The State of Content Marketing and SEO in 2024 Survey

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Content marketing is a strategy that most businesses are embracing in 2022, especially with recent rising ad costs. Businesses are using content marketing and SEO to generate leads for their business, build their brands, and maintain stellar relationships with customers.

But how are modern marketers investing in SEO and content? And how bullish are they on the industry?

We ran a multiple choice survey to marketers to find out.

Methodology

This survey was distributed to 21,000 marketers and SEOs across industries and verticals and companies of all sizes.

All statistics in this article:

More detailed information appears below, but here’s a roundup of the important stats:

  • An astounding 10% of marketers publish content multiple times per day
  • 43% of marketers publish content multiple times per week
  • 20% of marketers publish content once per week
  • 17% of marketers publish content once per month
  • 9% of B2B marketers publish content multiple times per day
  • 55% of B2B marketers publish content multiple times per week, which is 12% more than the general marketer population
  • 72% of respondents said SEO will be “more impactful” in 2023 than it was in 2022
  • An additional 16% say SEO will be “much more impactful” in 2023
  • Together, 88% of respondents say SEO will be more impactful in 2023
  • A ridiculous 100% of B2B marketers say SEO will be more impactful in 2023 than it is in 2022
  • 60% of marketers say long-form content is the most impactful type of content
  • 13% of marketers say video content is the most impactful type of content
  • 7% of marketers say social media content is the most impactful type of content (this one surprised us)
  • 57% of marketers say content creation is the most important ranking factor for SEO
  • 33% of marketers say backlinking is the most important ranking factor for SEO
  • 63% of marketers say content quality is the most important on-page ranking factor
  • 90% of respondents say that SEO is a top 3 marketing channel
  • 37% of respondents say SEO is their #1 marketing channel
  • 91% of B2B marketers say SEO is a top 3 digital marketing channel for their business
  • 84% of respondents report that they use an SEO tool for some sort of their content and SEO process
  • 63% of respondents said they have used some sort of AI writing/content generation tool
  • Only 27% of marketers have tried YouTube SEO at this point. That number is very low but is higher than the 11% we saw reported in 2021
  • 47% of marketers report that they will invest more in SEO in 2023 than in 2022
  • Only 10% of marketers report that they will invest less in SEO in 2023
  • An astounding 84% of respondents say content is the future of marketing
  • 53% of marketers say that AI is the future of content marketing

The following is a list of content marketing and SEO statistics for 2022

We’ve assembled the 18 most interesting insights from the study into digestible graphs and infographics.

The survey audience

The surveyed audience included single-person entrepreneurial ventures to enterprise marketers. 63% were entrepreneurs/small business owners. while only 7% were large company marketers. The remainder were startup marketers. This makes sense as there are 31.7 million small businesses in the U.S. and only 21,000 “large” businesses.

The industries of the respondents were varied. 37% work for a B2B business, whereas 13% work in B2C, and 20% were in an agency setting. The remainder were spread across local businesses, freelancing, and “other.”

Key takeaway: We believe our survey respondents are fairly representative of the U.S. marketer population.

Content velocity statistics

Google’s John Mueller recently said, “it’s hard to call a site authoritative with only 30 pieces of content” (source). As such, we should infer from this that content velocity is important for SEO. So we decided to ask respondents how often they publish.

  • An astounding 10% of marketers publish content multiple times per day!
  • 43% of marketers publish content multiple times per week.
  • 20% of marketers publish content once per week
  • 17% of marketers publish content once per month

B2B marketers are fairly aggressive with content.

  • 9% of B2B marketers publish content multiple times per day
  • 55% of B2B marketers publish content multiple times per week, which is 12% more than the general marketer population

Key takeaway: Marketers are publishing a lot of content. Our hypothesis is that with rising ad costs and increasing adoption of SEO, more marketers are flocking to content to buoy lead gen.

SEO impact and ranking factor statistics

Marketers love SEO and they think long-form content is the best bang for their buck. That much is clear from the next couple of questions.

  • 72% of respondents said SEO will be “more impactful” in 2023 than it was in 2022
  • An additional 16% say SEO will be “much more impactful” in 2023
  • Together, 88% of respondents say SEO will be more impactful in 2023
  • A ridiculous 100% of B2B marketers say SEO will be more impactful in 2023 than it is in 2022
  • 60% of marketers say long-form content is the most impactful type of content
  • 13% of marketers say video content is the most impactful type of content
  • 7% of marketers say social media content is the most impactful type of content (this one surprised us)
  • 57% of marketers say content creation is the most important ranking factor for SEO
  • 33% of marketers say backlinking is the most important ranking factor for SEO
  • 63% of marketers say content quality is the most important on-page ranking factor

Also read: The Ultimate On-Page SEO Guide

  • SEO is a super high-impact strategy. Again, given how high CPCs are these days, it’s not surprising that many businesses are turning to SEO as a major acquisition driver. 90% of respondents say that SEO is a top 3 marketing channel.
  • 37% of respondents say SEO is their #1 marketing channel.
  • We thought it would be interesting to slice this question for B2B marketers only. However, the statistics are pretty close. 91% of B2B marketers say SEO is a top 3 digital marketing channel for their business.

Key takeaway: Consistently, marketers believe SEO is only becoming a more prolific marketing channel. Quality long-form content is a recipe for success for most survey respondents.

SEO tools statistics

We asked a few questions about SEO software tool adoption and preferences.

  • Perhaps not surprisingly given the audience, 84% of respondents report that they use an SEO tool for some sort of their content and SEO process
  • Overwhelmingly, keyword research was cited as the most important feature of any SEO tool. This is probably unsurprising given it’s a table stakes part of most SEO tools on the market.
  • 63% of respondents said they have used some sort of AI writing/content generation tool.

Also read: The 8+ Best Content Generation Tools

Forward-looking SEO statistics

The future is bright for SEO and content. The below responses make that clear.

  • Only 27% of marketers have tried YouTube SEO at this point. That number is very low but is higher than the 11% we saw reported in 2021.
  • 47% of marketers report that they will invest more in SEO in 2023 than in 2022.
  • Only 10% of marketers report that they will invest less in SEO in 2023.
  • Marketers are very confident in content marketing. An astounding 84% of respondents say content is the future of marketing.
  • 53% of marketers say that AI is the future of content marketing.

Wrapping up

So what do you think? Is content marketing important for your business?

What kind of content do you think would be most effective? YouTube SEO is obviously seeing an explosion in popularity, but long-form content reigns supreme in terms of SEO investment.

Do you have any other questions about content marketing? We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below.


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