AI SEO Statistics: 40 Statistics You Should Know in 2024

With artificial intelligence being almost everywhere in SEO, these AI statistics show how impactful it can be for most SEO campaigns.

So, what do these AI statistics mean for SEO?

Well, for starters, these industries will experience seismic changes for both positive and negative reasons. 

Content and SEO will now be able to increase their output while decreasing operational costs.

On the flip side, the playing field will only become more competitive. More companies are pumping out more content and guidelines to follow (EEAT). There is a lot more low-quality content due to AI’s output.

These SEO AI statistics show the impact of the change that’s coming to the marketing industry.

Here are the top AI SEO statistics you need to know for 2024.

84% of content marketers and SEOs said that AI and Automation have impacted their SEO strategy (HubSpot)

To me, this is the most prominent SEO-related AI statistic. AI will undoubtedly change how we do SEO, but it seems most marketers are on board with this, too.

With ChatGPT being the first one that comes to mind, there are almost endless possibilities you can use it for.

My personal favorite is using it to rewrite title tags and improve content outlines. But AI and automation as a whole can be highly beneficial for SEOs.

While some think AI will cause the death of SEO, I think it will elevate strategies by allowing marketers to focus on tasks that matter.

It will allow us to automate work, which is often tedious work. The thing that most marketers overlook about AI and automation is that they still involve human involvement to execute them. So, while it potentially reduces head content, it can help marketers execute tasks more effectively and be cheaper.

35% of marketers use AI to create an SEO-driven content strategy (HubSpot)

This statistic is one that I think will cause trouble later down the line. While AI can be helpful for content, it can easily be abused. While there’s nothing wrong with creating AI content, there is a problem with creating content at scale without any human involvement.

In a few cases, we’ve seen websites hit with manual penalties for spamming AI content. A big differentiator here is that it wasn’t for posting AI-generated content but for spamming their website with low-quality content.

AI does not = bad. But AI content without a human touch usually produces low-quality content

51% of SEO specialists don’t think AI will impact their SEO strategy (HubSpot)

I mentioned the “death of SEO,” and I think people saying this often do this to generate buzz. AI will not kill SEO; it will elevate it.

While Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) may hurt organic traffic and CTR, it won’t wipe out SEO entirely. Some searchers will use SGE for quick info but use regular blue links to learn more about a topic.

SGE will likely have the most significant impact on SEO, but what that change will look like is to be foreseen. Google is still making tweaks to the product, and they haven’t fully released it yet.

25% of e-commerce marketers use AI to create product descriptions (HubSpot)

This is honestly my favorite statistic, mainly because it works so well. If you give AI enough to work with, it can create solid product descriptions for you.

You don’t have to spend time researching and writing about a product when you can prompt an LLM to generate the description for you. Again, time will still need to be spent editing the description, but it will at least reduce the need to research your product.

Frankly, I’m surprised this percentage is so low. This is an easy win you can use AI for.

21% of marketers think generative AI will be the most significant disruption in the next few years (Search Engine Journal)

Personally I think generative AI might be a tad bit overblown, but according to the Search Engine Journal’s study, 21% of marketers think it will affect their SEO strategy.

While I do agree, I think the only SEO-related thing generative AI will affect is top-of-the-funnel queries. Queries where your audience wants a quick answer rather than reading a whole article.

I think those queries were always pointless to rank for, but we may now see websites get their traffic cut in half due to generative AI. Even though you’re losing traffic, it’s not necessarily qualified traffic that would’ve led to a sale anyway.

65% of Businesses Generate Better SEO Thanks to AI (SEMrush)

65% of businesses think AI helps improve their SEO efforts. This can be due to content creation, topic research, brief optimizations, or general AI automation.

Whatever it is, it’s quite obvious that AI does have benefits when it comes to SEO.

67% Also See An Improvement in Content Quality Using AI (SEMrush)

Almost 67% of users see an improvement in SEO content after using AI.

