Organic search is arguably the most valuable marketing channel there is.
That’s why search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for every brand and business that operates online today.
Your company needs SEO. Period.
Small. Medium. Large enterprise.
Startup. Local business. Global brand.
Whenever people enter a query that’s relevant to your website into a search engine, you want your result to be the one they click on.
That means your site needs to be findable on search engines.
A click on your search result, or the lack thereof, can be the difference between a business thriving or dying.
If your website isn’t visible in the search results for the keywords you want to be found for, you can be sure that one of your competitors is!
Yet, for some ridiculous reason, it remains a struggle to justify the value of SEO – even though SEO has a 20+ year record of driving traffic, conversions, and revenue.
Why?
In part, the undeniable proof of SEO’s value is scattered across a handful of websites in various reports and studies.
In this chapter, we’ve brought together all the latest statistics you need to know about organic traffic, industry spending and value, search behavior, Google, and more.
Here are more than 70 mind-blowing statistics you need to know about search engine optimization.
Organic Traffic Statistics
53%: The percentage of all trackable website traffic that comes from organic search. (BrightEdge)
32%: The average organic click-through rate (CTR) the first Google desktop search result gets. (Advanced Web Ranking)
26.9%: The average organic CTR, the first Google mobile search result gets. (Advanced Web Ranking)
91.75%: The total worldwide search engine market share Google currently holds. (StatCounter, 2020)
2.75%: The total worldwide search engine market share Microsoft Bing currently holds. (StatCounter, 2020)
90.63%: The percentage of pages that get no organic search traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
50.3%: The percentage of all browser-based searches on Google.com that resulted in zero-clicks. (SparkToro, June 2019)
45.25%: The percentage of all browser-based searches on Google.com that resulted in organic clicks. (SparkToro, June 2019)
8.5: The average number of organic mobile search results that Google shows on page 1. (SearchMetrics)
8.7: The average number of organic desktop search results that Google shows on page 1. (SearchMetrics)
Industry/Business Spending Statistics
$79.27 billion: The estimated amount brands and agencies in the United States will shell out for SEO services in 2020. (Borrell Associates)
$39.58 billion: Google’s projected net U.S. digital ad revenues by the end of 2020 – equivalent to 29.4% share of the US digital ad market. This is a 5.3% decline from Google’s 2019 revenues amounting to $41.8 billion. (eMarketer)
7.2%: The percentage of decrease in Google’s U.S. net search ad revenues for 2020. (eMarketer)
>$5,000: The monthly amount the majority of businesses are spending on SEO. (Moz)
Local Search Statistics
Nearly 1 in 3 of all mobile searches are related to location. (Think with Google)
Nearly 2 in 3 of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites or apps customize information to their location. (Think with Google)
76%: The percentage of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby and visit a business within a day. (28%of those searches for something nearby result in a purchase.) (Google)
About 45%: The percentage of global shoppers buy online and then pick up in-store. (Google/IPSOS)
More than 55%: The percentage of shoppers who say they used online video while actually shopping in a store. (Google/IPSOS)
90%: The percentage of consumers who used the internet to find a local business in the last year. (BrightLocal)
91%: The percentage of consumers who say that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. (BrightLocal)
82%: The percentage of consumers who read online reviews for local businesses. (BrightLocal)
13 minutes and 45 seconds: The time an average consumer spends reading reviews before making a decision. (BrightLocal)
76%: The percentage of consumers who trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends. (BrightLocal)
Users & Search Behavior Statistics
52.94% internet users worldwide operate mobile and tablet devices, while 47.06% use desktop. (StatCounter)
+1,000%: The percentage of search interest growth in “what to watch” queries since 2019. (Google)
65%: The percentage of people who use their phone in their I-want-to-buy moments. (Google)
39%: The percentage of purchasers who were influenced by a relevant search. (Google)
79%: The percentage of people who took a relevant action on their phone prior to making a purchase. (Google)
3: The average number of words a typical searcher uses in their search query. (Moz)
