30 SEO Statistics And What They Mean For SEO & Businesses

seo statistics

The changing search behaviors and Google’s SEO guidelines compel website owners and businesses to update their SEO strategy regularly.

You might have noticed that old SEO tactics, like basic keyword targeting, must be revised.

We gathered the recent SEO statistics about content optimization and search engine algorithms from various survey reports and case studies.

You can analyze these statistics to examine ranking factors and how SEO can help your business grow online.

Refer to these SEO statistics to understand how SEO impacts your business and website ranking on Google.

These statistics help you identify the recent SEO trends to plan an SEO strategy for your business.

1. Google Owns 83% of The Search Engine Market. (Statista)

If you want to gain leads and customers for your business, you must avoid ranking on Google.

Search Engine Market

Google is the single largest market for search engine results. Thus, it’s a necessity for websites and businesses to rank on Google’s SERPs to reach their target audience.

2. Almost 60% of The Pages Ranking on Google Are More Than Three Years Old. (Ahrefs)

Ranking on Google takes around 6-12 months on average.

You should update your SEO strategy regularly to remain relevant to SERPs.

Businesses might have to invest consistently in their SEO strategy to rank on Google and gain its trustworthiness.

3. Organic SEO Can Reduce The Price of Customer Acquisition by 85%. (TeraKeet)

Although it takes time for websites to rank on Google, organic ranking helps them gain loyal, recurring customers.

Usually, people perceive top organic results as authoritative and trustworthy compared to paid results. But the case is otherwise.

Hence, organic SEO is essential for growing a profitable online business.

4. 46% of All Google Searches Are Related to a Local Business or Service. (Search Engine Roundtable)

Organic SERP rankings are a boon for small businesses.

With half of the mobile searches having a local search intent, businesses need to optimize for keywords if they provide advice or services within a specific locality.

local search intent

For example, if your business sells garments made in Vietnam, you can also optimize your website’s local SEO for the keyword “clothes in Vietnam” when selling clothes.

This means when someone searches for clothes online in Vietnam. Your website might appear on SERPs.

5. 28% of All Searches With a Local Intent Result in a Purchase. (Google)

Google business profile is a powerful tool to rank for keywords with local intent.

Local Intent Result

Businesses optimized for local keywords and better ratings on Google appear on top of the SERP.

6. On Average, Consumers Spend Around 13 Minutes Reading Online Reviews Before Making a Purchase Decision. (Bright Local)

Online reviews for your business listing or website on Google impact your ranking and traffic on Google.

Online Reviews

Business should encourage their consumers to post reviews on Google.

However, engaging with consumers through Google reviews and resolving their issues when they give a low rating is equally important for SERP rankings.

Note: Google tracks data over time and understands any improvements or shortcomings in your brand’s digital presence.

7. Mobile Search Accounts For 58% of all Google Searches. (Hitwise Report)

Mobile optimization is one of the essential SEO ranking factors.

Businesses need to have a mobile-friendly website to rank on SERP.

As more people own smartphones than other devices, Google is pushing for mobile-friendly web pages.

Mobile Optimization

Thus, businesses should focus on building mobile-friendly pages and scannable content to rank on SERPs.

8. The First Five Search Results Account For More Than 65% of Clicks, Which Means More Than Half of The People Will Only Visit Your Website if it’s on The First Page of SERPs. (Zero Limit Web)

To gain leads and customers, ranking on the first page is essential.

Remember, even if a few of your web pages can rank in the top results, your business can still bring target customers.

9. Almost 12.3% of Search Queries Show a Featured Snippet on The SERP. (Ahrefs)

Google is moving towards a zero-click search.

Hence, we can expect more featured snippet results on SERP.

Websites need to optimize their content for specific queries and frequently asked questions to appear as featured snippets for more organic traffic.

10. Around 90.63% of Web Pages Get no Organic Traffic From Google. (Ahrefs)

 Millions of pages do not have backlinks or proper search intent.

 As a result, they do not appear on page 1 of SERP.

Organic Traffic

Therefore, 10% of pages capture 90% of web traffic.

