If you own a business in the 21st century and you don’t have an online presence, you’re doomed to fail. This might sound harsh, but it’s reality.
If you want to increase your number of leads, get more customers, promote your work, or sell any type of service, you need to show up in online search results, preferably at the top.
To help you tackle this task, we’ve compiled a list of the most relevant SEO statistics for growing businesses. Keep reading to get the inside scoop on what works and what doesn’t in the ever-changing game of search engine optimization.
(BrightEdge)
Want to buy a new phone? You search its specs online. Hungry? You search for restaurants near you. Going on vacation? Chances are you’ll book your next trip online rather than going to a travel agent.
We have become highly reliant on the internet to meet almost all our daily needs for information. So it comes as no surprise that practically all online activity begins with a good old search engine.
(Pew Research)
According to Pew Research’s SEO data, surfing the web after doing a browser search and checking emails are the two most common activities for internet users.
(Internet Live Stats)
On average, people all over the world conduct 13 billion searches per day. According to Google search statistics provided by Internet Live Stats, this amounts to 4.75 trillion searches per year.
(Statista)
OK, so 68% of all internet activity begins with a search engine. But how many people actually use search engines in the US? While the newest statistics are not currently available, Statista informs us that this number was projected to reach 239.1 million in 2020, a substantial increase from 213.6 million back in 2015 when the data was first collected. According to these search engine statistics, nearly every adult in America uses internet browsers nowadays.
(Business Insider)
Even though social media is wildly popular, search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing are responsible for driving 10% more traffic to sites than social networks. As social media and SEO statistics show, creating engaging content that will rank well has the power to bring in a lot more business than social media posts. Don’t get us wrong, though - you shouldn’t forsake social media marketing for website content or vice versa. The best game plan is to have a balance between the two, posting regularly on both.
(Statista)
Bearing in mind the previous search engine facts, it makes perfect sense that the industry is worth billions in the US alone. In 2010, American marketers spent $22.1 billion on professional SEO services to optimize their websites so their companies would rank on the first page of Google. The importance of ranking among the top results has since only increased, as has total spending on SEO. In fact, total internet advertising spending is projected to reach $129.59 billion in 2021.
(The Daily Egg)
SEO statistics point to the amazing conversion power of search engine marketing. As many as 14.6% of website visitors who discover websites thanks to successful search engine optimization end up becoming customers. This is huge compared to the 1.7% conversion rate of traditional outbound strategies like emails and print advertising. In other words, the leads you get from SEO are eight times more likely to become paying customers than the ones you generate through traditional ad campaigns.
(HubSpot)
Inbound marketing is all about creating meaningful connections with your clients. And what better way to do just that than delivering the content your clients want to see? HubSpot’s SEO stats show most marketers are on the same page when it comes to ranking SEO on their list of inbound marketing priorities. As a matter of fact, six in 10 marketers consider it priority number one, with only 5% of them viewing SEO as an overrated marketing tactic.
(Ahrefs)
Internet search statistics highlight the fact that people tend to search for longer terms, including three or more words in nearly a third of searches for keywords with a volume of 10,000 or more. This revealing bit of data goes against conventional wisdom that short keywords are king.
(Search Engine Journal)
Just as people like entering long search terms into their browsers, they also enjoy getting lengthy, comprehensive answers to their queries. SEO website statistics published by Search Engine Journal after thoroughly analyzing 1 million Google search results indicate that longer content delivers better results. Posts about 2,000-words-long tend to rank higher than their shorter counterparts on the same subject.
(Uberall)
When asked how likely they were to click on the first two to three search results after conducting a “near me” search, 60% of respondents said they were “very likely” to do so, and another 33% said they were “likely” to click on the top results. These mobile SEO statistics also reveal that only 5% responded they “weren’t sure what they would click,” and 2% said they “wouldn’t click on the top results.”
