If you’re reading this, chances are you’re looking for some statistics on SEO spending. You’re in luck—we’ve got what you need.
We all know how difficult it can be to find relevant statistics. The search results are often outdated, or worse yet, completely irrelevant. But we’ve done the work for you and compiled a list of the most recent and relevant statistics on SEO spending.
It’s important that you understand what these numbers mean, so we’ve included a brief explanation of each statistic and why it’s important at the bottom of this post.
So whether this is your first foray into SEO or you’re a veteran marketer looking for some fresh insights and data points, we hope this list helps you find what you need quickly and easily so that you can focus on what really matters: making sure your business is ready for its next big opportunity!
Take a look at our list of top SEO spending statistics for 2022!
General SEO Spending Statistics
1. On average, 8.5% of the online marketing budget is allocated to SEO.
The average marketing budget across all industries is 9.5% of the company’s revenue. With 10.4% of company revenue, financial services have the highest marketing budget.
However, the largest increase in digital marketing budget is reported by tech product company CMOs. In 2022, these companies plan on spending 10.1% of their revenue on digital marketing after spending only 5% in 2021.
(Gartner)
2. In 2022, U.S. companies are expected to spend $71.32 billion on search engine optimization (SEO).
The digital marketing world is full of numbers, so it’s important to know what they mean. That’s why we’ve decided to dive into one of the most important statistics in digital marketing: how much companies spend on SEO.
In the U.S., companies are expected to spend $71.32 billion on SEO in 2022, accounting for 8.4% of the country’s total digital marketing spend of $841.7 billion.
60.7% of the total amount spent on SEO in the US comes from small businesses.
The reason for this trend is simple: more businesses are turning to SEO as an affordable way to get their name out there and connect with potential customers.
With so much information available online these days, it’s no wonder that more companies are investing in SEO—especially since it’s not just about getting your name out there: it’s also about being found when someone searches for what you offer!
(Borrell Associates)
3. The average American small business spends $497.16 per month on SEO services.
About $500 a month is the average amount that American small businesses spend on SEO services like keyword research, link-building strategies, on-page optimization, content creation, and distribution.
This number is an important indicator of how much businesses are willing to invest in making sure they’re found online, and it shows that small businesses are taking this aspect of digital marketing seriously.
It’s also worth noting that small businesses that spent more than $500/month were 53.3% more likely to be satisfied with the results as opposed to those that spent less than $500/month, indicating that spending more on SEO can lead to better results.
(Backlinko)
4. 74% of companies invest in SEO as a way to improve the performance of their digital marketing activities.
The only marketing channel that received more investments than SEO is data analytics, with 77.5% of companies investing in it.
In addition, 70.9% of companies also invest in digital media and search, 69.8% invest in marketing technology systems and platforms, and 68.2% invest in direct digital marketing channels, such as email marketing.
Moreover, 47.3% of companies invest in online experimentation, or A/B testing, while 35.3% invest in managing privacy issues.
Finally, 26.4% of businesses invest in machine learning and automation, and 24.4% invest in improving their app as a way to improve the performance of their digital marketing.
(CMO Survey)
5. 82.9% of the companies that invest in SEO are from the B2B services sector.
In contrast, a notably smaller portion, or 64.3% of the businesses in this sector, invest in digital media and search.
Furthermore, 75.6% of organizations in the B2C services sector invest in SEO, while 63.4% invest in digital media and search. On the other hand, 72.6% of companies from the B2B product sector put money into SEO services, while exactly 60% invest in digital media and search.
The B2C product sector is the only one with more investments in digital media and search, with 75.5%, while 62.3% of these companies invest in SEO services.
(CMO Survey)
6. 88.9% of the transportation and consumer services companies invest money in SEO services.
While the above two industries are the top investors in SEO, the bottom two are tech/software/platform organizations and consumer packaged goods companies, with only 62.7% and 56% of them, respectively, investing in SEO services.
(CMO Survey)
7. 49% of small businesses already invest in SEO services.
While almost half of all small businesses already invest in SEO services, another 31% say that they plan to start spending money on SEO in the near future. Only 18% of small businesses say that they don’t have it in their plans to put money into SEO.
