To get the latest data-backed insights, HubSpot surveyed 318 marketers with website-related duties about the top trends, opportunities, and challenges of 2025. In this report, I’ll segment respondents under the following labels to point out any significant differences in their answers:
- Senior marketing leaders: C-suite, VPs, and others involved in high-level strategy (n = 211)
- Marketing practitioners: Marketers involved in hands-on implementation or influencing/consulting (n = 107)
I also asked marketing leaders from Canva and Semrush how these trends are playing out in their companies. Read on for insights you won’t find anywhere else.
Table of Contents
- Priorities and Challenges: What do website-owning marketers care about most in 2025?
- Blog Consumption: Is blogging dead? The surprising answer in the age of AI.
- AI Adoption: How are website marketers using AI?
- Technical Resources: Is coding knowledge still useful, and where do web marketers get tech help?
- Survey Methodology and Demographics
- The Future of Website Marketing and Management
Priorities and Challenges: What do website-owning marketers care about most in 2025?
1. Traffic growth is the #1 priority, KPI, and challenge of 2025.
If you're a website marketer obsessing over traffic lately — it turns out, so are all of your peers.
When we asked marketers for their top three website priorities this year, increasing traffic came out on top, with 60% choosing it.
Traffic had a strong lead over the second-ranked priority of improving UX (36%). Enhancing security and improving conversion rates tied for third place at 34%. Revenue fell to the bottom of the list.
Traffic is also website marketers’ number one metric for conveying success in their jobs, outpacing customer acquisition cost and even revenue.
And lastly, in an open-ended question about marketers’ biggest website challenge this year, terms related to traffic received the most mentions, followed by security concerns and improving conversions.
This hyperfixation on traffic transcended segmentation — senior marketing leaders and practitioners alike were most likely to choose it as their top concern.
Without a doubt, traffic consumes website marketers' day-to-day at work.
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The question then becomes … should it be this way?
“We have literally never looked at the return on any channel based upon a vanity metric like traffic,” says HubSpot’s SVP of Marketing Kieran Flanagan on the Marketing Against the Grain podcast, “other than maybe as the leading indicator for what we actually are measuring against.
“We have always looked at conversions into customers. We have actually most of our channels ring-fenced against LTV to CAC numbers.”
That’s a sentiment reflected by Kyle Byers, director of growth marketing at Semrush.
“Traffic only matters when it helps you meet your business goals,” Byers says. “My favorite metrics answer two things: are you driving incremental revenue, and are you doing so efficiently enough?”
For those answers, he looks at:
- Customer lifetime value to customer acquisition cost (LTV:CAC) and payback period
- Return on ad spend (ROAS) and marketing efficiency ratio (MER)
“Upstream metrics are still important, but visibility metrics, like brand mentions and share of voice, are becoming more important than traffic alone,” he says. “That's because customer journeys are changing. Successful marketing means taking people through a much larger portion of the customer journey outside of your website.”
Thanks to the rise of LLMs, Byers says someone might research their problem, discover your brand, and decide to buy your solution — all within ChatGPT.
“And when they do come to your site, they may do so via a link that doesn’t pass referrer data,” he explains. “Or they may make a branded search, click on an ad, or type in your domain directly. In which case, ChatGPT — and the investments you made to show up there — won’t get the attribution.
“Which is why traffic alone is now a lot less important than what's on either side of it: visibility metrics at the top of the funnel, and revenue-related metrics at the bottom.”
Blog Consumption: Is blogging dead? The surprising answer in the age of AI.
Well, you’re reading this blog, so obviously, blogging is alive. But today, the landscape looks much different thanks to AI tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
Anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of U.S. adults now use LLMs as search engines. Let’s look at the external data:
- 57% of U.S. adults use LLMs, like ChatGPT, and of those, two-thirds use them as a search engine, according to a January 2025 survey by Elon University.
- 27% of U.S. and UK respondents said they use LLMs instead of traditional search engines, according to a Future Publishing survey published in February 2025 by Tom’s Guide.
