Blogging saw a huge spike in growth in 2014. Since then, content creation strategies have developed into successful businesses and allow people to live their desired lifestyles. What is it about blogging that works so well?
It gives marketers the chance to build brand awareness, convert leads, and build a figure of authority, to name a few.
Companies that started a blog generate 67% more leads than companies that don’t. This statistic means, if your business doesn’t have an active blogging strategy in place, you could be missing out on huge opportunities to gain your market share and keep a competitive advantage.
In this article, we’ve hand-picked 131 of the most important blogging statistics your business must know to create a powerful blogging strategy to boost your bottom line.
Blogging Growth Statistics 2023
- In 2016, 73% of content creators reported earning money from their blogs.
- As of 2021, 1.8 billion websites exist on the internet.
- Of the 1.8 billion sites, less than 200 million are actually active.
- 2016 was the most significant year for website growth, with 900 million at the start of the year and 1.7 billion by the end of the year.
- Not all websites that exist, host, a blog. In 2021, there are roughly 600 million blogs.
- Over 2.5 million blog posts are published every year.
- There are roughly 6,912,000 posts published every day and 4,800 posts published every minute to break it down further.
- In the U.S. alone, over 31 million blogs actively post monthly.
- Search engine optimization tools have suggested that internet users search for “how to start a blog” 121,000 times per month globally.
Blogging SEO Statistics 2023
- In 2019, the search was found as the number one traffic source for blogs across all industries.
- Only 0.78% of internet users click on a link on the second page of Google searches.
- 90.63% of web pages get no traffic from Google.
- Only 5.7% of blogs will rank on the first page of Google after a year of being active.
- 25.02% of all ranking pages don’t include a meta description.
- SEO is the second leading way to get traffic to a blog, and 69% of bloggers invest in SEO each year.
- In 2020, 70% of bloggers updated old content, compared to just 53% in 2017.
- Bloggers who include updating old content in their SEO strategy are twice as likely to report strong results.
If you want to earn that participation, you need to participate first. – Rand Fishkin
Blogger Challenges Statistics 2023
- As blogging is a side hustle for many, 52% find it challenging to find enough time to grow their blogs.
- 47% of bloggers struggle with attracting visitors and gaining consistent organic traffic.
- 38% of bloggers who don’t have enough time to blog also struggle to create quality content.
- Coming up with relevant topics to write about is difficult for 19% of bloggers.
- 15% of bloggers state getting support from within the organization is their top challenge.
Blog Reader Behavior and Consumption Statistics 2023
- 83% of consumers read blogs from their desktops.
- Internet users spend at least 20% of their internet time on content, including vlogs, blogs, and tutorials.
- 68% of people spend time reading about brands and products that interest them.
- 57% of internet users read content marketing titles at least once per month.
- 80% of people prefer to learn about products through custom content.
- 70% of users would prefer learning about a brand through an article instead of an ad.
- 60% of users enjoy reading relevant content from their favorite brands.
- Custom content helps 82% of readers feel more comfortable with a brand.
- 90% of people find custom content useful.
- In 2020, 46% of internet users regularly consumed blogs and vlogs, demonstrating a 12% increase since 2017.
- In 2017, 13% of females regularly followed beauty and cosmetic blogs, while a whopping 47% didn’t follow these types of blogs at all.
- Blog consumers aren’t sure whether bloggers are honest or not. 43% of people opinionated that bloggers worked with the government in 2020.
- 64% of consumers prefer to read blogs on Chrome over other browsers.
- The functionality of a blog is important to users. 53% of people will leave a blog if the images aren’t loading.
- Clutter, long paragraphs, poor-quality images, difficult-to-read fonts, etc., cause 90% of people to leave a site.
- 75% of a blog’s credibility is because of a clean design.
- 70% of consumers would prefer to learn about a brand through a blog post than an ad.
- 81% of consumers research online before making a purchase decision.
Blog Length and Frequency Statistics 2023
- In 2019, 21% of bloggers reported spending an average of two to three hours on each blog post.
- And only 19% of bloggers in 2019 spent six-plus hours per blog post.
- In 2020, the average time spent writing blog posts increased to three hours and 55 minutes.
- 31% of bloggers who spent six-plus hours on blog posts in 2020 were more likely to report strong results.
- Back in 2014, the typical blog post was only 808 words long.
- In 2020, blog post lengths almost tripled to an average of 1,269 words.
- Bloggers who write articles of 3,000-plus words report 54% stronger results.
- A blog post lengths got longer, publishing frequency decreased. 22% of bloggers publish several times per month.
- In 2014, bloggers published at least six times per week.
- There are consequences to sacrificing publishing frequency for article length. Bloggers who publish daily see 55% better results than just 22% results when posting several times per month.
Blog Type and Content Statistics
- How-to articles are the most popular type of content by far, and 77% of bloggers frequently write this article type.
- Listicles are the second-most popular content type according to 57% of bloggers.