(Moz)
According to search engine traffic statistics, only a fifth of all Google searches result in more than a single click. This stat only emphasizes the importance of ranking highly on Google, since most people clicks only on the top results and nothing else.
(Search Engine Land)
When looking to bring people to your website, regardless of whether you’re in the B2B or B2C niche, nothing beats organic traffic. Judging by SEL’s search engine traffic stats, it’s by far the most successful method as it generates more than half of all website traffic on its own. Paid searches are responsible for a lean 10% of website traffic, social networks attract only 5% of visitors, and the remaining 34% come from all other sources combined (including emails, displays, and referrals). To improve your website traffic rankings, you need to work on methods that bring in organic visits.
(Search Engine Land)
While content is king, responsible for the better part of website traffic and lead conversion, paid advertisements deter most users. According to SEO vs. PPC statistics, a Google result that shows at the top of the search results page marked with a tiny “Ad” sign will be overlooked by up to 80% of people hunting for information. Hence, a good SEO strategy greatly outperforms pay-per-click marketing campaigns.
(Moz)
Google is the preferred search engine in the world for a reason. It requires just under a minute from when you enter your query to when you get the result you’re after.
(Forbes)
Search engine stats published by SMA Marketing confirm what most of us know from first-hand experience: The majority of people never check the second page of Google results. Three quarters of internet users focus on the results listed on the first page, mostly at the top of it. Only a quarter of searchers peek around the corner to see what’s on the second page.
(Moz)
Google keywords stats tell us that even though many people are used to looking up terms by entering keywords only, some 8% still enter full questions into the search bar. There’s nothing wrong with this method of browsing, and you should actually keep it in mind when forming your SEO plan.
(Forbes)
Considering its number of users, daily searches, and the time people spend on the website, it’s no surprise that SEO industry statistics indicate that YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine. This video giant is owned by the same company as Google - Alphabet Inc. - so it’s safe to say these two platforms dominate the top spots, leaving their competition far behind.
When talking about SEO, most people think of Google. After all, it’s the world’s most used search engine, responsible for driving the most traffic to websites. It holds the dominant portion of the search engine market and delivers search results in a matter of seconds. That’s why, for most marketers, achieving good SEO results means achieving not just a high search engine ranking but a high ranking on Google.
(Statista)
Google has practically wiped out all of its competitors, grabbing a giant portion of the search engine market share - 86.6% of it, to be precise. Leaving YouTube out for the fact that it’s a video-streaming platform, Bing is a distant second, holding only 6.7% of the global market. Statistics on search engines also show that Baidu, the largest Chinese search engine, takes third place with its 0.54% share, while Yahoo! holds 2.71%.
(Internet Live Stats)
Google now processes almost 92,000 search queries every second on average. This means over 13 billion Google searches per day and 4.75 trillion searches per year are conducted worldwide.
(StatCounter)
When it comes to getting info on the go, internet users the world over rely on Google. According to StatCounter’s statistics for search engine usage, as much as 96% of mobile search traffic comes from this search engine alone.
(Wired)
During a five-minute glitch that occurred in 2013, internet traffic dropped by 40%, according to Google stats published by Wired. This paints a vivid picture of just how much internet users depend on the world’s largest search engine to lead them to other websites. Nobody needs to bother remembering the exact URL of the websites they visit when Google serves as the perfect intermediary in the process.
(Search Engine Land)
Most people doing business in the 21st century are aware of the importance of SEO. Rank well on Google, and you’ll have more website traffic, which will, in turn, generate more leads who will later become customers. Simple enough, right? But how can you accomplish this goal with Google constantly changing its algorithm for ranking search results? That’s the key question. Luckily, SEO facts and figures show that only a few of the hundreds of yearly algorithm adjustments are considered major game-changers.
(Internet Live Stats)
Keyword search statistics reveal that up to a fifth of Google searches performed on a daily basis are composed of entirely new keywords or questions. Talk about human ingenuity. And Google’s resourcefulness, for that matter.