Businesses need to optimize their websites for SEO and provide valuable content to leverage organic traffic on the internet.

11. 60% of Digital Marketers Claim That SEO And Blog Content Are Their Highest Source of Quality Leads. (HubSpot)

Organic SEO boosts the credibility of a business.

Google ranks trustworthy websites at the top of the search results.

Organic SEO boosts

When potential customers discover your website through your content on the SERP, they perceive such businesses as authoritative.

A business gains exposure among its target audience and long-term quality lead through SEO content on Google.

12. 50% of all Search Queries on Google Contain at Least Four or More Words. (Word Stream)

People tend to ask direct questions on Google when they search for a query.

Thus, businesses should target long-tail keywords as they can be direct search queries and have a clear search intent.

Keywords search Queries on Google

Keywords with more words have low search volume and can rank quickly on Google.

13. The Average Bounce Rate For Web Pages Ranking in The Top Three Spots on Google is 49%. (SEMrush)

Although bounce rate is a ranking factor, every website has some bounce rate.

Google is trying to reduce pogo sticking and ensure searchers receive their results as early as possible.

Average Bounce Rate For Web Pages

Websites can improve their user experience (UX), eliminate excessive pop ads, and increase loading speed to decrease bounce rate.

A higher bounce rate might indicate to Google’s crawlers that your website does not satisfy user intent. Since this harms Google’s reputation, the search engine also penalizes your website.

In short, Google algorithms can downrank a result with a higher bounce rate.

14. Major Search Engines Like Google, Yahoo, And Bing Account For 70% of all Website Traffic.(SparkToro)

The majority of searchers visit a website through Google.

With 70% of website traffic coming from search engines, websites should also focus on marketing on other platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for maximum organic traffic.

Major Search Engines website traffic

Generating content on other content marketing platforms is essential to leverage your online audience.

15. The Return on SEO Investments Can be as High as 12x More Than The Marketing Budget. (TeraKeet)

A typical SEO campaign focuses more on generating organic traffic by publishing SEO content and ranking on Google.

Return on SEO Investments

SEO brings loyal customers who stay with a brand for a long time, whereas paid ads often get one-time consumers.

Moreover, people trust businesses ranking organically on SERP.

This SEO statistic shows that SEO generates long-term returns for a brand.

16. The Average First-Page Result on Google is Around 1500 Words. (Backlinko)

Long-form or comprehensive content ranks better than short articles.

It also builds authority for a business or agency because long-form content has more opportunities to increase the engagement rate of a webpage.

Average First-Page Result on Google

People can find more information about a particular topic, and websites can target a basket of related keywords to boost organic traffic through long-form content.

17. 86% of Consumers Ignore Banner Ads And Focus on Organic Search Results. (Infolinks Study)

Banner ads are losing their relevancy.

A banner, or pop ad, had a click-through rate (CTR) of around 40% in the early 2000s. Today the CTR for banner ads is less than 1%.

Banner Ads And Focus

People are skeptical of banner ads and are leaning toward organic results, which means a business can receive higher returns and more consumers through SEO spending rather than costly paid campaigns.

18. On Average, Long-Form Content Receives 77% More Backlinks Than Short-Form Content. (Backlinko)

Backlinko analyzed more than 900 million blog posts to conclude that long-form content receives more backlinks.

Long Form Content

Long-form content is usually comprehensive and covers almost everything about a topic. Hence, generating more backlinks.

Users may not visit other websites if they can receive information on a single webpage.

Websites should focus on long-form but engaging content to boost their traffic.

19. Businesses That Engage in Blogging Receive 97% of More Backlinks (HubSpot)

Half of the Fortune 500 companies had a corporate blog in 2018.

This number is increasing daily, and businesses should build an engaging blog page on their website to attract more customers.

For example, if you are a furniture-selling company, you can publish blogs about furniture settings at home and furniture decoration to bring more audience to your website.

Today, building an online audience through blogs or social media posts is necessary for a business to gain trustworthy customers.

20. A Study by Backlinko Proves That The Number of Backlinks to a Page is an Essential Google Ranking Factor And Authoritative Backlinks Have The Highest Correlation to Top SERP Rankings. (Backlinko)

Backlinks are the backbones of your website.

