Chasing SEO statistics is a core practice of ours because we always follow the data. Sure, we strategize at a high-level, but we let the data dictate the direction.
The concept of SEO seems straightforward, but putting it into practice can be a challenge when you consider the ever-changing rules and competitive landscape. We love consistency in our lives because it makes things easier. Unfortunately, SEO is never constant.
Although SEO can be a daunting task, rest assured that its importance outweighs the efforts needed to implement relevant strategies. To start you off on your endeavors, we bring you some fascinating SEO statistics.
Our SEO professionals here at Frasca Digital did their best to keep this list of incredible SEO statistics simple. By the end of this article, our hope is for you yo have a solid understanding of the most critical aspects of search engine optimization and how to make the most of it.
Let’s dive into the latest SEO statistics:
SEO Statistics, Facts and Figures – The Basics
1. The SEO industry is worth over $80 billion.
Recent estimations from Forbes indicate that, as of 2020, businesses in the US are spending more than $80 billion (with a “b”) on SEO services… EACH YEAR.
In fact, SEMRush – a pioneer, top-of-the-line SEO research and analytics tool, and a leading online visibility management SaaS platform – is now a publicly traded organization. This company’s success has been fully funded by SEO and Digital Marketing specialists alike. Oh, and tools like SEMRush are an absolute necessity for any SEO expert.
This industry revenue figure is significantly higher than the one for 2018 when businesses were estimated to spend $72 billion on search engine optimization. It’s not as large of a revenue-generator as social media or PPC, but there should be no doubt by now that SEO is… kind of a big deal.
(Forbes)
2. SEO can drive a 14.6% conversion rate
SEO is focused on attracting visitors that are actively searching for information about products or services, which makes it an excellent tactic for lead generation.
Not surprisingly, SEO stats reveal that leads who come as a result of search engine optimization have a 14.6% average conversion rate.
For comparison, traditional strategies like print ads and direct mail have an average conversion rate of 1.7%. The cost of print, postage and logistics for a single, modern Direct Mail campaign can easily cost you far more than a single month of SEO services, and yield significantly less results.
Bonus Tip: Crafting the right SEO & content strategy should focus on ranking keywords that have this conversion intent in mind!
3. 93% of first impressions start with a search engine.
This is one of the most well-known search engine statistics, but we just had to include it to emphasize the importance of SEO.
Modern consumers seem to no longer have an inclination to call for information or visiting business addresses to learn more about a company and its services. Instead, people are searching on Google, Social Media, and Review websites to learn more about a particular business.
Getting more eyes on your website is extremely important, as almost all online experiences start with a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
4. 239 million unique Google users are from the United States.
SEO statistics reveal the number of search engine users in the US was 213.6 million in 2014 and has been consistently rising throughout the years. Statista estimates that the latest number of internet users who accessed search services through engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo is approximately 239.1 million.
(Statista)
5. Search engines drive 10x more traffic to e-commerce sites than social media.
Search engine traffic statistics show that search is the dominant e-commerce traffic source. In fact, online stores get ten times more traffic from search engines than from social media. Proper e-commerce SEO includes adding relevant keywords in the blog content and product descriptions, external links pointing to industry experts, a robust web of internal links, a solid backlink portfolio, and speed optimization.
Latest SEO Statistics & Trends in 2021
6. 12.3% of search queries contain a featured snippet.
Featured snippets are convenient and serve quick answers to people. They give the opportunity for low-ranking pages to appear on the top of SERPs, which opens new possibilities for search engine optimization professionals.
(Ahrefs)
7. Nearly 50% of search queries contain 4+ words.
Search engine marketing stats show that half of the queries are long-tail keywords. That means that your user intent strategy has to include discovering and targeting these terms. Otherwise, you’re missing about 50% of your audience and potential leads.
8. 75% of users don’t even scroll past the first page of the SERPs.
Recent SEO facts reveal that the majority of users scan the first page of Google results quickly and never go past it. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that 18% of organic clicks go to the page on the first position, 10% to the page on the second position, and 7% of organic clicks go to the third-ranking result.
(HubSpot, Search Engine Watch)
9. 21% of users click more than 1 search result.