- But, as Search Engine Land points out, Google Search still fielded 373 times more search queries than ChatGPT in 2024.
With web users increasingly turning to ChatGPT or Claude to answer their questions, many are speculating about the future of traditional blogging.
Among website marketers we surveyed, it seems blog readership is alive and well.
2. Website-owning marketers are reading blogs for work more than before.
71% of marketers told us they're reading blogs more now than in the past year, with 38% saying they do so “significantly more often.” Only 4% say they're reading blogs less often.
Staying up to date on the latest industry trends is the leading reason that website marketers read blogs (63%). Learning new skills and generating ideas are secondary reasons.
In the HubSpot Website Marketing Survey, the biggest deviation between the two segments (senior marketing leaders and website practitioners) was on blog consumption.
Leaders were far more likely to report increased blog content consumption in the past year (82%) compared to practitioners (49%), indicating that blogs are still a powerful tool for reaching decision-makers like VPs and C-level execs.
3. When it comes to blog content, website marketers value real-life examples the most.
The type of blog article website marketers find most useful are case studies with real examples, such as “How Company X Increased Website Conversions by 50%.”
They place less value on tool comparisons/reviews, troubleshooting guides, and expert interviews.
If you cater to other marketers, this finding suggests that you should lean heavily into sharing real-life examples to stay competitive in an AI-first landscape.
This reminds me of a conversation I had recently with my coworker Caroline Forsey. She writes prolifically for the HubSpot Marketing Blog, especially in-depth content exploring original research.
When I asked her if she believes AI can create high-quality content, Forsey said it might have humans beat in one specific area: generating listicles comparing the pros and cons of different products.
In other words, AI is best at creating the kind of content that marketers find among the least valuable (which is good news for human content creators!).
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As Forsey explains, “It [AI] can do a really good job with collecting vast amounts of information from different sources — from review sites, from user-generated content, from the product pages of each business. It might be able to do that better, sometimes, than humans.
“Where it can fall short is if you're asking, ‘Does this piece of content push a conversation forward? Does it offer a really unique and maybe controversial perspective? Does it inspire? Does it change minds?’
“I'm not going to say AI can’t do it — I'm going to say it can’t do it by itself. And that's where you really need the human element.”
That human element is what will elevate the case studies that website marketers crave.
AI Adoption: How are website marketers using AI?
In the general population, 34% of people use LLMs (like ChatGPT) at least once a day, according to a January 2025 Elon University survey. But in that sample, only 24% use LLMs mainly for work activities.
I wanted to know: How often are website marketers using AI? And what are they using it for?
4. Marketers are using AI more than ever before — especially high-level strategists.
Ninety-one percent of marketers said they’re using AI for website-related tasks, with 60% saying they use it regularly. 7% don't currently use AI but plan to start. Only 2% say they don’t plan to.
When we drill down into roles, senior marketing leaders are using AI more (94%) compared to website practitioners (86%).
I asked Kyle Byers of Semrush how his team is using AI.
“Lots of examples to choose from,” he tells me. “But one way my team is using AI is for vector embeddings to evaluate our content quantitatively.
“This has been helping us spot content gaps, topic dilution/cannibalization, and internal linking opportunities based on semantic relevance. And it’s allowed our team to quickly zoom out for a broader strategic perspective or zoom in to the finer details.”
5. Idea generation and content creation top AI use cases, while SEO optimization comes in last.
When we asked marketers to choose from among nine use cases for AI in website-related tasks, two came out as clear winners: generating ideas for the website and creating or editing website content, both with clear majorities.
When we segment by role, however, the top two spots flip:
- Practitioners’ number one AI use case is content creation and editing.
- Leaders’ number one AI use case is idea generation.
Overall, 43% of marketers surveyed use AI to generate webpage designs and 39% use it to create graphics and images.
“The biggest ROI from AI-enhanced design is speed to value,” says Canva's executive creative director, Cat van der Werff. “What once took hours or needed a lot of different stakeholders, can now be done in minutes by absolutely anyone.”