They provide website authority and ensure your website reaches a broader audience on the internet.

Link building strategies statistics

Most people find building backlinks difficult.

However, you must provide valuable assets, such as infographics and survey studies, and reach out to other websites for robust link-building.

21. 73% of Websites Contain Reciprocal Backlinks, Which Means a Few of The Web Pages They Link to Provide Links to Them. (Ahrefs)

Websites provide backlinks for other similar sites to expand the topical authority of their online content.

Reciprocal Backlinks

Sometimes websites also collaborate with similar sites to promote and share each other’s online resources and bring more audience along with authority backlinks, which leads to reciprocal backlinks.

22. Video Content is More Popular Than Blogs And Infographics For Content Marketing. (HubSpot)

Although the internet has made information more accessible, it has decreased online attention span.

People want engaging content which provides instant gratification, and video content is their top choice.

Video Content

Searchers are moving towards video content over text-based search results.

For example, if someone wants to know how to reboot a phone or things to do on a Bali trip, they might find video content more helpful.

Websites should focus on a combination of videos, pictures, and blogs based on topics to target all stages of their marketing funnels effectively.

23. Articles With Video Content Receive 150% More Organic Search Traffic Than Blog Posts Without Any Media, Such as Pictures or Videos. (Search Engine People)

Including images and videos in articles allows your readers to understand topics better.

Using multimedia is essential to make your content compelling and boost your engagement rate, which allows the content to rank better on SERPs.

24. Keyword-Optimized YouTube Video Descriptions do not Correlate With Ranking on YouTube. (Backlinko)

YouTube SEO is different from Google SEO.

If your content ranks on top of the SERP, that does not guarantee top ranking on YouTube.

Likes, shares, subscribers, and views are more crucial ranking factors on YouTube than targeting keywords.

25. A Business Spends Around $5000 on Monthly SEO. (SparkToro)

Wordstream says a small business spends around $1000- $10,000 monthly on Google Ads.

Monthly SEO

Compared to PPC and other marketing campaigns, SEO is a cheaper and more profitable option for businesses.

26. Websites With High Domain Authority Rank on Top For Voice Search Results. (Backlinko)

Most of the voice search results end with a featured snippet result.

featured snippet result

Voice search results suggest that top-ranking websites are optimizing their content for featured snippets.

Overall, writing for featured snippets can bring more traffic to your website.

27. 60% of Millennials And Gen Z Prefer Visual Search Technology Over Text-Based or Voice Search. (Business Wire)

Millennials prefer to type only what they want to search for.

Instead, people might click a picture to search for things.

60% of Millennials And Gen Z Prefer Visual Search Technology Over Text-Based or Voice Search
Image Credit: copyhacker.com

Google images and maps produce instant results for visual searches, which means you should post pictures of your business on Google maps and social media to leverage visual search technology.

28. On Average, An Individual Spends 3 Minutes And 10 Seconds on The Top 10 Search Results. (Search Metrics)

This SEO statistic again suggests decreasing attention span.

You only have a few seconds to capture the interest of your audience.

Businesses and websites must focus on scannable content to allow users to digest information quickly.

29. SEO Has 12x More Traffic Opportunities Than The PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising Model. (Moz)

Paid ads do not allow you to engage with your target audience. They might be visible to everyone, but SEO is specific.

SEO lets you directly reach your target audience, increasing the conversion rate for posts and articles.

If you are using the PPC model, try to combine PPC and SEO for your marketing campaign to reach your audience faster.

30. Google Receives Over 8.5 Billion Search Queries Every Day. (Ardor SEO)

This number suggests there are several ranking opportunities on Google.

3.5 billion search queries indicate more than multi-billion keyword opportunities.

google searches

Overall, SEO still has many untapped prospects if you can use it to your advantage.

Verdict

These recent SEO statistics highlight the shift in SEO and ranking based on changing user behavior.

Google will rank helpful content that matches the search intent.

However, it’s up to content creators and business owners to convert their generated organic traffic into successful leads.

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