(The Manifest)
8. The majority (70%) of small businesses use an in-house team to execute their SEO strategy.
In addition, 40% say they invest in software and tools, 27% hire freelancers and consultants, and 26% pay an external agency to execute their SEO strategy.
Moreover, 27% of small businesses say they measure their SEO strategy’s success through the organic website traffic they’re getting, while 24% through their keyword rankings.
Additionally, 14% evaluate its success through on-site engagement, 11% through domain or page authority, and only 9% of small businesses measure their SEO strategy’s success through the quality of their backlinks.
(The Manifest)
9. 32.35% of businesses of all sizes say they don’t have a team dedicated to digital marketing.
The largest portion of companies, or 35.29%, have a team of between two and five people working on their digital marketing strategy, while 19.61% have one person on the job.
Furthermore, 8.82% say they have between six and nine digital marketing employees, while only 3.92% have more than ten people working on their digital marketing strategy.
Additionally, 35.29% of businesses rely on freelancers, while 19.61% hire digital marketing agencies to handle some or all of their digital marketing activities.
(Wellspring Digital)
10. With 42.70% of companies outsourcing it, SEO is one of the most outsourced digital marketing activities.
The other one is PPC, with an equal portion of businesses outsourcing it as well. In addition, 25.84% of companies also outsource their social media marketing. However, only 70.30% of them say they have targeted their market while using these channels.
(Wellspring Digital)
11. 35.29% of businesses plan to increase their SEO budgets for 2022.
Besides SEO, 46.08% of companies say they want to invest more money in content marketing, while 45.10% say they want to increase their PPC budgets for the year.
This is aligned with the fact that these three digital marketing disciplines, plus email marketing, are also the strategies businesses had the most success in the year before.
(Wellspring Digital)
SEO Services Market Size Statistics
12. The global SEO services market was valued at $46.6 billion in 2020.
The market has been on an upwards trend since 2015 and grew with a CAGR of 16.7% in five years.
Future projections show that the market will keep increasing with a CAGR of 17.2% and reach a value of $103.2 billion in 2025. Then its growth is expected to slow down slightly to a CAGR of 16.1% and reach $217.8 billion in 2030.
(Business Wire)
In the upcoming years, the African region is expected to be the fastest growing one, with a CAGR of 23.4%.
The South American region is also expected to grow rapidly, with a CAGR of 20.4%, and so is the Middle East region, with a CAGR of 19.4%. The Asia Pacific region will also keep growing, but at a slower pace, with a CAGR of 17.3%.
(Business Wire)
14. SEO agencies account for 81.1% of the global SEO services market.
The remaining 18.9% is accounted for by freelancers, but their share of the market is expected to grow CAGR of 17.4% between 2020 and 2025.
Furthermore, small and medium businesses, with a share of 71.6%, are the most prominent clients for SEO services. They are expected to remain the fastest growing segment in the market with a CAGR of 17.23% during 2020-2025.
(Business Wire)
However, the eCommerce sector is expected to be the fastest growing segment between 2020 and 2025, with a CAGR of 20.1%.
(Research and Markets)
Due to a large number of freelancers on the market, it is highly fragmented, which means that there are many small players and no big players.
(Research and Markets)
With an 11% share, it is the fourth biggest segment in the market, below internet search portals, social media, and digital publishing and content streaming.
(Research and Markets)
18. Global SEO agencies are expected to gain $45.7 billion of global annual sales by 2025.
The top opportunities in the SEO services market by client size are expected to arise for SMEs, and they are forecasted to make $40.5 billion in sales in the same period.
As for top opportunities by end-user, the professional services sector is expected to gain the most, or $22 billion worth of sales, by 2025. The largest portion of those sales, or $14.2 billion, are expected to go to the USA region.
(Research and Markets)
SEO Pricing Statistics
19. 36.78% of SEO services charge per hour.
The largest portion of them, or 25%, charge an hourly rate in the range of $100 and $150. More broadly, 50% of SEO services charge between $75 and $200 per hour.
