Latest Search Engine Journal SEO Survey Report

On Friday, Search Engine Journal released its latest annual State of SEO report, which includes findings from a survey of 1,000+ SEO practitioners whose jobs are spread across the full SEO spectrum.

Highlights:

#1 SEO Challenge in 2024: Algorithm changes, which respondents said replaced 2023's #1 challenge content because having the best content no longer automatically puts you at the top of SERPs.

#1 source of SEO industry changes: AI (not surprisingly)

#1 source of SEO performance disruption: Generative AI in search platforms (ditto)

#1 barrier to SEO success and #1 reason SEO clients leave: Budget, cited by 41% of respondents.. Everyone is feeling the squeeze.

#1 tracked SEO metric: Keyword rankings. It's what clients expect.

#1 hardest SEO skill to find: Technical SEO, cited by 18.9% of respondents. Because it's complex and difficult.

How SEOs rated competition in SERPs:

• More difficult 69.8%
• No change 22.4%
• Easier 7.8%

Biggest barrier to SEO success; Budget and resources

#1 focus area for the next 12 months: Better aligning content with EEAT and intent, cited by 21.6%

Most effective link building strategy: Having better content than competitors (18.1%)

Agency and SEO business strategies for success: 89% plan new service expansions into non-SEO areas in 2024 - with social media marketing cited most often (16.5%).

Pricing in 2024:

• Stayed same 46.9%
• Increased 45.4%
• Decreased 7.7%

Top 3 tasks SEO managers and executives use software to manage:

1. Analytics 22.8%
2. SEO Audits 17.8%
3. Keyword research 17.2%

Most planned new software acquisition: Content generation software14.3%

Businesses that invested in implementing AI: 69%

Managers who said investment in generative AI had noticeable positive impact: 42.1% (no impact: 27.5%)

Data came from a "diverse group" of 1003 "professionals in the SEO industry" from "multiple countries." That's a sketchy description of the sample used, but it's what the sponsor company Conductor provided. In any case the results seem to make sense intuitively.