Content Marketing Statistics 2026: What Gets Found, Read and Linked

I've published content on my own site since 2005, and I've watched almost every rule of content marketing change. In 2026 the numbers I trust most are the ones I can check, so this page sticks to two kinds: my own data from thousands of pages on my site, with the method explained, and published numbers from sources that don't sell content services, like Eurostat, Pew Research Center, the Reuters Institute and Wikipedia.

Last updated September 2026.

Key content marketing statistics for 2026

• 79.01% of EU businesses had a website in 2025, including 95.65% of large businesses and 76.66% of small ones. Source: Eurostat.
• 63.57% of EU businesses used social media in 2025, up 21.08 percentage points since 2016. Source: Eurostat.
• 34.70% of EU businesses that use AI use it for marketing or sales. Source: Eurostat.
• 84% of US adults use YouTube, the most used platform in the US. Source: Pew Research Center, 2025.
• 46% of people globally get some news from creators, and 27% from news focused creators. Source: Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026.
• YouTube is cited in 57% of the Google AI Overviews I recorded, and independent blogs in about 1%. Source: my AI Overviews study.
• On my site, my write for us pages, built for one specific task, earned about 89 times more Google clicks per page than the 2,923 general pages in my archive. Source: my Search Console data, 14 days to 24 September 2026.
• Links concentrate on a few pages: just 12 pages on my site have 20 or more referring domains. Source: my DataForSEO backlink data, September 2026.
• My two statistics pages earned 9 referring domains, including a university (.edu) link, with no outreach at all. Source: my DataForSEO backlink data, September 2026.
• US searches for "content marketing strategy" more than doubled, from 5,400 a month in September 2025 to 12,100 in August 2026. Source: my DataForSEO pull, 29 September 2026.

How many businesses publish content online?

Eurostat surveys businesses across the EU every year, and its numbers are the cleanest public benchmark I know for how normal online content is. From its digital economy data and social media data:

• 79.01% of EU enterprises had a website in 2025.
• 95.65% of large enterprises had a website, compared with 76.66% of small enterprises.
• The most common website features were descriptions of goods and services (66.36%), job adverts or online job applications (31.34%) and content in at least two languages (29.51%).
• 63.57% of EU enterprises used social media in 2025, up 21.08 percentage points since 2016.
• 89.09% of large enterprises used social media, against 60.59% of small enterprises.

Almost every business has a website, but one in four small businesses still doesn't. The businesses that publish useful content are competing in a crowded space, and the ones that don't are invisible to anyone searching.

AI and content marketing

• 19.95% of EU enterprises used AI technologies in 2025, up 6.47 percentage points on 2024. Source: Eurostat.
• 17% of small enterprises, 30.36% of medium enterprises and 55.03% of large enterprises used AI in 2025. Source: Eurostat.
• 34.70% of businesses using AI used it for marketing or sales, the most common purpose Eurostat recorded. Source: Eurostat.
• 34% of US adults have used ChatGPT, including 58% of adults under 30. Source: Pew Research Center, June 2025.

Marketing is the number one use of AI in European business, which means more content is being produced than ever. That makes original data, first-hand experience and a clear point of view the things that stand out. My AI marketing statistics page goes deeper on this.

Where audiences spend their attention

Pew's 2025 social media survey of 5,022 US adults, run from February to June 2025, shows which platforms content has to live on:

• YouTube: 84% of US adults.
• Facebook: 71%.
• Instagram: 50%.
• TikTok: 37%.
• WhatsApp: 32%.
• Reddit: 26%.
• Snapchat: 25%.
• X: 21%.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, covering 48 markets, shows the same shift towards video and people:

• 54% of people use social media and video networks to access online news, ahead of news organisations' own websites and apps at 51%.
• 46% get some news from creators of any type, and 27% from news focused creators or influencers.
• YouTube is used for news by 34% of people, Instagram by 26% and TikTok by 20%.
• 52% of 18 to 24 year olds say social media, video networks and AI chatbots are their main source of news.

And in the US, Pew found that 53% of adults get news from social media at least sometimes, with 38% regularly getting news on Facebook and 35% on YouTube.

What content gets found in search

• Google showed an AI Overview on 93% of the 300 small business marketing searches I checked on 10 September 2026. Source: my AI Overviews study.
• YouTube was cited in 57% of those AI Overviews and Reddit in 20%. Independent blogs appeared in about 1%. Source: my AI Overviews study.
• People who saw a Google AI summary clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits, against 15% without one. Source: Pew Research Center, July 2025.
• 47.7% of the 30,366 distinct searches that brought my site an impression between 30 August and 26 September 2026 were five words or longer, and 28.8% started with a question word. Source: my Search Console data.
• 43% of the pages on my site that got zero impressions in 28 days were still indexed. Source: my zero-impression pages study.