Almost nine out of ten, or 88.28%, charge an hourly rate under $150, while only 6.25% charge more than $200 per hour.
(Ahrefs)
20. More than half (53.45%) of SEO agencies charge over $100 per hour.
At the same time, exactly a third, or 33.33% of SEO freelancers, have an hourly rate of more than $100. This stat suggests that SEO agencies charge more than freelancers, which is confirmed by the average hourly charge of SEO services.
Namely, the average SEO agency hourly rate is $134.66, for SEO consultants, it is $122.33, and SEO freelancers only charge $68 per hour, on average.
(Ahrefs)
21. SEO services with experience of two years or less charge the lowest fee, with an average of $79.37 per hour.
The average price of SEO services increases parallelly to the years of experience behind the service that provides it. For example, SEO services with two to four years of experience charge $110.69 per hour, on average, while those with more than ten years of experience charge an average hourly rate of $142.50.
(Ahrefs)
22. Local SEO services are 23.17% less expensive than SEO for worldwide markets.
The stats show that the size of the market that is being targeted also plays a role in the price of SEO services. The average cost for local SEO is $96.44 per hour, while it is $118.80 per hour for SEO experts who offer their services worldwide.
(Ahrefs)
23. Almost three-fourths (74.71%) of SEO services charge a monthly fee.
The most common monthly fee for SEO services is between $500 and $1,000, charged by 23.08% of them. The most part (or 75.77%) of SEO services charge under $2,000 per month, while only 24.23% charge a monthly fee higher than $2,000.
Just like with the hourly rates, SEO agencies have more expensive monthly fees than freelancers as well. The average monthly cost of an SEO agency is $2,819.87, for an SEO consultant, it is $1,906.48, while for an SEO freelancer is $1,364 per month.
(Ahrefs)
SEO Spending at IT Companies Statistics
24. 59.2% of IT companies define the impact of SEO as very important to their business performance.
In addition, 27.2% describe its impact as important, and 11.7% have a neutral approach toward SEO. Only the remaining 2% of IT companies consider SEO unimportant.
(Tech Behemoths)
25. Just above two-thirds (67%) of IT companies employ SEO managers.
A recent survey reveals that the larger the IT enterprise is, the higher the chances it has SEO managers hired within the company.
70.3% out of the 33% of IT companies without an SEO manager are small businesses with up to 20 employees. Furthermore, 14.8% are companies with between 20 and 50 employees, and the rest are companies with over 50 employees.
(Tech Behemoths)
26. Of those IT companies that hire SEO managers, 37.9% only employ one in-house SEO manager.
The statistics further reveal that while most IT enterprises rely on only one SEO manager, 26.2% have two people on the job. Additionally, only 15.5% of IT companies have an SEO department, and just 3.9% have five or more employees working on SEO tasks.
(Tech Behemoths)
27. 78.6% of IT companies believe that SEO can improve lead generation.
While the largest percentage of IT enterprises agree that SEO has an impact on lead generation, another 68.9% believe that it is useful for link building.
Moreover, 67% say that companies need SEO for website optimization, 65% say they need it for traffic growth, and 62.1% say SEO impacts their keyword research.
Finally, 60.2% credit SEO for content optimization and 53.4% for competitive analysis.
(Tech Behemoths)
28. 33% of IT companies are willing to spend between $100 and $300 per month on SEO services.
A considerably smaller share, or 20.6% of IT enterprises, are willing to spend between $300 and $500 on SEO.
Additionally, only 5.2% would pay between $500 and $800, while 13.4% would be willing to spend more than $800 per month on such services. 14.8% of IT companies say they haven’t decided on their SEO budget yet.
(Tech Behemoths)
29. The majority (62.1%) of IT companies believe investing in SEO should be done indefinitely.
Most IT enterprises are aware that SEO is an ongoing process, so their answer to how long businesses should invest in SEO was always. However, some IT companies were able to put a cap on the time needed for the SEO process to be successful.
For example, 11.7% believe three to six months, while 8.7% believe one to three months to be the ideal time companies should spend on SEO services.
(Tech Behemoths)
30. 58.3% of IT companies get more than 50% of their traffic through organic searches.
