The Importance of Research in Content Marketing

Content marketers know all too well the challenges of publishing high-quality content quickly. With Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, it’s not enough to publish high volumes of thin, unsubstantiated content for SEO. The importance of research weighs heavily on the writers who must create content quickly while positively impacting a brand’s content performance and trustworthiness. How do businesses manage research and content creation at scale while improving SEO?

Having a standardized, thorough research phase in your content writing process helps ensure that each piece of content delivers genuine value to your customers. By exploring the fundamentals of research for content marketing, you can ensure your writing team is delivering on your brand’s quality standards and the expectations of your target audience. Managing this stage of the content creation process at scale is key to improving SEO.

The Importance of Original Research in Content Marketing

When you’re creating a high volume of content, it may be tempting to sit down and write about whatever comes to mind. However, this can limit you to your existing knowledge of a subject. Even worse, you may accidentally share information that’s outdated or incorrect. Researching provides a strong foundation for your work across several pieces of content, unlocking a wide range of advantages for your content strategy.

Here are some benefits of research-driven content marketing:

Producing the Right Content

The research phase begins before you even decide which topics you want to discuss. By conducting background research, you can develop a content strategy that resonates with your target audience.

For example, you can research competitor keywords within your niche to find out what your audience is searching for, then brainstorm relevant topics. The effort spent to understand your audience through market research will ensure that each article is relevant to your customers and supports their buying decisions.

Building Professional Authority

A good piece of content needs to be interesting to the reader while showcasing the expertise of your company. When a reader finishes your article or blog, they should be interested in what else your brand has to offer.

By publishing original content that includes trustworthy sources, interesting facts, and expert-level information, you show your customers that you’re an authority in your field. This encourages them to not only trust your brand as a source of information but also to explore the products and services you offer.

Improving Searchability

Creating authoritative content helps your pages rank higher on SERPs. Google wants to connect users with the most relevant and helpful search results. Research and accuracy are essential, especially for YMYL niches like medical, financial, legal, and current event topics.

Backing your work up with thorough research can boost the quality and relevance of your writing to help you rank higher in search. Because Google assesses content by expertise, authoritativeness, experience, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), having well-researched content will cater to Google’s new search guidelines and boost your visibility.

Overcoming AI Saturation

With the dawn of generative AI technology, many sites have started producing masses of low-quality AI-generated content to flood search engine results with their links. Luckily, search engine algorithms have started adjusting to prioritize high-quality content over AI pieces that manipulate search algorithms. The better your content, the more your business can stand out among repetitive AI articles.

Using high-quality, reliable research as the basis of your content is one of the best ways to distinguish your content from AI-based work. Many AI algorithms, such as ChatGPT, aim to mimic human conversation, and they aren’t concerned with being factual or creating original ideas. Producing your own insights based on thorough research allows you to contribute to trending conversations in your field genuinely. AI content, on the other hand, primarily repeats and rearranges existing ideas without adding expert insights.

Promoting Shareability

One of the key benefits of digital content is its shareability. You need followers to repost it on their social media pages or send a link to a friend. In fact, 90% of content marketers use social media as a key distribution method. Ensuring that everything in your content is truthful and accurate will help your audience feel comfortable promoting your links to coworkers, friends, and family.

You may also find interesting, compelling information during the research process that generally makes your content more valuable, engaging, and shareable. For example, while looking for facts to support one of your claims, you may find additional statistics that strengthen your argument or add a new perspective to your piece.

Establishing Trust With Customers

People can make up anything and post it online, and your customers are keenly aware of this fact. If you post inaccurate, unresearched content, you could seriously damage your reputation. When you thoroughly fact-check your articles, you show customers that you’re serious about your online integrity. You can further strengthen the credibility of your content by posting an editorial policy that outlines your commitment to producing well-researched, trustworthy content. Once customers recognize that you have strict research processes in place, they’ll view you as a reliable, go-to source of information that they can trust with their business.

This level of trust and consistency can also translate into financial benefits; 91% of customers state that they’d buy from a company that gained their trust, and 33% of customers would even pay more for a trustworthy company’s products.

Breaking Down the Types of Research

So, what exactly does it mean to conduct research? Essentially, research involves gathering information from different sources. Here are the two main types to know:

• Primary Sources: These are first-hand documents and accounts of a situation, including interviews, surveys, and statistical information.
• Secondary Sources: Documents that analyze, synthesize, or discuss primary sources are known as secondary sources. This can include textbooks, reports, and articles.

You can use all kinds of resources in your research. However, when using secondary sources, it’s important to ensure they’re reliable by reviewing the primary sources they reference. If an article misquotes a piece of research or uses the wrong statistic, you want to make sure you don’t repeat that error in your own work.

Conducting original research in content marketing and creating your own primary sources can also add extra value. For example, if you conduct your own survey or interview experts for your article, you’re the creator of your own original research. This can attract backlinks to your domain, opening opportunities for increased web traffic and improved authority.

Tips for Vetting Your Sources

In order for your content to be trustworthy and reliable, you need to use valid, accurate sources. One of the most important steps in a writer’s guide to research is verifying the credibility of each source. Here are a few tips for vetting sources online and ensuring they’re accurate:

• Find objective sources: Websites with .gov or .edu domain names are often trustworthy, reliable sources sharing objective information. Academic journals and professional institutions are examples of authoritative sources that are typically credible.
• Look for citations: If an article is making a claim, see if they have a source for that information. Whenever possible, go back to the original source to gather all relevant context.
• Embrace research companies: There are many research companies and consulting firms that will partner with other businesses to conduct surveys and original research. These sources often include information about their research methods to verify their credibility.

Crowdsourced websites, such as Wikipedia, can be helpful during initial research, but it’s best to avoid using them as a direct source in content creation. Although these sites can provide helpful background information, they’re also susceptible to misinformation. Anyone can log in and add details that may not be factual. It’s better to look at the sources and citations at the bottom and get the information directly from the original source.

Best Practices for Sourcing and Citations

Now that you have an accurate, well-researched article, how do you show that to your audience? The answer is to cite your sources. Each time you make a claim or show a statistic, use citations.

There are many different ways to cite sources in digital content. One popular method is to simply add a direct link to the source material. You can also use footnotes in the content itself, then add a bibliography at the end with each source. Another option is to use in-text citations, which involves directly referencing the source in your writing with phrases like “According to…” or “Based on research from…”

Having all of your citations in the same format can add an extra level of professionalism to your content. One option is to use official citation styles designed for research papers, such as MLA and APA. This can be a good choice if you’re sharing academic or professional content with heavy research. However, simple links can be great for a more approachable, casual feel to your content.

The Importance of Researching at Scale: Your Expert Writers

Taking the time to research is an investment in your company’s credibility. Quality research sets your content up for success, helping you get the greatest reach, engagement, and impact from each piece.

Research may feel like a daunting task, but expert writers can handle in-depth research with ease. At ContentWriters, our content writing services connect you with experienced, professional writers who understand the importance of research and are skilled at vetting sources, turning their findings into authoritative, brand-aligned, and shareable content. Reach out to the ContentWriters team to see how research can completely transform your content strategy.

An earlier version of this post was published in September, 2025 by the CW Team.

Wilhemina W.

Wilhemina has years of experience writing in the tech and business space.