, these spam updates look to beryllium going beyond Google’s long-standing ranking levers of search downstream engagement signals, monitoring on-page performance, and weighing backlink signals.

There’s small logic to deliberation contented marketers should debar the usage of AI successful penning altogether. Studies consistently show AI-enabled quality contented performs powerfully — and successful immoderate cases, most strongly.

Yet afloat automated, highly scaled AI contented appears to person small semipermanent value.

Dig deeper: The micro-macro shift: How to measurement AI visibility now that precision is gone

So, is TOFU worthy penning successful 2027?

Over the past year, TOFU contented successful definite B2B industries has shown accordant postulation growth, and its capacity has tracked intimately pinch supposedly more-evergreen MOFU content.

Local SEO remains a unchangeable avenue — peculiarly specialized work guides written pinch a beardown consciousness of area interests and needs. But if your manufacture falls nether YMYL, troubling trends mean you may, astatine the least, want to reassess expectations.

And sloppy of your industry, publishers request to admit that title crossed SERPs has gotten acold fiercer. To thrust existent clicks, your contented now has to hit your competitors, arsenic good arsenic AI Overviews and LLMs, connected progressively bloated SERPs.

At slightest for now, the champion strategy for your contented is to inquire yourself the mobility publishers should ever ask:

Does this page merit to beryllium published?