Search engine algorithms may change, but one thing remains the same: SEO is as crucial as ever in ensuring your business’s success in the online space.
Countless organizations, from mom-and-pop shops to global corporations, have leveraged search engine optimization to boost organizational growth and increase revenue. If you’re thinking of incorporating SEO into your marketing strategy, these eye-opening statistics might give you the knowledge and the confidence you need to get started. Staying at the forefront of SEO, by keeping up to date with statistics and movements in the space, will also help inform and guide your strategy.
When you’re done going through these numbers, you might also want to check out our SEO Buyers’ Guide to learn more about SEO and its many benefits for businesses.
SEO Services Statistics
1. Businesses spend over $79 billion on SEO services in 2020. (Source)
2. Businesses that spent over $500 per month on SEO services were 53% more likely to be “extremely satisfied” compared to those that spent less than $500 per month. (Source)
3. The average cost to purchase a backlink is $361. (Source)
4. 2% of U.S. small businesses spend over $25,000 per year on SEO services. (Source)
5. 30% of clients would recommend their current SEO provider to a friend or colleague. (Source)
Local SEO Statistics
6. 72% of users who did a Google search visited a store within 8km of where they were searching. (Source)
7. 61% of mobile searchers say that they are more likely to get in touch with a local business if it offers a mobile-friendly site. (Source)
8. 18% of local searches result in a sale within one day. (Source)
9. 46% of all Google searches look for local information. (Source)
10. 28% of searches that include local intent will result in a purchase. (Source)
11. 4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find out more information about local products. (Source)
12. Yelp ranks in the top five Google search results for 92% of searches that include a city and business category. (Source)
13. Businesses that have at least 4 stars on Google My Business (GMB) outrank those that don’t by 11% on average. (Source)
14. 56% of local businesses have not claimed their Google My Business listing. (Source)
15. “Near Me” searches increased by more than 130% in 2020. (Source)
16. 88% of users seek online reviews for local businesses. (Source)
17. 78% of location-oriented searches will lead to an offline conversion. (Source)
18. 82% of businesses have not claimed their Bing Business listing. (Source)
19. 25% of all searches on Google are for a local business or local service. (Source)
SEO Marketing Statistics
20. 93% of online experiences start with search engines. (Source)
21. 95% of search traffic goes to the first page of search results. (Source)
22. 91% of pages on the internet never get any organic traffic. (Source)
23. 89% of marketers say SEO is successful. (Source)
24. 75% of search engine users don’t click past the first page. (Source)
25. 70% of clicked search results are organic. (Source)
26. 55% of businesses invest in professional SEO services. (Source)
SEO Backlink Statistics
27. More than 65% of pages don’t have any backlinks. (Source)
28. 43% of the top-ranking pages have some reciprocal links. (Source)
29. Backlinks are among the top three ranking factors. (Source)
30. Long-form content gets 77% more backlinks than short ones. (Source)
31. Posts with videos gain more backlinks and have a 157% boost in search traffic. (Source)
32. 66.5% of links to sites in the last nine years are dead. (Source)
33. Average cost of buying a link is $361.44. (Source)
34. Average cost of publishing a paid guest post is $77.80. (Source)
Keyword Statistics
35. Approximately 94% of keywords get 10 or fewer monthly searches. (Source)
36. 8% of all search queries are phrased as questions. (Source)
37. Half of all searches contain 4 or more words. (Source)
38. Approximately 15% of Google searches have never been searched before. (Source)
39. 95% of the entire keyword database gets less than 10 searches per month (which equates to around 3.8 billion keywords). (Source)
40. More than 29% of keywords with 10,000 searches per month consist of 3 or more words. (Source)
41. 46% of clicks in Google Search Console go to hidden terms. (Source)
42. Around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions. (Source)
43. Around 92% of search volumes in Google Ads Keyword Planner are overestimates. (Source)
44. Google Ads Keyword Planner overestimates search volumes 54.28% of the time and is roughly accurate 45.22% of the time. (Source)
Link Building Statistics
45. Almost 94% of link builders agree that the quality of links is more important than the quantity of links. (Source)
46. The more backlinks you have, the more likely you are to receive organic search traffic. (Source)
47. 74% of link builders will build fewer than 10 links per month. (Source)
48. Google’s #1 search ranking usually has about 3.8x more backlinks than the other pages. (Source)
49. 95% of all pages have no backlinks at all. (Source)
50. Around 66% of pages have no backlinks at all. (Source)
51. Companies with blogs get 97% more backlinks. (Source)