- Whether to incorporate news or not into articles is a 50/50 split between bloggers.
- Effective content types include webinars, roundups, guides, interviews, and gated content, all scoring a 33% in effectiveness.
- 90% of typical blog posts include at least one image.
- 54% of blog posts on the web include statistics.
- 37% wedge in contributor quotes, even though it costs no money and takes little time.
- Only 25% of blog posts have videos.
- While adding video to blog posts is not that common, it sure is effective. Bloggers who incorporated video saw higher results than posts with quotes, images, and statistics.
- Only 3% of bloggers add ten-plus images to their posts.
- However, the more visual content, the more likely the blog post is to drive results. In fact, blogs with ten or more images reported 39% better results.
Guest Blogging Statistics
- The average cost per guest post is $77.80.
- 76% of editors consider publishing at least one guest post per week to be beneficial.
- 94% of blog owners say they will keep publishing the same amount of guest posts or even augment production in the near future.
- 67% of blog owners plan to publish video content from guest bloggers.
- Infographics are becoming easily consumable pieces of content, leading to 52% of blogs wanting to publish infographics from guest bloggers.
- The leading reason publishers seek guest posts is to share ideas from different perspectives with their audience.
- Guest blogging is also a way for blogs to gain more authority by having experts write about important topics.
- The main reason why a guest post gets rejected is due to overly promotional content, according to 79% of editors.
- An additional 56% of editors say they reject guest posts because the content isn’t relevant to their audience.
- The month when blogs search for guest posters the most is in December.
- Next to December, the high months for guest posting are during the summer months, including June, July, and August.
- 71% of editors say the time they spend editing guest posts prevents them from publishing immediately.
- 93% of editors use page views as a metric to determine a guest post’s success.
- 75% of editors determine the success of a guest post by reviewing the time a user spent reading the content.
- 69% of editors look at social shares to measure success.
Blogging Marketing Statistics
- Marketing spending for blogs has lessened over the years. In 2018, spending amounted to $700 million, down from 790 million in 2016.
- Per every dollar spent, blogs can generate approximately three times as many leads as traditional marketing.
- An entire 97% of blogs used social media to promote their content in 2019.
- Email marketing is effective for 66% of blog marketers.
- The top three types of content B2B marketers use includes social media (95%), blog posts and short articles (89%), and email newsletters (81%).
- 31% of marketers use blogs to build brand awareness.
- 13% of marketers use blogs to nurture leads.
- In 2020, 89% of content marketers used blog posts in their content creation strategy.
- 91% of B2B marketers use content in their marketing strategies as it’s a strategic approach to attract and retain more customers.
- 53% of companies have at least one full-time person in charge of marketing and content marketing.
- 47% of businesses outsource their content marketing to freelancers or agencies.
- 36% of organizations say they are fully committed to content marketing, while 36% are only somewhat committed.
- 53% of B2B companies shared that their content marketing efforts have been moderately successful.
- Those businesses that do not yet have a content marketing strategy in place state they have no buy-in from executives or a lack of cooperation between departments.
Blogger and Vlogger Influence on Consumers Statistics
- In 2020, nearly two-thirds of internet users searched YouTube for recommendations when making purchase decisions.
- Furthermore, 13% pulled the trigger on a purchase after a vlogger or blogger introduced a product/service.
- 17% of consumers said the recommendation of a blogger or vlogger was a very important factor in their decision-making.
- 46% agree that they would take into account information that a blogger or vlogger tells them.
- In 2019, 12% of apparel purchases were directly influenced by celebrity bloggers and vloggers.
- 61% made a purchase influenced by a blogger or vlogger and learned about the product on YouTube.
- 42% of people who made a purchase learned about the product on Instagram.
- However, the overall trust in influencers isn’t high. In 2019, a whopping 86% of people on average didn’t trust what influencers said on social media.
International Blogging Statistics
Blogging in Asia
- The Chinese microblog platform, Sina Weibo, generated over 130 million comments in 2018.
- Sina Weibo was also the most popular platform by far, with over 321 million active users in 2020.
- In 2019, Dailysocial was Indonesia’s leading blog with about 2.1 million clicks monthly.
- In Malaysia, the leading blog in 2020 was Paul Tran with 5.7 million monthly clicks. The blog focuses on automotive news and lifestyle topics.
- Singapore’s most popular blog in 2019 was The Smart Local, a news blog with 1.6 million clicks per month.
- 2019 was the most significant year for microblog users in China, with over 350 million users.
Blogging in Europe
- The average blogger (40% of bloggers) in the UK in 2020 had an audience of between 1,000 and 10,000 visitors.
- Only 10% of blogs considered mega blogs in the UK in 2020 had over 50,000 monthly visitors.
- In 2018, 1% of Swedish children aged 17 to 19 blogged or vlogged in for about six hours per day.
- Around 6% of children ages nine to 12 years old reported vlogging or blogging one to two hours per day.
- In Poland, only 3% of internet users read blogs or watch vlogs every day.