(Search Engine Land)
The search engine giant goes out of its way to provide the most relevant information in its top results. And it seems to be on the right path, given that the first-page-of-Google statistics tell us that 65% of all Google searches in 2020 ended without any clicks. Typing “Miami weather” or “shoe stores near me” tends to give users all the information they need. This came after a fall in zero-click searches in 2019, with their resurgence possibly being a result of COVID prompting people to make more search queries in general.
(Moz)
What percentage of clicks on Google search results go to images? Statistics about SEO published by Moz after extensive research have revealed that just 3% of clicks on Google search results are for images.
(Internet Live Stats)
In the first years following the launch of Google, the company’s growth rate was extraordinary with a 17,000% year-to-year increase in search volume between 1998 and 1999, 1,000% between 1999 and 2000, and 200% between 2000 and 2001. Google searches continued to increase at rates of between 40% and 60% by the end of the first decade of the 21st century. After 2010 it started to slow down, stabilizing at a rate of 10-15% rate in recent years, according to Google search numbers.
(Moz)
Even though Google’s growth has been steady in the last few years and despite the fact it receives nearly 92,000 searches per second, it still has a lot of room to expand. According to Moz, only 15% of active American web users perform daily searches on this browser, 45% perform at least one query in a week, and 68% make one or more queries monthly.
(Blue Corona)
Multiple studies have shown a slight correlation between Hypertext Transport Protocol Security and SEO. Search engine optimization stats tell us that websites that use HTTPS are more secure and they load faster. HTTPS has been a signal in Google’s ranking algorithm since 2014.
AI has been around for years and is more readily used than we might realize. Indeed, this technology has the power to transform nearly all aspects of our lives. Is the way we search the web one of them? Absolutely. Search engine optimization facts show the change is well underway.
(HubSpot)
Search engine optimization statistics point to the growing popularity of voice search. From Google Home and OK Google to Siri, Cortana, and Amazon Alexa, voice search technology is undergoing a period of enormous proliferation as people get used to talking to AI.
(eMarketer)
People are feeling more and more comfortable with this type of tech. A recently published eMarketer report on voice search statistics predicts that just over 40% of the US population will be relying on voice search by 2022.
(OC&C Strategy Consultants)
This is quite an increase from December 2017, when some 13% of homes in the US and 10% in the UK owned one of these devices. In just a five-year period, smart speakers are expected to be a part of 55% of households, which will significantly affect SEO.
(Statista)
Google keywords in search statistics are bound to change as more mobile phone users get accustomed to voice search. Instead of short keywords that are easy to type, the proliferation of voice search will bring full questions back to search engines.
(Think with Google)
The latest available website search statistics from Google inform us that one fifth of all Google mobile app searches were done by voice in 2016. Remember, these figures reflect the state of affairs from five years ago; we can only assume this number has gone considerably up since then.
When entering Google search words, most users want to see local results. Google has taken note of this and is delivering search results based on users’ locations. Business owners need to be aware of this when creating their SEO strategy.
(GO-Globe)
Nearly half of all Google searches are looking for local information. People often want to know the working hours of a local establishment, the availability of certain goods in local stores, or the weather for the area. This is so often the case that local searches now make up 46% of all Google queries.
(HubSpot)
Search engine optimization stats remind us how important it is to make your website mobile-friendly. People are highly dependent on their mobile devices these days. Failing to optimize your website to provide for a smooth browsing experience across devices can cost you. As many as six in 10 internet users say they would be more inclined to get in touch with a local business if it had a mobile-optimized site.
(Think with Google)
Focusing your SEO efforts on ranking high in Google local searches is a smart move. Why? Because most people who seek local information end up going to brick-and-mortar businesses within a five-mile radius. Even better, local SEO search statistics indicate that 28% of those searches actually result in a purchase.
