Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Google captures approximately 92% of the global search engine market share
Bing holds the second-largest search engine market share worldwide at around 3%
Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day
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 something from the second page
99.2% of all top 50 search results had at least one external backlink
The average first-page result on Google contains 1,447 words
Sites with faster loading speeds rank significantly higher on Google
46% of all Google searches are seeking local information
72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
28% of local searches result in a purchase
35% of product searches start on Google (surpassed by Amazon at 50%+)
Google Shopping Ads drive 76% of retail search ad spend
51% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online
E-commerce & Ads
- 135% of product searches start on Google (surpassed by Amazon at 50%+)
- 2Google Shopping Ads drive 76% of retail search ad spend
- 351% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online
- 459% of shoppers surveyed say that being able to shop on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from
- 549% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item or product
- 665% of people click on Google Ads when they are looking to buy an item online
- 7The average conversion rate for Google Ads across all industries is 3.75%
- 8For every $1 spent on Google Ads, businesses earn an average revenue of $2
- 970% of mobile searches lead to action within an hour
- 10Users who visit an ecommerce site through search are 2x more likely to convert than non-search visitors
- 1181% of retail shoppers conduct online research before buying
- 12Searches for "best [product]" have grown by over 80% in the last two years
- 1363% of shopping occasions begin online
- 1453% of mobile users abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load
- 15Images are returned for 19% of search queries on Google, driving visual shopping
- 1662% of millennials are more likely to simply search via image capability than text
- 1743% of users want to see more video content from marketers in search results
- 1850% of consumers are likely to click on a text ad if it appears when they are looking for specific information
- 19Ad blockers are used by approximately 27% of internet users affecting search ad visibility
- 2090% of consumers say ads influence their purchase decisions when searching
Interpretation
Amazon may be where most product searches begin, but Google is where intent turns into action—its ads, images and instant mobile results drive research, discovery and higher conversion rates, so brands that deliver fast, mobile friendly, image and video rich search experiences will convert more ad spend into sales before slow pages or ad blockers steal customers away.
Local & Voice Search
- 146% of all Google searches are seeking local information
- 272% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
- 328% of local searches result in a purchase
- 4"Near me" or "buy now" searches have grown by over 500% in recent years
- 558% of consumers use voice search to find local business information
- 676% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day
- 740% of unrelated voice search answers come from a Featured Snippet
- 8The average voice search result is 29 words in length
- 927% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
- 10Voice search results load in 4.6 seconds on average (52% faster than average pages)
- 1197% of consumers learn more about a local company online than anywhere else
- 1286% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
- 13Listings with photos are 2x as likely to be considered reputable
- 1488% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours
- 1554% of smartphone users search for business hours
- 16Reading level for voice search results is at a 9th-grade level on average
- 17Over 50% of voice search users use it to discover new local businesses
- 1818% of local smartphone searches lead to a purchase within a day
- 1961% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 20Searches for "open now" have tripled in the past two years
Interpretation
Nearly half of searches are local, "near me" and "buy now" queries have surged over 500%, and with more than half of people using voice on mobile for quick 29 word answers, consumers now expect fast listings with photos and map links plus accurate hours and mobile-friendly sites; when they find them they often call or visit within a day, so businesses that fail to optimize for local, mobile and voice search are effectively invisible to customers ready to buy within five miles, like a shop with no "open now" sign.
