The third annual State Of SEO report has the insights you need to guide your SEO strategy next year.

If you want to know what’s actually happening in the world of SEO, how it’s changed over the last year, and which tactics are making big impacts – go straight to the source. That’s what we did.

We surveyed 3,890 SEO professionals of various backgrounds, jobs, levels of experience, and income to identify the latest trends and evolutions within the industry.

And now, you can access this wealth of data to spot new opportunities and gain a competitive advantage.

Here Are The Top Insights We Found:

This year, rapidly developing technology and competition have shaken things up in a major way.

There were three key disruptors to the SEO industry that made the most notable impact:

E-E-A-T and content production challenges. 

SEO professionals reported that content production and strategy are where they focus, and struggle, most in their jobs.

Google recently updated its quality rater guidelines, adding experience to expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to make E-E-A-T. While generative AI could make content production more efficient, creating stand-out competitive content is becoming more challenging.

Difficulty proving and tracking SEO value.

Many SEO professionals cited budget challenges, SERP competition, and client relationship issues as their top three barriers to success in the past 12 months.

Communication and budget issues seem to be related, especially with elevated competition and new SERP features that could reduce clicks.

Generative AI and AI software.

As platforms integrate it more deeply, AI is set to be a continuing disruptor. But the majority of respondents feel positively about its potential for their workflows and business outcomes.

Generative AI and its potential for content are top of mind for many respondents.

Not only does this report outline the key disruptors to the SEO industry, but we also examine the opportunities they each present. 

As recent changes in SERPs and advancements in technology shift the way SEO professionals track their performance, the challenge now becomes how to better quantify the value of SEO and how to communicate that value to stakeholders.

Want to access more industry insights and learn more about the emergent factors you should be paying attention to?

Download your free copy of the report to improve the way you do business and start making better informed choices for your next year of strategic planning.

Get your 2024 edition of State of SEO now!

A big thanks 👏  to the Search Engine Journal community members who participated to make this report possible!

*Breakdown of survey participants by industry: 2,014 from B2B sector, 1,656 from B2C, 1,758 from agencies, 1,265 from in-house brands, and 772 from independent contractors/freelancers. 2,010 (51.67%) participants are from the U.S.