I feel that. As a writer, I’m able to create graphics (like the ones you see in this post) thanks to how easy Canva’s drag-and-drop design tool is.
The least popular use case? SEO optimization. But, as Byers points out, the truth is more nuanced.
“Each of the other tasks listed could be part of SEO as well,” he says. “For example, solving technical issues is crucial to SEO performance. And in many organizations, website content is their single largest SEO investment.
“But, general-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can’t run on-page SEO audits or provide keyword search volume estimates. So for those very SEO-specific tasks, people still turn to SEO tools.
“I think the biggest untapped potential is for SEO tools to include more and more AI features (which we’ve been doing and will continue),” says Byer. “Both for improving performance in traditional search and for improving visibility in AI platforms.”
6. Does AI mean less collaboration? Maybe slightly, with designers more impacted.
As a writer myself, I couldn’t help but wonder if the panicked posts are true: Is AI going to replace much of the work I’m doing? Are marketing teams turning to ChatGPT to generate the blogs that humans used to write? Are they going to ask us to merely refine what Claude creates?
From our survey, there’s no clear evidence that AI is replacing human content creators. Nearly half of website marketers report that they’re working with writers, developers, and designers just as often as before.
Beyond quantitative, I wanted qualitative data, too. So, I asked my friend Sophia Lee, who started freelancing back in 2018. These days, 80% of her clientele is for writing coaching, but she says:
“Of my writing clients, I actually haven’t noticed an uptick in demand for AI-generated content. All the brands I work with (many of which are actually in the AI space) still seem to be investing heavily in high-quality, human-crafted content. So this is one of those cases where, at least for me, all the panicked posts on LinkedIn aren’t aligning with what I’m seeing in my day-to-day.”
Other writers, however, see things differently. Justina Perro has spent the past seven years as a successful fractional content marketer, but she’s now seeking a full-time role.
“The past 12 months have been the worst during my tenure," she wrote to me on LinkedIn.
“It’s less about writing, and more about AI orchestration. Prompt creation, ChatGPT strategy and training, and having that human eye and editing lens on more AI-generated content.
“I think the future is bright for in-house content marketers who embrace AI and upskill. As for freelancers? You need to adapt asap or risk getting crushed. I’m currently reworking my entire offerings around AI content services,” says Perro.
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Based on our survey results, web designers are slightly more impacted. When compared to writers and developers, designers were the group that marketers were most likely to say they worked with less often now due to AI.
Designers were also the group that marketers were least likely to say they worked with more often.
When I reached out to web designers about this, the response was similar to what writers told me — a mixed bag. Michael Vereb, a web designer who focuses on AI-driven digital experiences, is excited about how much more he can do with AI.
“I wouldn't say it's killed any business,” he says. “It's definitely created some more opportunities, especially on the automation side.”
Now, instead of spending hours on a mockup, he can send an AI-generated one and get quicker feedback on whether a client likes the style, without wasting time on a design that leads nowhere.
Crystal Grave, however, has seen AI have a negative impact on her business, West Cove Creative. “Last year, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s going on?'"
She started noticing that clients were bringing her AI-generated content. “And I could tell because it wasn't really in their voice, and it didn't really sound like them. It just kind of sounded like a template.”
At one point, she and her husband, who works with her, considered changing careers. But, this year, business is starting to pick back up.
“So maybe people are starting to realize that AI isn't as good as it seems, or it’s all cracked up to be. I don't know,” she says.
Regardless, it prompted a shift in Grave’s approach. Instead of being “just a person who does websites,” she’s positioning herself as a strategist, a marketing expert who can deep dive into a client’s strategy and translate it into a site that meets their business goals – something she says is tougher to replace with AI.
“AI is absolutely reshaping collaboration, but I don’t see it as reducing it. I see it as more redefining it,” says Canva's executive creative director, Cat van der Werff. “What we’re seeing is a major shift where AI takes on the repetitive, lower-stakes work, which then frees up designers and marketers to collaborate on the higher-impact, more strategic parts of a project.