52. Long-form content gets 77.2% more backlinks than short articles. (Source)
53. Link building is the most challenging tactic for 41% of marketers. (Source)
54. 42% of SEO professionals devote equal time to building internal and external links. (Source)
Mobile Search Statistics
55. 30% of Google searches from a mobile device include a location. (Source)
56. 40% of mobile users will leave a business website if it takes more than three seconds to load. (Source)
57. 87% of smartphone users report using the search functionality on their devices every day. (Source)
58. 1.3X increase in mobile searches for “where to buy/find/get” in the past year. (Source)
59. 92% of mobile phone users will access the internet from their mobile device. (Source)
60. 69% of mobile device users say that they are more likely to buy from a website that addresses their questions easily. (Source)
61. 57% of users would not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website. (Source)
62. Mobile searches for “where to buy” and “near me” have grown over 200%. (Source)
63. Nearly 63% of organic traffic on Google in the United States is through a mobile device. (Source)
64. 59% of organic search traffic worldwide comes from a mobile device. (Source)
65. 25% of all businesses will invest in a mobile optimization strategy as one of their top priorities. (Source)
66. 20% of searchers on mobile devices are conducted via voice text. (Source)
67. More than 30% of all mobile searches were made right before visiting a store. (Source)
68. 43% of users will do an online search from their smartphone when they are in the store. (Source)
69. 66% of E-Commerce browsing time comes from mobile, however, less than 30% of sales come from mobile devices. (Source)
70. 88% of customers will call or visit a store within 24-hours of making a search from a mobile device. (Source)
71. 60% of all Google searches are done through a mobile device. (Source)
72. 51% of consumers trust a site that has been optimized for mobile search. (Source)
73. In 2023, mobile sales will far outweigh desktop. (Source)
74. From 2015, users performed more searches on mobile devices than on desktop. (Source)
Video SEO Statistics
75. YouTube is the most-visited video search platform (and the second-most visited website) in the world with over 35 billion monthly visits. (Source)
76. Engagement metrics (comments, shares, likes, views) correlate strongly with YouTube ranking positions. (Source)
77. Posts that include video generate 157% more search traffic and earn more backlinks. (Source)
78. 68% of first-page YouTube results are HD videos. (Source)
79. The average length of a first-page YouTube video is 14 minutes, 50 seconds. (Source)
80. 62% of Google searches include video. (Source)
81. 49% of marketers agree revenue grows faster when incorporating video in their strategy. (Source)
Importance of SEO
82. SEO can reduce customer acquisition costs by as much as 87.4% compared to traditional digital advertising. (Source)
83. 70% of marketers think SEO is more effective at driving sales than PPC. (Source)
84. SEO can increase monthly organic page views by as much as 11.3x in just under 2 years. (Source)
85. 95% of traffic goes to the results on the first page of Google. (Source)
86. 70% of users trust information that they find online. (Source)
87. SEO can drive a 14.6% conversion rate. (Source)
88. 49% of marketers report that of all marketing channels, organic search has the best ROI. (Source)
89. 82% of people who implemented an SEO strategy said that it had a positive effect on their business. (Source)
90. Businesses who combine SEO with PPC advertising see 25% more clicks and 27% higher profits compared to those who use a single-channel approach. (Source)
91. SEO is 5.66 times more effective than paid search advertising. (Source)
92. Position #1 in google enjoys a 34.36% CTR. (Source)
93. The top three organic results in Google command 61.8% of all clicks. (Source)
94. Pages with videos are 53% more likely to be displayed on page 1 of Google. (Source)
95. 75% of users will not scroll past the first page on Google. (Source)
96. 21% of users will view more than one page in the search results. (Source)
97. Google processes more than 5.5 billion searches every day. (Source)
98. Google handles more than 63,000 search queries each second. (Source)
99. The average duration of an initial SEO campaign is 11.4 months. (Source)
100. Bounce rates increase by 9% if your website takes 2 seconds to load and 38% if your site takes 5 seconds to load. (Source)
101. Conversion rates are 3x higher for websites that load in 1 second than websites that load in 5 seconds. (Source)
Enhance Your Marketing Efforts With Professional SEO Services
You might have the most attractive website on the Internet, but that means little if it’s not optimized for search engines. To help connect with consumers – and guide them down your sales funnel – you first need to make sure they can easily find you online.
An SEO expert will help you make sure your site is visible to as many people as possible. Browse our SEO services or drop us a line at (866) 908-4748 to start leveraging SEO to boost your online presence and make your digital marketing efforts even more effective.
