Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Google holds approximately 91.54% of the global search engine market share
Bing accounts for roughly 3.19% of the worldwide search market
Yandex holds over 60% of the search market share in Russia
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%
The top 3 Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks
Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page
40% of Generation Z prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over Google
58.99% of Google traffic comes from mobile devices
27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
30% of all mobile searches are related to location
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase
Businesses earn an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads
PPC clicks convert at a 50% higher rate than organic traffic
65% of all clicks on paid Google ads come from mobile devices
Local & Mobile Search
- 130% of all mobile searches are related to location
- 276% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
- 328% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase
- 4“Near me” or "nearby" searches grew by more than 900% over two years
- 5Mobile searches for "open now" have tripled in the past two years
- 686% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
- 7Half of the smartphone users who use search to find a local business look for hours of operation
- 854% of smartphone users search for business hours
- 953% of smartphone users search for directions to a local store
- 1045% of shoppers buy online and pick up in store (BOPIS), driving local search for inventory
- 11Mobile searches for "where to buy" + "near me" have grown by over 200%
- 1261% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 134 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information
- 1418% of local smart phone searches lead to a purchase within a day
- 1572% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
- 1697% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else
- 17“Where to buy” searches have grown 85% on mobile devices
- 1870% of consumers will visit a store because of information found in online search results
- 1925% of companies have not claimed their Google My Business listing, representing a local search gap
- 2092% of searchers will pick a business on the first page of local search results
Interpretation
Mobile local search is the new storefront window, with “near me” and “open now” queries exploding and most customers finding, visiting, and a significant share buying within a day, so if your Google listing, hours, inventory and mobile site aren't up to date you're effectively invisible to shoppers standing just outside your door.
Market Share & Dominance
- 1Google holds approximately 91.54% of the global search engine market share
- 2Bing accounts for roughly 3.19% of the worldwide search market
- 3Yandex holds over 60% of the search market share in Russia
- 4Baidu dominates China with over 60% of the search engine market share there
- 5Google processes approximately 8.5 billion searches per day
- 6Yahoo! holds approximately 1.2% of the global search engine market share
- 7DuckDuckGo processes nearly 100 million search queries daily
- 8Google owns approximately 95% of the mobile search engine market in the US
- 9YouTube is popularly considered the second largest search engine in the world
- 10Google Images accounts for over 20% of all queries generated across US web properties
- 1115% of all searches on Google have never been searched before
- 12The Google Search Index contains well over 100 billion gigabytes of data
- 13Google Chrome holds a browser market share of over 63% worldwide, influencing search defaults
- 14Approximately 46% of product searches begin on Google
- 15DuckDuckGo holds about 0.6% of the global search market as of 2023
- 16Naver is a dominant search engine in South Korea, holding a significant portion of the local market
- 17Ecosia, the eco-friendly search engine, has planted over 150 million trees via search revenue
- 18Google handles over 90% of all search queries across Europe
- 19Yahoo receives over 3 billion visits per month globally
- 20Since 2000, Google search volume has grown by more than 2,000%
Interpretation
If online search were a global marketplace, Google is the near monopolistic supermarket, commanding roughly 91.54% of global queries and about 95% of US mobile searches while processing some 8.5 billion queries a day and handling over 20% of US image queries and nearly half of product searches, regional specialists like Yandex and Baidu run bustling bazaars in Russia and China with more than 60% shares and Naver dominates South Korea, Bing and Yahoo occupy small but visible stalls and DuckDuckGo quietly serves privacy minded shoppers with nearly 100 million daily queries, YouTube acts as the world's second largest search destination, Ecosia has turned clicks into over 150 million planted trees, and Google's index of well over 100 billion gigabytes, Chrome's 63% browser grip, and a rise in search volume of more than two thousand percent since 2000 all underline how concentrated and consequential search truly is.