“It’s also broadening who gets to participate in the creative process. With AI, someone in HR, sales, or education can bring an idea to life visually, without needing to be a trained designer, and that opens up more opportunities for cross-functional collaboration.”
That’s exactly how it’s playing out within van der Werff’s company. Canva teams use their own AI tools to minimize back-and-forth and speed up time-to-launch.
“For example, our People team regularly uses AI to build internal sites to share our latest people policies and news, while our product teams are creating external sites to promote upcoming community workshops. By democratizing web design, AI frees up our creative team to focus on more high-impact storytelling and brand-building work.”
Technical Resources: Is coding knowledge still useful, and where do web marketers get tech help?
7. Most website marketers know how to code — leaders are more likely to code regularly, practitioners are more eager to learn.
Unsurprisingly, website marketers are a tech-savvy bunch, with 90% knowing at least some coding basics and 33% regularly coding as part of their job.
Leaders are much more likely to regularly code (40%) than practitioners (19%). But practitioners show a greater eagerness to learn (36% versus 23%).
8. For website troubleshooting, AI chat tools are now the first stop, displacing search engines, especially for senior leaders.
We asked marketers which resource they turn to first when faced with website challenges. AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude claimed the top spot, with 38% selecting it as their single choice. Second place went to search engines (30%).
When faced with website challenges, 38% of marketers consult AI tools first compared to 30% who start with search engines.
When broken down into segments:
- Senior marketing leaders start with AI. 47% turn to AI first with website questions compared to 26% preferring a search engine.
- Website practitioners start with a search engine. 38% turn to search engines first compared to 21% preferring AI tools.
9. For coding help, AI preference is even more prominent.
Marketers are leaning even more heavily into LLMs for coding help.
Nearly half prefer AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for coding-related questions (47%), far ahead of any other resource, including video tutorials and developer forums (which tied for second at 15% each).
And for 90% of marketers, AI has at least partially replaced their previous coding help resources.
These numbers reflect a general shift in information-seeking behavior — where we once relied on Google, we might now turn to ChatGPT. What does this mean for website content discoverability?
“This shift has significantly changed the way we think about discoverability as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and now AI Mode make up a larger part of the customer journey,” says Kyle Byers of Semrush.
“That said, we treat AI optimization like SEO 2.0. The main drivers of visibility across AI platforms are generally SEO techniques—but with a few tweaks: Brand mentions and co-citations on external websites are the new backlinks. Crawlability is just as important as ever, but most LLM crawlers can’t render JavaScript.
“And content is still crucial, but the structure, phrasing, and depth deserve special attention: answer questions directly, summarize key points in a quotable way, include unique data when possible, demonstrate expertise, and cover topics thoroughly.”
Survey Methodology and Demographics
The Website Marketing Survey launched in April 2025 and collected responses from 318 full-time marketing and advertising professionals who play a role in their company website’s management, strategy, or content creation.
Respondents included marketing managers, heads/directors of marketing, growth marketing specialists, content marketing specialists, and business owners/founders.
Most respondents are involved with high-level strategy (66%), making strategic decisions while overseeing website operations or teammates. The rest are split nearly evenly between hands-on implementation (18%) and influencing/consulting (16%).
All marketers surveyed run websites with at least 1,001 monthly visitors. Here’s the exact breakdown:
- 1,001-10,000 monthly visitors: 36%
- 10,001-50,000 visitors: 26%
- 50,001-100,000 visitors: 18%
- 100,001-500,000: 14%
- Over 500,000 visitors: 8%
There was a fairly even split between small/midsize and enterprise businesses, with about 54% working at companies with 101+ employees.
The Future of Website Marketing and Management
As website marketers, managers, and content creators, we’re at an exciting (if not tumultuous) junction. We get to shape the future of website strategy, marketing, and growth.
We’re the ones pioneering how AI gets used (or not) in our daily lives. And it looks like we’re adapting quickly. As things continue to evolve, be sure to check back at the HubSpot Website Blog for all the latest to stay ahead of the curve.
This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.
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