Search engine marketing statistics tell us that every fifth user clicks on more than one of the search results. This is likely to happen if they cannot find what they were looking for or they want to double-check the information they initially found.
10. Approximately 18% of searchers change their search terms without clicking on any result.
Roughly 20% of searchers don’t find what they are looking for and go on to change their search terms without clicking on any result. That means users judge the content of the pages based on their meta titles and descriptions, further emphasizing their importance in a well-thought-of SEO strategy.
(Moz)
11. 62% of Millennial and Gen Z consumers want visual search capability more than any other emerging technology.
E-commerce SEO statistics highlight that images are on their way to replace keywords, and it’s really no surprise given the visual stimulation our society absorbs from social media.
The majority of Millennials and Gen-Z-ers want visual search capability to enable them to easily discover products when searching on their mobile devices. To capitalize on this trend, make sure to include visual search in your strategy, starting with prioritizing metadata and schema markup.
Bonus Tip: Consider optimizing for voice search as well for this cohort. Alexa, Google Home and all other devices are being used for informational queries. These aren’t necessarily transactional opportunities, but it is worth considering.
Organic Google Search Engine Stats
12. Google holds over 86% of the search engine market share.
Despite the emergence of search engines like Yahoo and Bing, Google has remained on the throne for over 20 years holding more than 86% of the global search engine market share. Search engine use statistics indicate that other search engines are holding a significantly lower market share; Bing around 6%, Yahoo less than 3%, and Baidu less than 1%.
The secret behind Google’s enormous success lies in the UX-based business model. Its algorithm takes into account multiple factors like relevance to a user’s search, page quality, and backlink profile, thus providing the best value to searchers.
13. Over *7 billion* searches are performed on Google every day.
Search engine traffic stats show that, by the end of 2010, there were 1.9 billion internet users. Today, this number has jumped to 4.021 billion, noting a 7% year-on-year rise. Along with the number of internet users, the number of daily searches also rises. Consequently, in 2000 there were 32.8 million searches per day. This figure passed the 1 billion mark in 2010 and today, the number of daily searches surpasses 7 billion.
14. There are 500-600 Google search algorithm changes occur each year.
SEO facts confirm that ranking well on Google means keeping up with the hundreds of algorithm changes the tech giant presents every year. The good news is, only a few of them are major game-changers. These bigger updates are called Google’s “Core Algorithm Updates” and can cause high volatility in organic search rankings.
To find out more about Google’s 2021 Core Algorithm Updates, contact us today!
15. On average, Google receives over 90,000 search queries every second.
This staggering number translates into more than 4.8 million searches per minute. These numbers add up to over 2.55 trillion searches per year, and that’s a lot of opportunity for your website to increase traffic.
(Internet Live Stats)
16. Sites that make the first page on Google have an average of 1,447 words.
This is another one of the most well-known search engine optimization facts. Publishing in-depth content is pivotal for search engines to love you. Detailed pieces will also position you as an industry leader, helping you boost the conversion rate and attract backlinks which also influence ranking positively.
(Backlinko)
17. Up to 20% of Google queries are searched for the first time.
As much as a fifth of all Google searches is conducted for the first time. To answer such queries, Google uses extensive indexing, crawling, and millions of search precedents.
(Wordstream)
18. Organic Google results with 3-4 words in the title drive higher CTR.
Search engine optimization stats tell us that organic results that include long-tail terms in the title have a 3-5% higher CTR than organic results with 1-2 words in the title.
(Smart Insights)
19. Search queries of the “__ to avoid” format have increased by 150%.
Users rely on their devices for search information more than ever, and search queries have become more conversational. As a result, the query “___ to avoid” has noted a major rise of 150%. while the query “ is ___ worth it” has risen by 80% in recent years. These stats show that users tend to apply the process of elimination to determine which products should be avoided and then decide on the product or service worth purchasing.
(Wordstream)
20. A half of Google searches get no clicks at all.
Google goes to great lengths to yield the most relevant information in the top search results. However, recent research showed that 50.3% of Google searches resulted in no clicks.
(SparkToro)
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