~8%: The percentage of search queries that are phrased as questions. (Moz)
18%: The percentage of queries on Google that result in the searcher changing their search terms without clicking any results. (Moz)
21%: The percentage of searches that lead to more than one click on Google’s results. (Moz)
8%: The percentage of Google queries result in pogo-sticking (i.e., the searcher clicks a result, then bounces back to the search results page and chooses a different result). (Moz)
9 days longer: The average number of days people take to make purchase decisions in 2019 compared with 2015. (Google)
Link Building Statistics
75%: The percentage of digital marketers who use content marketing specifically to generate links. (Aira)
1-9 links: The average number of links a content marketing campaign produces as reported by a majority of digital marketers. (Aira)
28%: The percentage of digital marketers who reported having created a campaign that generated no links at all. (Aira)
70%: The percentage of digital marketers who use Ahrefs as a tool for link building. (Aira)
51%: The percentage of digital marketers who use SEMrush as a tool for link building. (Aira)
34%: The percentage of digital marketers who would choose Domain Authority (Moz), If you could only choose one metric to measure authority and / or quality of a link. (Aira)
38%: The percentage of digital marketers who consider rankings as the primary KPI to measure the effectiveness of link building. (Aira)
53%: The percentage of digital marketers who consider guest posting as the most effective link building strategy. (SEMrush)
Over 63%: The percentage of digital marketers who prefer to outsource their link building routines. (SEMrush)
66.31%: The percentage of webpages that have no backlinks. (Ahrefs)
$77.80: The average cost of publishing a guest post. (Ahrefs)
Google Search Statistics
15%: The percentage of searches that Google has never seen before – out of the billions of queries it gets every day. (Google)
~1 billion: The total number of devices where Google Assistant is now built into. (Google)
~2 trillion: The estimated number of searches Google is handling per year worldwide. (Search Engine Land)
40–60 billion: The estimated number of searches happening on Google in the U.S. each month. (Moz)
89%: The difference between Google’s total worldwide search engine market compared to Bing’s. (StatCounter)
Under 1 minute: The all-in time of the average Google search session (from the time of the initial query to the loading of the search results page and the selection of any results, plus any back button clicks to those SERPs and selection of new results.) (Moz)
66%: The percentage of distinct search queries that resulted in one or more clicks on Google’s results. (34% of searches get no clicks at all.) (Moz)
3.4%: The percentage of distinct search queries in Google that resulted in a click on a Google ad (paid). (Moz)
0.9%: The percentage of Google.com search results that get a click on Google Maps. (Moz)
~0.5%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to links in the Knowledge Graph. (Moz)
3%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to image blocks. (Moz)
~0.23%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to Twitter block results. (Moz)
1.8%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to YouTube. (Moz)
0.16%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to personalized Gmail/Google Mail results. (Moz)
0.55%: The percentage of clicks on Google search results that go to Google Shopping results. (Moz)
11.8%: The percentage of clicks from distinct Google searches that result in a click on a Google property, i.e., YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Books, the Google Play Store on mobile, etc. (Moz)
~25% of all searches are distributed across the top 1MM queries, with the top 10MM queries accounting for about 45% and the top 1BB queries accounting for close to 90%. (Moz)
25%: The percentage of all search volume that happens outside the top 100 million keywords. (Moz)
40.9%: The percentage of Google searches done on mobile devices that result in an organic click, 2% in a paid click, and 57.1% in no click at all. (Moz)
62.2%: The percentage of Google searches done on desktop devices that result in an organic click, 2.8% in a paid click, and 35% in no click. (Moz)
SEO vs. Other Marketing Channels
15%: The percentage of all trackable traffic that comes from paid search. (BrightEdge)
5%: The percentage of all trackable traffic that comes from paid social. (BrightEdge)
15%: The percentage of all trackable traffic that comes from all other sources. (BrightEdge)
27%: The% of the global online population using voice search on mobile. (Google)
~20: The number of times SEO has more traffic opportunity than PPC on both mobile and desktop. (Moz)
Featured Image Credit: Paulo Bobita