(GO-Globe)
People want to get useful information quickly when conducting local searches. Finding a place or learning when it closes is the intent behind half of all local queries. So, if you want to increase foot traffic to your business, be sure to make this info available.
(GO-Globe)
GO-Globe’s local search statistics suggest that, even though the internet has become the first place where people look for information, they still love getting in touch via phone. Some 76% of local searches lead to a phone conversation with a local business.
(Think with Google)
Local SEO can make or break a small business. Local search stats tell us that if you fail to optimize your website to provide searchers with relevant information about your establishment, they will simply go to a business that made their working hours and location easy to find.
(Think with Google)
What’s the point of having a wonderful little restaurant if no one can find it? Or offering great yoga classes that only a handful of yogis know how to get to? Internet users need to be able to find your business online if you want it to flourish. Keyword statistics tell us that you need to provide your address and a map for the best results.
(GO-Globe)
Local SEO stats point to the amazing popularity of Google Maps. Almost nine in 10 consumers look for local businesses and directions to them using this app. Conclusion? Get your business on Google Maps, ASAP!
(Search Engine Watch)
Let’s face it - no one likes being bombarded by ads while browsing. But even worse than that is seeing ads for items that are not even available in your area. This is why approximately 70% of internet users, regardless of the device they’re on, say they want to see ads customized to their location.
(Search Engine Watch)
Better yet, people want to see ads that show them products in their close vicinity. According to SEO statistics, 70% of internet users surfing the net from a computer or tablet say they would like to be shown ads for products close by. The percentage is somewhat lower among smartphone users: 61%.
(jeffbullas.com)
Local SEO experts take advantage of this fact. Organic shares from consumers who are so delighted by a service or an establishment that they want to share their location are incredibly powerful in boosting traffic. But this is unlikely to happen without prior investment in search engine optimization.
We do everything on the go; it’s just a fact of modern life. Average website traffic statistics confirm this - more than half of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices. If you want your website to show up in the top results, mobile optimization is a must.
(Search Engine Land)
Until 2015, internet users accessed the web from their PCs. But as smartphones got more sophisticated and free WiFi became more available, the number of mobile searches exceeded the number of desktop searches. When the shift happened, Google changed its algorithm. The so-called ‘Mobilegeddon’ prioritizes websites that display well on smartphones and other mobile devices, forcing businesses to adapt or perish.
(Search Engine Land)
Mobile search statistics published by SMA Marketing tell a tale of how frequently internet users whip out their phones to run a quick search. Just 13% of mobile phone owners don’t run daily searches on their mobile devices.
(Uberall)
Convenience is key to modern consumers, no doubt about it. Amid an endless offer of products and services, they’ll always choose the best option that’s close by. According to Uberall’s statistics on SEO keyword analysis, users most commonly look for food in such searches (84%), followed by entertainment options (56%) and banking (50%). Apparel (41%) and personal care products (38%) get a fair share of local searches, too.
(Statista)
In accordance with shoppers’ preferences, location-targeted advertising presents consumers with ads that are relevant to their current location. Spending on this form of mobile advertising is set to increase to $32.7 billion by 2023 in the US.
(Search Engine Watch)
No wonder such big bucks are expected to be spent on location-targeted advertisements by 2023. They are effective, according to local search stats. Nearly a fifth of consumers report having made a spontaneous purchase because they saw a timely ad for a locally available product.
(Think with Google)
No matter how addicted we are to our smartphones, we still enjoy exploring the internet from other devices. Bearing this in mind, SEO sales statistics such as this clearly show that experts in the SEO business need to take the necessary steps to enhance the browsing experience across all devices with the aim of delivering effective search engine optimization to their clients.
(Think with Google)
Most modern shoppers consult their phones while in a store before they buy a product. They tend to compare prices of the same items in other stores, get more info about their quality, and read a quick review or two. Search engine marketing statistics clearly show that consumers soak up information before committing to a certain retailer. If you can beat the competition with lower prices and have a well-optimized website, you just may persuade that customer to buy from you.
