Search Engine Journal State of SEO Report is here, and it shows some extremely helpful insights for SEOs to get success in 2025 as it includes strategies, emerging trends, challenges and overall valuable stats about search engine optimization industry.
13.8% of the SEOs said that the top challenge for them in 2023 is content creation but the survey says that 22.2% of the SEO professionals said that algorithm changes have become a top challenge for them in 2024. 30.2% said that the main reason for unstable traffic is the general algorithm updates which is kind of opposite from 2023, when SEO professionals said that algorithm updates helped with the traffic.
The report also stated the reasons why SEOs are not succeeding. The number one reason (19.4%) was budget limitations. It is also one of the biggest reasons that 41.0% of the clients leave. Search Engine Journal suggests some ways by which SEOs can gain some success despite the financial barriers. SEOs should focus on creating meaningful content that serves the ideal customers instead of thinking about SERPs. It is best if SEO professionals collaborate with their teams to distribute content on social media platforms where their audiences are most active. Make a plan and create strategies to prove their return on investment (ROI).
The biggest change that will hit the SEO industry is AI with 29.0% of SEOs reporting significant changes. 16.6% of those who were surveyed said that Google updates are going to be a major factor in their SEO strategies. 36.3% believe that AI and AI-generated content is going to hugely disrupt the SEO industry.
In the report, 20.0% of the respondents named organic page reviews and keyword rankings as top tracked SEO metrics. Data Analysis (14.8%) and Technical SEO (18.9%) are the rare skills in SEO professionals, as per the report. The most desired skills in SEO professionals are soft skills (18.2%) and ability to build and execute SEO strategies (15.7%). If someone wants to excel as an SEO professional, it is extremely important for them to build rare as well as desirable skills.
68.8% of SEOs said that SERP competition has increased over the last 13 months, 13.2% felt zero click searches and 50.0% of the respondents said that their client turnover is steady in 2024.
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