The State of Learning in SEO (2025 Study)

The death of Twitter has led to a huge shift on how SEOs learn and share their knowledge. With conversations scattered across LinkedIn, Slack, and newsletters, I wanted to know how SEOs learn and keep up with industry news in 2025. 

I launched a survey to test whether SEO publishing still plays the central role it once did, and how gender and tenure influence our learning habits.

Here’s what I found. 

Key Highlights

• SEOs are mainly learning through specialised industry sites (72%), with social media (59%) and newsletters (57%) coming next.

• Industry newsletters and publications are seen as the most effective learning sources, with 78% rating each effective. Events are rated the least effective.

• The industry’s favourite newsletter is SEOFOMO; the most popular event is BrightonSEO.

72% of SEOs learn from industry news sites

SEO news sites and industry blogs are the most common way of learning about SEO, used by 72% of SEOs. These are closely followed by Social media (59%) and SEO newsletters (57%)

Women prefer learning through SEO news sites & industry blogs and online communities, while men favour social media and newsletters slightly more. The favourite for both still is SEO news sites & industry blogs.

Industry newsletters and publications are rated the most effective sources of SEO knowledge, with 78% of respondents finding each effective. Social media (74%) and online communities (72%) also perform well, though they attract higher “neutral” scores.

Events and conferences stand out as the weakest learning source: only 56% consider them effective, compared with an overall average of about 72% across sources. They are also nearly three times as likely to be rated “ineffective” (16% vs 6% average), reinforcing the view that events are valued more for networking than for learning.

Respondents are most likely to view social media and online communities as “very effective”.

When looking at the effectiveness ratings by gender, women are much more likely to rate events negatively, but they feel significantly more positively towards industry newsletters and industry sites than men.

In terms of tenure, senior SEOs (+7 years of experience) are more likely to learn from online communities.

Search Engine Journal is the industry's favourite publication

Search Engine Journal is the most read industry publication, read by 69% of SEOs, followed by Search Engine Land (64%) and Search Engine Roundtable (49%).

Women slightly favor Search Engine Journal, while men show a marginally higher preference for Search Engine Roundtable.

81% of SEOs read industry publications at least weekly, with 35% of respondents reading them daily. 

Senior SEOs are more likely to read SEO industry publications daily, but they also rate them as less effective. 

BrightonSEO is the most popular SEO event

The most popular SEO event is BrightonSEO, which 72% of SEOs prioritise attending.

The next most popular event is WTSFest, 23% of SEOs indicate that they prioritise it. This is particularly remarkable, since this is an event exclusive to women and people of marginalised gender identities. While this could indicate a bias in the respondent pool, only 50% of respondents are female. 

MozCon is the 3rd industry favourite, with 20% of SEOs saying that they prioritise attending it. 

Women tend to favour BrightonSEO and WTSFest events more than men, while men show a higher preference for SMX. BrightonSEO is the most popular event across all genders.

BrightonSEO is the most popular event by far across every level of seniority, but it’s preferred by more junior SEOs. 93% of SEOs with under 3 years of experience prioritise following the event. The number goes down to 64% for SEOs with more than 10 years of experience.

SEOFOMO is the industry's favourite newsletter

The biggest industry newsletter is SEOFOMO, mentioned by 65% of respondents. The second most read is Core Updates, mentioned by 26% of respondents. Up next is WTS, mentioned by 18% of respondents. 

Some other beloved newsletters are Rich Snippets (12%), Growth Memo (11%), and Search Engine Journal's newsletter (11%).

➡️ Check out my favourite SEO newsletters

What I make of all these numbers

At the end of the day, how we learn SEO keeps evolving. What matters is finding the mix of sources that works for you, and staying curious enough to keep adapting.

• Join an online community like Mostly Marketing, Women In Tech SEO or Traffic Think Tank.

• Subscribe to more than one newsletter. Read my list of best SEO newsletters to choose which ones. 

• Don’t neglect social media as a source. LinkedIn has been very useful lately.

• SEO events need to do better by women if they want to be seen as effective in that demographic.

SEO has never been a solo sport: the real learning happens when we stay connected. If you enjoyed this study, connect with me on LinkedIn. 

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Methodology

I surveyed 129 SEOs using SurveyMonkey. The survey had 8 questions and took an average of 2 minutes to complete. 

To reduce bias, the order of responses was randomised.

Survey demographics

Gender of respondents

• Female - 63 respondents (51.22%)

• Male - 55 respondents (44.72%)

• Non-binary - 2 respondents (1.63%)

• Prefer not to say - 3 respondents (2.44%)

Years of experience in SEO:

• Less than 1 year - 2 respondents (1.63%)

• 1-3 years - 17 respondents (13.82%)

• 4-6 years - 28 respondents (22.76%)

• 7-10 years - 26 respondents (21.14%)

• More than 10 years - 50 respondents (40.65%)

Limitations

This study collected 129 responses, a modest sample size, but in line with other industry research.

Because participants were self-selected, the results reflect the perspectives of SEOs who are already active on social media and professional communities. Since the survey was English-only, results skew toward English-speaking SEOs

The distribution channels also introduced some bias: surveys shared in groups such as Women in Tech SEO and The FCDC may have influenced the demographic balance of respondents.