- People in Poland who considered having an addiction to the internet make up 11% of people who consume blogs and vlogs daily.
- Sweden’s icon influencers gained an average of $125,000 in 2020.
- On the other hand, Swedish micro-influencers made approximately $20,000 in 2020.
- The average views of micro-influencers in Sweden ranged between five and ten thousand, while views of macro-influencers were 20 and 250 thousand in 2020.
- vDud was the most popular Russian YouTube vlogger in 2020, holding an audience of 1.92 million.
- Diabetes, doctor, treatment, pain, and symptoms were the most discussed health topics on blogs in Spain in 2016.
- Norway’s most popular blog in 2020 was Kokkejelvel, a cooking blog gaining over 27 thousand visitors daily.
Blogging in Central and South America
- In 2017, a huge part of Colombia’s population (41%) read blogs and forums daily.
- In 2020, males made up 9% of microblog users in Brazil, while females counted for 6%.
- Updating blogs in Brazil decreased among male bloggers from 22% in 2018 to 20% in 2020.
- Brazilians age 25 to 34 are more likely to spend time maintaining and updating their blogs.
- Mexico’s blog users mainly consume news-related articles and vlogs.
Blogging Platform Statistics
- As of April 2020, Tumblr is host to 496 million blog accounts, a rise from 463.5 million in 2019.
- As of April 2019, Tumblr bloggers have generated over 171.5 billion blog posts.
- In 2020, the US made up 48.59% of desktop traffic to the visual blogging site Tumblr.
- Tumblr bloggers are equally male and female (75%).
- On WordPress, users make 70 million blog posts and 77 million new comments each month.
- WordPress has been the fastest-growing platform for the past eight years.
- WordPress gets an astonishing 20 billion page views each month.
- The blogging platform Medium has between 200,000 and 400,000 paying subscribers.
- 68% of Medium’s traffic comes from mobile devices.
- In 2019, Wix had over 120 million users and 4.2 million premium users.
The Future of Blogging
The future of blogging can greatly influence your content strategy. As we’ve learned from the statistics, the demand for blog content is only increasing every year, but it’s likely as technology and industry needs change, the way we blog will also take some turns.
Let’s take a look at some important blogging predictions.
Artificial Intelligence Will Change the Blogging Industry
There’s no doubt that AI is slowly getting incorporated into business operations around the world. In 2021, AI in businesses will create $2.9 trillion in business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity.
So, how will AI help with content creation?
Robots are currently writing reports of sports events like this football recap by the Washington Post. Bots can also generate articles on topics such as “what is love” by standardizing data and turning it into a neutral and understandable story.
For now, they lack the personality and creativity that real humans have, but with AI technology getting smarter every year, it’s worth considering your long-term blogging strategy.
Digital Consumption Will Skyrocket
Digital consumption doubled in 2020. Since the start of the pandemic, the daily time spent on consuming content went from three hours and 17 minutes per day to six hours and 59 minutes per day.
With more remote work, online careers, and automation, digital consumption is bound to be on the rise even after the pandemic.
Since 2020, the key statistics demonstrating digital growth that can benefit your blog include:
- 44% of consumers are testing new products after seeing a relevant ad. Younger consumers (aka the biggest group of consumers) take action mostly after seeing a brand promotion on social media.
- 67% of digital consumers are likely to trust a brand if mentioned by an authoritative blogger.
- The future needs a contextual approach. 69% of digital consumers will only consume content relevant to them.
The rise in digital consumption is a huge win for your blog, so remember these key stats to include in your strategy.
Quality Content Will Dominate Search Engines
An entire 72% of marketers have expanded their content budgets and production over the past year. It’s amazing news, but only if the content is high quality.
Quality blog posts have been winning since the huge blog explosion in 2014 and are only becoming more significant to the blogging industry.
Long-form, visually rich articles are important factors in an article’s quality score, and 95% of blog readers say quality content can be improved by removing or lightening the sales message.
Quality content is and will continue to be the best way to gain high-quality backlinks, helping your blog move to the top of the search engines.
You might be interested to check those related posts as well:
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Over to You
Now that you know all of the recent blogging statistics, what will you do?
If you’re deciding to start blogging now, you’re not late to the game, as blogging is on the rise. If you’re looking for ways to boost your current blog, being informed about statistics is crucial.
Planning or updating your content strategy with these statistics in mind will help your blog’s long-term success. There are many important takeaways in this article, and the ones that are more important for your blog will depend. Generally, all blogs should consider consumer behavior trends and what’s in store for the future of blogging.
We hope you enjoyed these statistics!
We got our hand-picked statistics from the following sources:
- Orbit Media
- Statista
- Growth Badger
- Content Marketing Institute
- HubSpot
- Red Website Design
- Ahrefs
- Demand Metric
- BackLinko
- WordPress
- Medium
- Website Builder
- Statcounter
- Slideshare
- Demand Metric
- CSA
- DV
- Neil Patel