Only 32% of IT enterprises say they get less than 50% of their traffic organically, while 9.7% are not sure about it. However, when it comes to generating leads, only 36.9% of IT companies say they get more than 50% of their leads through organic searches.
On the other hand, 45.6% say they get less than 50% of their leads through search engines, while 15.5% say they haven’t calculated this.
(Tech Behemoths)
SEO Spending at Healthcare Companies Statistics
31. 45% of healthcare organizations invest at least 41% of their marketing budgets into digital marketing.
Interestingly, 10% of these organizations say that their complete marketing budget is invested in digital marketing strategies. Alongside paid social and Google Ads, SEO is among the top three digital strategies healthcare organizations use to improve their marketing performance.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
32. 65% of healthcare institutions already have an SEO strategy in place.
Just above half of the healthcare organizations, or 56%, say they work with a marketing agency to improve their digital marketing.
Moreover, 34% of them have only one employee working in marketing, 41% have a team of between two and five employees, and only 25% have more than five people on the job.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
33. 35% of healthcare companies do their SEO activities in-house.
The above figure is a relatively small percentage compared to other digital marketing activities like social media marketing, which is done in-house by 73% of the healthcare organizations.
Additionally, 33% of them say they use SEO analytical tools, while another 13% plan on investing in them in the near future.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
34. 31% of healthcare organizations say they are looking to increase their investments in SEO.
In addition, the lion’s share of healthcare organizations, or 64%, say they want to continue to invest the same amount of funds in SEO, while only 5% say they want to decrease their SEO budgets.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
35. 17% of healthcare organizations say that SEO is the most effective marketing strategy for attracting new patients.
The strategy that is considered the most effective by the largest number of healthcare organizations is paid search with 23%. Additionally, 19% say social media ads, and 14% believe organic social media to be the most effective strategy for attracting new clients.
On the other hand, display advertising and email marketing each are considered most effective by 9% of healthcare institutions. Lastly, only 8% believe video ads to be the most effective.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
36. SEO is the top marketing initiative for 59% of healthcare organizations in 2022.
Digital advertising is also a top marketing initiative for an equal percentage of organizations, while content creation is for 57%. However, insufficient funds is among the top barriers to a successful marketing program for 35% of healthcare companies, alongside lack of staffing and difficulty with tech.
(Cardinal Digital Marketing)
SEO Spending in Other Industries
37. 61% of banks say they plan on increasing their SEO budgets for 2022.
The only digital marketing discipline that a larger percentage of banks say they want to increase their investment in is digital advertising with 87%.
Furthermore, 59% of banks say they want to invest more in social media marketing, 43% in content marketing, and 41% in email marketing.
Additionally, SEO for banks is also among the top mediums with the greatest return, with a mean average of 3.84.
(ABA)
38. 95% of manufacturing companies invest in digital marketing, and 53% of them invest in SEO.
More than two-thirds, or 69%, of manufacturing companies only spent 5% or less of their annual turnover on marketing in 2022. However, 53% say they plan on increasing their marketing budgets for the following year.
SEO is among this industry’s top three marketing activities, with 31% of companies pointing to it as the most successful. Organic social media promotion with 51% and digital advertising with 32% were the only two digital marketing activities considered most successful by a larger percentage of manufacturing companies.
(The Manufacturer)
39. 71% of eCommerce businesses consider SEO an important instrument in their digital marketing strategy.
In addition, another 21% of online retailers consider it somewhat important. By playing a role in 92% of the eCommerce businesses, SEO is easily the most important tool for online retailers. Additionally, 63% of them believe search engine advertising to be important, while 16% consider it somewhat important.
These statistics align with the fact that 57% of online retailers say they shifted to digital marketing and 56% increased their digital marketing budgets.
(Research Gate)
Conclusion
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the latest stats on SEO spending. We’ve covered everything from what companies are spending the most to what types of companies are investing in SEO and how much they’re spending.
We know that you’re always looking for new ways to help your business grow, and we want to make sure you have all the information you need to succeed!
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out! We’d love to hear from you!
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