Market Share & Demographics
- 1Google captures approximately 92% of the global search engine market share
- 2Bing holds the second-largest search engine market share worldwide at around 3%
- 3Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day
- 4Mobile devices account for approximately 64% of all worldwide search traffic
- 5DuckDuckGo processes over 100 million daily searches
- 6YouTube is effectively the world's second-largest search engine by volume
- 7Yandex holds over 60% of the search market share in Russia
- 8Baidu dominates the Chinese search market with over 75% share
- 946% of all product searches begin on Google
- 10Google Images accounts for more than 20% of all web search queries
- 1184% of respondents use Google 3+ times a day
- 12More than 1 billion people use Google Maps every month
- 13Yahoo! still commands roughly 1.5% of the global search market share
- 1496% of all smartphones in India use Google as their primary search engine
- 15Organic search drives 53% of all website traffic
- 16Google owns over 90% of the market share for mobile search specifically
- 17Between 16% and 20% of Google searches are completely new literal queries that have never been searched before
- 18Microsoft Sites (including Bing) handle roughly 25% of all search queries in the United States on desktop
- 19The average person conducts between 3 and 4 Google searches per day
- 20Ask.com retains less than 1% of the global search market share
Interpretation
Put bluntly, these figures show Google as the gravitational center of search, processing billions of queries daily and dominating mobile, maps, images and product discovery, while regional giants like Baidu and Yandex, privacy-minded DuckDuckGo, the video power of YouTube and Microsoft's U.S. desktop foothold remind us that important alternatives and a constant flow of brand new queries still exist.
SEO & Ranking Factors
- 199.2% of all top 50 search results had at least one external backlink
- 2The average first-page result on Google contains 1,447 words
- 3Sites with faster loading speeds rank significantly higher on Google
- 4HTTPS correlates with higher search rankings on the first page
- 566.3% of pages usually don't have even a single backlink
- 6There is no correlation between Schema markup and higher rankings
- 7Low bounce rates are associated with higher Google rankings
- 890.63% of content gets no traffic from Google
- 9Only 5.7% of pages will rank in the top 10 search results within a year of publication
- 10The average page in the top 10 is 2+ years old
- 11Refreshing old content can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%
- 12Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results than plain text
- 13Pages with shorter URLs rank better than pages with longer URLs
- 14Exact match anchor text appears to have a strong influence on rankings
- 15Companies that blog result in 434% more indexed pages
- 1655% of marketing professionals say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority
- 17Using a single image within content increases search rankings versus having no image
- 18Top-ranking pages on Google have an average domain authority of roughly 60+
- 19Pages focusing on one single keyword topic rank for 1,000+ other keywords on average
- 20Only 0.78% of Google searchers click on something from the second page
Interpretation
If you want Google to notice your work, behave like a professional publisher: publish long, focused pieces (the average top result is about 1,447 words) on a fast, HTTPS site with a short URL and at least one solid external backlink, include a single helpful image or video, optimize for low bounce and exact‑match anchors, blog regularly to build indexed pages and domain authority, and keep content refreshed—because most pages get no Google traffic, only a tiny fraction reach the top ten quickly, and almost nobody ever clicks past page one.
User Behavior & Experience
- 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 something from the second page
- 4Approximately 65% of Google searches result in zero clicks (Zero-Click Searches)
- 515% of users prefer to modify their search term rather than clicking a second-page result
- 650% of search queries contain 4 or more words
- 7Question-based search queries have seen a 160% growth in recent years
- 88% of search queries are phrased as questions
- 9The average search session lasts less than 1 minute
- 1059% of people focus on only the top three search results
- 11Moving up one spot in the search results increases CTR by an average of 30.8%
- 12Titles with questions have a 14.1% higher CTR vs. titles without questions
- 13Emotional titles in search results may actually decrease CTR
- 1442% of users click on results inside the Google Maps Pack
- 15URLs that contain a keyword have a 45% higher click-through rate than those that don't
- 1612.3% of search queries result in a click on a Google Ad
- 17Users are 4x more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google (63%) than on any other search engine
- 18Featured snippets are clicked in approximately 8.6% of all clicks
- 1995.88% of Google searches are for four words or fewer
- 20Long-tail keywords (more specific) actually have a 3-5% higher CTR than generic searches
Interpretation
With users spending less than a minute on short, often question-driven searches and 65% of queries ending without a click, ranking in the top three, especially as number one, and earning featured snippets, keyword-rich URLs, question-format titles and a presence in Maps or paid listings is no longer a luxury but the only reliable way to capture a shrinking share of clicks.