This type of digital marketing is a vital part of SEO. You simply won’t rank if you don’t have content on your website. SEO statistics, however, show that it’s the quality that matters, not the quantity.
(HubSpot)
HubSpot’s digital marketing statistics show that most marketers recognize SEO creates the highest-quality leads. When you get a new website visitor thanks to a well-optimized site that offers content users find appealing and valuable, chances are much higher that the lead will become a client. Self-sourced leads from the sales team and those generated by outbound practices deliver poor results in comparison.
(Hubspot, VentureBeat)
Blog importance for SEO, as the statistics tell us, cannot be understated. According to a 2014 HubSpot report, marketers who put blogging high on their list of priorities are 13 times more likely to make a return on their investment than their colleagues who consider blogging unimportant.
(Demand Metric)
Why is blogging so lucrative? Well, it’s because consumers love reading blogs posted by their favorite brands. According to branding statistics, having an active blog is a way of maintaining customer relations and cultivating your brand’s image. In addition, it remains one of the best-proven SEO facts that blogging also generates leads, and, ultimately, increases profits.
(Backlinko)
So, now that we’ve established that maintaining a blog on your company website can pay back its investment fourfold, let’s see how you can make your existing blog better. SEO traffic generation can increase by 111% if you tweak your content by inserting more trending keywords and deleting irrelevant posts.
(Demand Metric)
As we’ve previously mentioned, you need backlinks to rank highly on Google. And you need to publish compelling content to get links. That said, it’s perfectly logical that companies with a blog receive 97% more links.
(Demand Metric)
Tech Client’s SEO infographic highlights the astonishing influence blogging has on your ranking. Google page indexing is an essential factor in SEO. Having more indexed pages means your website will show up in more searches. It’s like Google’s stamp of approval that helps sites get better positions within searches. And blogging contributes heavily to getting more indexed pages - companies that share blog posts have an incredible 434% more indexed pages than companies that don’t blog.
(Demand Metric)
Statistics on SEO increasing sales reveal the undeniable effectiveness of content creation on generating leads. Businesses that publish blogs rank better than those that fail to engage in this fundamental digital marketing approach. Once you’re highly positioned on Google, more people know about your company, and the magic of SEO marketing happens. You get a lot more leads: 67% more, to be precise.
(Demand Metric)
Well, isn’t this an inspiring SEO stat? As many as 61% of consumers say that reading content related to the product inspired them to buy it. Blogging truly is your chance to accomplish multiple business goals. Through this activity, you improve your search engine ranking, generate high-quality leads, and nurture customer relations.
(Demand Gen Report)
SEO statistics from Demand Gen’s report revealed that nearly half of consumers read up to five blog posts from a company website before getting in touch with a sales rep. The content you publish on your website is what potential clients judge you by. So make sure you post content that reflects your brand values and post regularly.
(Statista; First Site Guide)
While companies engage in blogging to promote their business, there’s also a number of people who blog just as a way of sharing their thoughts with like-minded people. According to Statista’s SEO blog statistics, the total number of bloggers likely exceeded 31 million last year. Additionally, 92.64% of all bloggers live in the US.
Regardless of the quality of your content, Google won’t present your website in the top results unless other websites confirm that quality by linking to it. The following statistics show why link building is an integral part of SEO success.
(Forbes)
Link building is an essential part of SEO Google efforts. Search engine optimization facts don’t lie; it’s virtually impossible to rank highly on Google if you don’t include both internal and external links in your pages. Virtually all top-ranking websites have at least one external link among a number of internal links, according to SEO statistics by Forbes.
(Ascend2/Collective)
Although link building is an integral part of any good SEO strategy - one of the SEO basics, if you will - large companies regard it as the most difficult thing to achieve. SEO keyword statistics reveal that keyword research follows as the second most challenging task, with 39% of large enterprises admitting they struggle with it. On the contrary, mobile and local search optimization are regarded as the least cumbersome tasks.