While AI content on its own is unlikely to create quality, it can still be used to improve content already written. It can help with readability, finding new ideas, and even adding additional sections to your content.

68% Get a Higher Content Marketing ROI Due to AI (SEMrush)

68% of companies get a higher ROI on SEO and content marketing due to AI. AI allows companies to speed up their content creation process while cutting down on costs. So you can get more while spending less.

93% review their AI-generated content before publishing it. (SEMrush)

Thankfully, 93% of companies review AI-generated content before publishing it.

We may see this number drop as AI gets closer to creating more human-like content, but for the time being, it’s important that this number stays high. The quality of AI content is just not there yet.

Complete List of AI in SEO Statistics

1. 84% of content marketers and SEOs said that AI and Automation had impacted their SEO strategy (HubSpot)

2. 37% of marketers use AI to automate time-consuming SEO tasks (HubSpot)

3. 87% of SEO specialists say they use AI and automation to align content with search intent (HubSpot)

4. The second choice was improving the user experience on their site at 80% (HubSpot)

5. The third choice was improving their SERP ranking at 74% (HubSpot)

6. 35% of marketers use AI to create an SEO-driven content strategy (HubSpot)

7. 44% of SEOs believe AI will have a positive impact on their SEO strategy (HubSpot)

8. 51% of SEO specialists don’t think AI will impact their SEO strategy (HubSpot)

9. E-E-A-T is also considered to be a disruptor at 13.5% (Search Engine Journal)

10. 16.5% of marketers thought generative AI/AI/ML would cause the most significant shift in the SEO industry (Search Engine Journal)

11. 57% of marketers said that generative AI has somewhat impacted their SEO strategy (Search Engine Journal)

12. And that 81.5% of marketers said that generative AI has impacted their SEO strategy in some way (Search Engine Journal)

13. SEO directors were the most likely (37%) to say that generative AI has impacted their SEO strategy (Search Engine Journal)

14. 67% of SEO specialists are currently using an AI tool

15. 37% of SEOs say that aren’t using AI tools because they don’t know how to

16. 57% of SEOs are reconsidering the use of AI for content in the future

17. 46% of SEOs would use AI-generated content more if it was proven to be original (SEMrush)

18. 71% of SEOs rate their AI-SEO efforts as being effective (SEMrush)

19. 51% of SEOs report not spending anything on content due to it being entirely AI-generated (SEMrush)

20. 46% of SEOs are satisfied with their current AI tools (SEMrush)

21. Most SEOs use AI tools for researching content and topic ideas (SEMrush)

22. In 6 different blind comparisons, AI was chosen as the better-written content compared to human-written content (SEMrush)

23. During a March 2023 survey among marketers worldwide, 84 percent of respondents said that aligning web content with search intent is the most effective use of AI (Statista)

Ecommerce AI SEO Statistics 

1. 25% of marketers use AI to create product descriptions (HubSpot)

2. 70% of North American and European e-commerce decision-makers believe AI will aid personalization and facilitate site searches in 2021. (Gitnux)

3. 51% of e-commerce companies use AI to provide a seamless experience (Gitnux)

General AI Digital Marketing Statistics

1. 21% of marketers think generative AI will be the most significant disruption in the next few years (Search Engine Journal)

2. 41% of marketers said that they think generative AI and ML will help their business this year (Search Engine Journal)

3. 68% of marketers are looking to automate tasks or use an AI-powered service (Search Engine Journal)

4. Marketers were asked which tasks could be automated with software next year, and 13% said getting the most from generative AI (Search Engine Journal)

5. Following that, marketers also had content generation at 2 (11.1%) and content audits at 3 (10.7%) (Search Engine Journal)

Closing Thoughts

Want to get ahead of the AI curve and position your site for the change? Know what lies ahead with AI and do your best to prepare your SEO strategy. It’s only going to get crazier from here on out.

Hopefully, you found these AI SEO statistics, which should help guide you on what’s to come.