Paid Search & Advertising
- 1Businesses earn an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads
- 2PPC clicks convert at a 50% higher rate than organic traffic
- 365% of all clicks on paid Google ads come from mobile devices
- 463% of people have clicked on a Google ad
- 541% of clicks on a search results page go to the top 3 paid ads
- 6Search ads can increase brand awareness by 80%
- 7The average click-through rate in Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% for search
- 8The average cost per click (CPC) in Google Ads across all industries is $2.69 for search
- 996% of brands spend money on Google Ads
- 1049% of people say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product
- 11Spending on paid search advertising worldwide is expected to reach $190 billion by 2024
- 12Amazon officially surpassed Google for product searches with 54% beginning on Amazon vs 46% on Google
- 1375% of people say paid search ads make it easier to find the information they are searching for
- 14Over 50% of ad expenditures in the search market happen on mobile
- 15Shopping ads (PLAs) account for 60% of all paid search clicks for retailers
- 16Bing Ads are often 70% cheaper than Google Ads
- 1733% of people click on a paid search ad because it directly answers their search query
- 18Consumers who click on an ad are 27% more likely to buy something than an organic visitor
- 1998% of advertisers rate Google as their most trusted publisher
- 20Ads in the first position on mobile have a 25% higher click-through rate than desktop
Interpretation
Bottom line, paid search is where attention, conversions and brand lift concentrate: businesses typically earn about two dollars for every one spent, PPC converts roughly 50 percent better than organic and captures a large share of top and mobile clicks with 65 percent of paid clicks on mobile and the top three ads taking 41 percent, shopping ads dominate retail clicks, ad spend is surging toward $190 billion globally, Amazon is stealing some product searches but advertisers who lean into paid search or stretch budgets with cheaper Bing inventory still most reliably drive purchases and awareness, so treating paid search as optional is basically a polite way to hand customers to your competitors.
SEO & Organic Performance
- 1The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%
- 2The top 3 Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks
- 3Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page
- 4Moving up one spot in the search results increases CTR by 30.8% on average
- 5URLs that contain a keyword have a 45% higher click-through rate than those that don’t
- 690.63% of content gets no traffic from Google
- 7The average top-ranking page is also in the top 10 search results for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords
- 866.31% of pages have no backlinks, which correlates with low traffic
- 9The average word count of a Google first page result is 1,447 words
- 10Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%
- 1112.29% of search queries have featured snippets in their search results
- 12Websites with extensive video content see a 157% increase in organic traffic from SERPs
- 137.2% of clicks go to the paid ads in search results on Bing, which is higher than Google
- 14Backlinks remain the number one ranking factor for Google
- 15Pages with a faster loading speed result in higher search rankings in Google
- 16Organic search drives 53% of all website traffic
- 17Question-based title tags have 14.1% higher CTR than non-question titles
- 18Title tags between 15 to 40 characters have the highest CTR on Google
- 1999.2% of all top 50 results in the Google SERPs use HTTPS
- 20Long-tail keywords account for 70% of all web searches
Interpretation
If you want traffic, treat the first page like beachfront property: the #1 result grabs 27.6% of clicks and the top three get 54.4% while the second page is a 0.63% wasteland and 90.63% of content gets no traffic, so earn backlinks, use HTTPS and fast pages, put keywords in your URL and concise question titles, write and refresh long in-depth posts around 1,447 words to potentially double traffic, add video for a 157% lift, and focus on long-tail queries that make up 70% of searches.
User Behavior & Trends
- 140% of Generation Z prefers using TikTok and Instagram for search over Google
- 258.99% of Google traffic comes from mobile devices
- 327% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
- 465% of 25-to-49-year-olds speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once a day
- 550% of people prefer simple questions for voice searches over text searches
- 6Approximately 25.6% of desktop searches result in zero-clicks (the user finds the answer on the SERP without clicking)
- 7On mobile, zero-click searches account for approximately 57% of queries
- 8The average person conducts between 3 and 4 Google searches per day
- 914.1% of searches are phrased as a question
- 10Searches for "best" have grown by over 80% in recent years
- 1162% of millennials want the ability to search by image (visual search)
- 12Google Lens is used for over 10 billion visual searches per month
- 138% of search queries are phrased as absolute questions (Who, What, Where, When)
- 1446% of internet users look for more information online after seeing a company on social media
- 1539% of purchasers were influenced by a relevant search
- 1659% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store or online
- 17Searches for "how to" videos grow 70% year over year
- 18Users spend an average of less than one minute on Google for each search session
- 1979% of people say they’re more likely to search for a product they’ve seen in a movie or show
- 2075% of smartphone users expect immediate information when using their smartphone to search
Interpretation
Search has gone snackable—people now swipe, speak, or snap on mobile and social for instant, simple answers, driving a rise in zero-click, voice, and visual queries and forcing brands to optimize for in-app discovery or risk being invisible.