(Backlinko)
Remember to include the word “because” when reaching out to other websites from your niche and trying to get a backlink. According to Backlinko’s SEO ROI statistics, explaining your reason for writing to someone who doesn’t know you and possibly hasn’t heard of your website greatly increases your chances of getting a reply.
(Backlinko)
Backlinks from strong, authoritative sites are essential for reaching high positions on Google search results. Data provided by Backlinko in 2020 shows that first-ranked pages have nearly four times more backlinks than other sites on the first page of results. That means you really need to put your outreach efforts into high gear in order to improve your SEO ranking.
The final section of our SEO statistics list is dedicated to the remarkable impact of search engine optimization on success in businesses. It supports lead generation so massively that many companies that didn’t consider it a priority no longer exist.
(HubSpot)
Google optimization can go a long way. According to budget statistics for SEA and SEO, getting SEO right for your company website can help you get more leads for less money than outbound techniques. In fact, cold calling and direct email strategies waste both human resources and money, while SEO works its own magic.
(HubSpot)
HubSpot’s B2B SEO stats reveal that nearly 60% of B2B marketers understand just how efficient SEO is in lead creation. It’s not a quick fix but a long-term strategy, which when executed correctly has the potential to bring in more leads than any other marketing endeavor.
(Transaction)
With 8 in 10 shoppers researching products online before spending any money in a physical or online store, it really pays off to invest in your SEO game. Nailing SEO and getting top ranking translates into more revenue.
(SolarWinds Pingdom)
Time is money. With a slew of offers from endless businesses, shoppers wait for no one. If your website doesn’t load in a flash, impatient consumers will go to your competitors. What’s more, Google included page loading time as one of its ranking factors in 2010 in its efforts to provide only the best browsing experience to its users.
(Think With Google)
How effective is SEO? Short answer: extremely. According to search engine marketing stats by SOASTA, every additional second it takes your website to load lowers the conversion rate by 20%. When you compare the lost profits with the cost of investing in an SEO specialist, you get a clear picture of the effectiveness of SEO.
(CloudFlare)
Cutting your loading speed in half - from four seconds to two - can significantly increase both your conversions and hence your revenue. It’s another example of how much internet users value and ultimately reward a company with a responsive website.
(Search Engine Watch)
After checking Google results for a product that interests them, internet users act quickly. This search engine statistic shows that as many as half of them will go to a brick-and-mortar store close by, and over a quarter (28%) will buy something from a local business.
(Search Engine Watch)
Few people read the results from the second page of Google, and even fewer do so when it comes to local searches. That’s why you need an effective SEO strategy that involves looking at keyword search stats in order to land your website in the top results.
While the SEO market saw massive changes in recent years, SEO rankings reports show that it’s still extremely relevant in 2022. SEO is still the main way to help your website reach the upper echelons of Google results and is regularly included in companies’ overall marketing and content strategies as one of the essential elements.
Definitely not, if used in conjunction with other important marketing strategies. SEO alone is nothing without quality content, smart marketing, outreach, and other efforts.
No, far from it. While SEO has changed and is definitely more complex than 5-10 years ago, it’s still an extremely powerful marketing strategy. One of the interesting facts about SEO is that its death has been announced several times over the years. Obviously, reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
SEO is a great career choice because it covers a wide range of elements and strategies you might find interesting and challenging. It encompasses digital marketing, web design, content writing, and much more. SEO can also be very lucrative.
Our SEO statistics reveal a growing and lucrative market. While the terms thrown around might seem complicated, SEO itself isn’t too hard to learn. However, it does require time, as there are several facets to cover – technical SEO, content SEO, and SEO marketing, among others.
Ivana is a staff writer at SmallBizGenius. Her interests during office hours include writing about small businesses, start-ups, and retail. When the weekend comes, you can find her hiking in nature, hanging off of a cliff or dancing salsa.
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