The pattern is clear from my own data. Written answers to simple questions are exactly what Google's AI now handles itself. Video, community discussion and content that does a job the AI can't are what keep getting seen.

Which content earns clicks: my own numbers

On 24 September 2026 I measured Google clicks per page over 14 days on my site, grouped by the type of content. Here's how each group compared with the average page in my general archive of 2,923 pages that don't fit any of these groups:

• Write for us pages, which help someone find exactly where to pitch a guest post in their niche: about 89 times the clicks per page.
• Free games pages: about 21 times.
• Twitter and X how-to pages: about 9 times.
• Prompt collections: about 6 times.
• Instagram how-to pages: about 5 times.
• Money and jobs pages: about 3 times.

The lesson I took from this: one page that helps someone finish a task beats dozens of general articles. When I plan content now, I start with the job the reader is trying to get done.

Which content earns links: my own numbers

I looked at my backlink data through DataForSEO in September 2026 to see which pages other websites link to.

• 12 pages on my site have 20 or more referring domains.
• 81 pages have between 5 and 19.
• 536 pages have between 2 and 4.
• 371 pages have just 1.
• My two statistics pages, AI marketing statistics 2026 and AI adoption statistics for small business, earned 9 referring domains between them, including a university link, with no outreach.

The pages that attract links are resource guides, templates, curated lists, free tools and statistics pages with a year in the title. That's why this page exists.

What people search for about content marketing

US Google Ads search volumes, pulled through DataForSEO on 29 September 2026, comparing September 2025 with August 2026:

• "content marketing strategy": 5,400 a month to 12,100.
• "content marketing": 110,000 a month to 135,000.
• "content creation": 22,200 a month to 27,100.
• "content calendar": 5,400 a month to 3,600.
• "content marketing examples": 1,600 a month to 260.
• "content repurposing": 590 a month to 140.

Interest in strategy is growing while searches for examples and repurposing are falling, which fits people asking AI tools for the quick stuff and searching for the thinking. If you need a starting point, my editorial calendar template and social media calendar are free.

A little content marketing history

• In 1888, Johnson and Johnson published "Modern Methods of Antiseptic Wound Treatment" for doctors. Source: Wikipedia.
• In 1895, John Deere launched The Furrow, a magazine for farmers that's often called the first custom publication. It still reaches 1.5 million readers in 40 countries in 12 languages. Source: Wikipedia.

Content marketing has always worked the same way: help your customer do their job better and they'll remember who helped.

Methodology

My own data comes from lilachbullock.com: Google Search Console clicks per page over 14 days to 24 September 2026, grouped by content type and compared with the average of 2,923 general pages outside those groups; Search Console searches for the 28 days from 30 August to 26 September 2026; my AI Overviews study (300 live US Google results pages, 10 September 2026); my zero-impression pages study (1,995 URLs, 10 September 2026); DataForSEO backlink data from September 2026; and a DataForSEO pull of US Google Ads search volumes on 29 September 2026. It's one site, so it shows what happens on a working business site rather than a market average.

Third-party data comes from Eurostat, Pew Research Center, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford and Wikipedia. I checked each number against its live source on 29 September 2026 and left out anything I couldn't confirm.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of businesses have a website in 2026?

According to Eurostat, 79.01% of EU enterprises had a website in 2025: 95.65% of large enterprises and 76.66% of small enterprises.

What type of content gets the most traffic?

On my site, pages built for one specific task, like my write for us pages that show someone where to pitch in their niche, earned about 89 times more Google clicks per page than my general articles. General articles answering simple questions earned the least, because Google's AI now answers many of those itself.

What content gets the most backlinks?

On my site, links concentrate on resource guides, templates, curated lists, free tools and statistics pages. Just 12 pages have 20 or more referring domains, and my two statistics pages earned 9 referring domains, including a university link, without outreach.

How are businesses using AI for content marketing?

Eurostat found 19.95% of EU enterprises used AI in 2025, and marketing or sales was the most common purpose, named by 34.70% of the businesses using it.

Which platforms should content marketers focus on in 2026?

Pew found YouTube is used by 84% of US adults and Facebook by 71%. YouTube is also the source Google's AI Overviews cited most in my study, at 57%. For most businesses, that makes video a priority alongside a website.