Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine
Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic
Google currently holds 91.9% of the total search engine market share
Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads
The average click-through rate in Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% for search
The average cost per click (CPC) in Google Ads across all industries is $2.69 for search
58.99% of all global website traffic comes from mobile devices
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
28% of local searches result in a purchase
The average first-page result on Google contains 1,447 words
Websites with active blogs have 434% more indexed pages
Content with at least one image gets 2x as much traffic as content with no images
61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority
70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC
SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to only 1.7% for outbound leads (like cold calling)
B2B & Marketing Strategy
- 161% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority
- 270% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC
- 3SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to only 1.7% for outbound leads (like cold calling)
- 457% of B2B marketers state that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative
- 575% of marketers confess that they use their SEO reports for showing the impact of their work to their boss/client contributing to client retention
- 644% of businesses outsource their SEO strategy
- 765% of B2B buyers cite web search as their most used information source
- 8B2B companies are 2x more likely to outsource their SEO than B2C companies
- 960% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO/Content) is their highest quality source of leads
- 1045% of enterprise-level companies invest more than $20,000 per month in SEO
- 1189% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process
- 12B2B researchers do 12 searches on average prior to engaging on a specific brand's site
- 1371% of B2B researchers begin their research with a generic search
- 14Only 21% of marketers say they can measure the ROI of their content marketing
- 15On average B2B marketers spend 26% of their total budget on content marketing (a key driver of SEO)
- 1684% of marketers use search engine marketing (SEM) to generate traffic
- 1746% of marketers use SERP rankings as their primary metric for success
- 1838% of marketers say that "Link Building" is the hardest part of SEO to execute
- 1991% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers
- 2041% of marketers say organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel
Interpretation
Think of SEO as the grown-up bet in marketing: 61% of marketers make it their top inbound priority and 70% trust it over PPC because organic leads close at 14.6% versus 1.7% for cold outreach, buyers start with generic searches and do about 12 queries before engaging, companies are pouring budget into or outsourcing SEO to prove impact and keep clients, and yet many still struggle with link building and actually measuring content ROI.
Content & Technical Strategy
- 1The average first-page result on Google contains 1,447 words
- 2Websites with active blogs have 434% more indexed pages
- 3Content with at least one image gets 2x as much traffic as content with no images
- 4Long-form content generates 77.2% more links than short articles
- 594.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer
- 6Updating and republishing old blog posts can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%
- 7Video is the #1 format marketers created in their content strategy in 2022
- 836% of SEO experts think the H1 tag is the most important on-page element
- 9Pages with videos are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google
- 1069.7% of search queries contain four words or more
- 11There is a high correlation (0.77) between total external backlinks and rankings
- 1266.31% of pages have no backlinks
- 13Including a video in a post increases organic traffic from search results by 157%
- 1450% of search queries are 4 words or longer
- 1542% of SEOs spend equal time on building internal and external links
- 16Pages in the second position have 3x more backlinks than those in position 10
- 1725% of top-ranking pages don’t have a meta description
- 18Bounce rate does not directly affect organic ranking
- 19HTTPS corresponds with higher rankings on Google’s first page
- 2072% of marketers say that relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic
Interpretation
Think of modern SEO as a content heavyweight contest: long posts packed with images and videos that are regularly refreshed, secured with HTTPS, and supported by internal and external links win the title because Google’s front page favors results around 1,447 words that are media rich and well linked, while most keywords and pages remain largely invisible unless you focus on relevance and long tail queries.
