Is Top-of-Funnel Content Still Worth It in 2027?

Since Google's AI Overviews expanded in search, organic search clicks have fallen 42%, as language models now answer users' informational queries fully within the platform itself. At the same time, AI-assisted content production has let publishers flood search results pages (SERPs) with articles aimed at the top of the funnel (TOFU) — intensifying competition even as available clicks shrink. That's left content marketers facing a real question: is top-of-funnel content still driving enough traffic to be worth writing?

To assess the trend, organic traffic figures for 30 major digital publishers across nine industries in August 2026 were compared against the same period a year earlier using Semrush data. The analysis covered cloud technology, consumer technology, cybersecurity, fintech, healthcare, HR, legal services, and marketing/sales software, including sites like hubspot.com and salesforce.com.

The results showed that every site in finance, healthcare, legal, and consumer technology lost traffic over the past year — categories that fall under Google's 'your money or your life' (YMYL) classification, where AI Overviews show up most aggressively. Legalzoom.com's TOFU content, for instance, saw a sharp 90% drop directly attributed to changes in Google search. Meanwhile, every site in cybersecurity and marketing/sales software actually grew, and cloud infrastructure came out positive overall.

The study also compared top- and middle-of-funnel content (MOFU — comparison pages built around 'vs.' and 'best' keywords) and found the two moving in nearly the same direction — meaning industry and audience type matter more than funnel stage. In B2B technology, top-of-funnel content remains a reliable strategy: a B2B buyer weighing something like a platform migration or a security solution spends far more time researching and won't settle for a single AI Overview. What's more, in fast-moving B2B topics, the data language models were trained on can lag behind — pushing the model to cite a primary source rather than answer directly.

In short, rather than asking the blanket question of whether TOFU is dying, content planners should figure out which category their industry actually falls into — close to YMYL, or requiring deep research like B2B technology. In fields like healthcare or finance, simply shifting strategy toward the middle of the funnel won't offset the impact of AI Overviews, while in fields like B2B technology, quality, in-depth content is still paying off.