Mobile & Local Behavior
- 158.99% of all global website traffic comes from mobile devices
- 276% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
- 328% of local searches result in a purchase
- 446% of all Google searches have "local intent"
- 5"Near me" or "buy now" searches have grown by over 500% in recent years
- 661% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 730% of all mobile searches are related to location
- 888% of potential customers look for online reviews before choosing local services
- 986% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
- 1058% of consumers use voice search to find a local business information
- 11Mobile searches for "open now" have tripled in the past two years
- 1227% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
- 1351% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone
- 1478% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase
- 15Mobile pages that load in 1 second convert 3x more than those that load in 5 seconds
- 1692% of searchers will pick a business on the first page of local search results
- 1753% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load
- 18"Where to buy" and "near me" mobile queries have grown by over 200% in the past two years
- 1920% of mobile queries are voice searches
- 2072% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
Interpretation
Nearly 60% of web traffic is mobile and almost half of Google searches have local intent, so with "near me" and voice queries exploding and most customers checking maps and reviews before they buy, a fast mobile-friendly site that ranks on the first page and loads in a second instead of five is the difference between being found, contacted and visited and being invisible.
PPC & Paid Advertising
- 1Businesses make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads
- 2The average click-through rate in Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% for search
- 3The average cost per click (CPC) in Google Ads across all industries is $2.69 for search
- 4The legal industry has one of the highest average CPCs at $6.75
- 565% of all clicks on paid Google Ads come from users with high commercial intent
- 641% of clicks on a search results page go to the top 3 paid ad spots
- 7People who visit a website after clicking on an ad are 50% more likely to purchase than organic visitors
- 8Search ads can increase brand awareness by 80%
- 996% of brands spend money on Google Ads
- 10The average conversion rate for Google Ads on the search network is 4.40%
- 11PPC visitors trade 1.5x more often than organic visitors
- 1245% of small businesses use paid advertising
- 1340% of businesses say their PPC budget is lower than they would like it to be
- 14Use of "near me" in ad text can increase CTR by 8%
- 15Display advertising has an average CTR of 0.46%
- 1674% of brands say PPC is a huge driver for their business
- 17Spending on paid search grew by 17% in 2022
- 1862% of marketers plan to increase their PPC budgets in the coming year
- 19Google Ads reaches a network of more than 2 million websites and apps
- 20Over 50% of people cannot distinguish between paid and organic results
Interpretation
Think of Google Ads as a fast toll road to buyers' doors: businesses usually earn about $2 for every $1 spent, search ads average a 3.17% CTR and $2.69 CPC (legal often hits $6.75), 65% of paid clicks come from high commercial intent and 41% of clicks go to the top three paid spots, ad visitors are 50% more likely to buy and convert at about 4.40% while PPC customers buy 1.5 times more often than organic ones, campaigns can lift brand awareness by 80% and reach audiences across more than two million sites and apps, which helps explain why 96% of brands spend on Google Ads, 74% call PPC a major driver, spending grew 17% in 2022 and 62% of marketers plan to increase budgets—even though display CTR is just 0.46%, over half of searchers cannot tell paid from organic, 45% of small businesses already use paid advertising, 40% want bigger PPC budgets, and a simple "near me" in ad text can boost CTR by about 8%.
Search Traffic & Market Share
- 168% of online experiences begin with a search engine
- 2Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic
- 3Google currently holds 91.9% of the total search engine market share
- 4Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page
- 5The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%
- 692.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps
- 7Google Images accounts for 22.6% of all search queries
- 815% of all Google searches have never been searched before
- 912.29% of search queries have featured snippets in their search results
- 10The top 3 Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks
- 11Bing holds approximately 2.88% of the worldwide search engine market share
- 12Yahoo drives about 1.51% of global search traffic
- 13Organic search traffic is 1,000%+ more than organic social media traffic
- 1449% of marketers report that organic search helps them hit their ROI goals
- 15A featured snippet result gets approximately 8.6% of clicks
- 16Moving up one spot in the search results increases CTR by 30.8% on average
- 1799.2% of all top 50 search results had at least one external link pointing to the website
- 18The average top-ranking page ranks in the top 10 search results for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords
- 19Organic listings receive 19x more clicks than paid search results
- 20Between 70% and 80% of users ignore paid ads and focus on organic results
Interpretation
Think of Google as the global front door; it dominates search, and organic results, especially the top three positions and featured snippets, capture most clicks and deliver the ROI marketers need, while images, backlinks, and targeting fresh or long tail queries drive vastly more traffic than paid ads or social.
