Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Google captures approximately 91.9 percent of the global search engine market share
Bing holds roughly 3 percent of the worldwide search engine market
Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day
63 percent of Google's US organic search traffic originates from mobile devices
58 percent of consumers have used voice search to find local business information
27 percent of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 31.7 percent
Less than 1 percent of Google searchers click on the second page of results
Organic search drives 53.3 percent of all website traffic
46 percent of all Google searches are seeking local information
88 percent of consumers who search for a local business on a mobile device call or visit that business within 24 hours
72 percent of consumers that did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
The average Google search session lasts less than 1 minute
50 percent of search queries contain 4 or more words (long-tail keywords)
8 percent of search queries are phrased as questions
Click-Through Rates & Advertising
- 1The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 31.7 percent
- 2Less than 1 percent of Google searchers click on the second page of results
- 3Organic search drives 53.3 percent of all website traffic
- 4On average users click on paid search results 2 percent of the time
- 5Approximately 65 percent of Google searches result in zero clicks meaning the user got the answer on the result page
- 6URLs that contain a keyword have a 45 percent higher click-through rate than those that do not
- 7Title tags between 15 to 40 characters have the best CTR of 8.6 percent
- 8Moving up one spot in the search results increases CTR by 30.8 percent on average
- 970 to 80 percent of people ignore paid search results specializing in organic results
- 10Pages with a meta description get 5.8 percent more clicks than those without
- 11The average CTR for a Google Ads search ad across all industries is 3.17 percent
- 12Users are 4 times more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google than on any other search engine
- 13Featured snippets receive approximately 8.6 percent of all clicks
- 14For local queries 42 percent of clicks go to the Google Map Pack
- 15Organic revenue capture is 5.66 times higher than paid search revenue
- 1694 percent of clicks in search results go to organic links versus paid ads
- 17Emotional titles in search results have a higher absolute CTR but can decrease relative organic traffic if deemed clickbait
- 18Adding the word "best" to a title tag can result in a significant CTR increase for affiliate sites
- 19The top 3 Google search results get 75.1 percent of all clicks
- 20Results with sitelinks have a CTR of nearly 64 percent
Interpretation
Think of search as prime real estate: land the number one or a top-three spot on page one with a keyword-rich URL, tight title tag, meta description, and rich features like snippets or sitelinks and you’ll capture the lion’s share of clicks and revenue, while paid ads mostly hover in the background and many searches never even require a click.
Local Search & Purchasing Intent
- 146 percent of all Google searches are seeking local information
- 288 percent of consumers who search for a local business on a mobile device call or visit that business within 24 hours
- 372 percent of consumers that did a local search visited a store within 5 miles
- 4"Near me" or "nearby" searches have grown by more than 900 percent over two years
- 528 percent of local searches result in a purchase
- 686 percent of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
- 778 percent of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase
- 8Businesses with photos on their business profiles receive 42 percent more requests for directions
- 997 percent of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else
- 1054 percent of smartphone users search for business hours
- 1118 percent of local smartphone searches lead to a purchase within one day
- 1292 percent of searchers will pick a business on the first page of local search results
- 13Searches for "open now" have tripled in the past two years
- 1461 percent of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 154 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information
- 16Searches for "shopping near me" have grown over 200 percent globally
- 1793 percent of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year
- 18Addressing reviews on local search profiles increases the likelihood of a user visiting by 80 percent
- 191 in 3 smartphone searches were made right before a store visit
- 2082 percent of smartphone users use a search engine when looking for a local business
Interpretation
Think of local search as your business's instant storefront: nearly half of all Google searches are for local info, "near me" queries have jumped over 900 percent, and mobile searchers—who often call, visit or buy within a day—overwhelmingly choose first-page, photo-rich, review-responsive, mobile-friendly profiles that drive real foot traffic and sales.
Market Share & Platforms
- 1Google captures approximately 91.9 percent of the global search engine market share
- 2Bing holds roughly 3 percent of the worldwide search engine market
- 3Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day
- 4Yahoo accounts for approximately 1.2 percent of the global search market
- 5Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia with over 60 percent market share locally
- 6Baidu is the dominant search engine in China with over 75 percent of the market
- 7DuckDuckGo processes nearly 100 million distinct searches per day
- 868 percent of all online experiences begin with a search engine
- 9Google owns 95 percent of the mobile search engine market in the US
- 10YouTube is considered the second largest search engine globally processing 3 billion searches a month
- 1184 percent of respondents use Google 3 or more times a day
- 12Amazon has surpassed Google for product searches with 54 percent of product searches starting on Amazon
- 13Google Images accounts for over 20 percent of all US web search queries
- 14Ecosia has planted over 150 million trees through user search activity
- 1515 percent of daily Google searches are brand new queries never seen before
- 16The average person conducts between 3 and 4 searches every single day
- 17Ask.com currently holds less than 1 percent of the total search market share
- 18Search engines drive 300 percent more traffic to content sites than social media
- 19There are over 1.98 billion websites online that users can potentially search for
- 2046 percent of product searches begin on Google
Interpretation
Put bluntly, these numbers show that Google is the booming mayor of the internet’s search town hall while regional rulers like Baidu and Yandex, vertical powerhouses such as Amazon and YouTube, and privacy- and purpose-minded alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Ecosia prove search is diverse, relentlessly active with billions and many brand-new daily queries, and still the primary gateway driving discovery and commerce far more than social.
Mobile & Voice Trends
- 163 percent of Google's US organic search traffic originates from mobile devices
- 258 percent of consumers have used voice search to find local business information
- 327 percent of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
- 4Mobile searches for "best" have grown by over 80 percent in the past two years
- 556 percent of mobile searches have local intent
- 6Voice search results typically load in 4.6 seconds, which is 52 percent faster than the average page
- 751 percent of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphone
- 875 percent of voice search results rank in the top 3 for that query on a desktop search
- 9Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if the site isn't optimized for mobile
- 10By 2024 the number of digital voice assistants will reach 8.4 billion units
- 11Smart speaker users utilize voice commands for music searches 70 percent of the time
- 1230 percent of web browsing sessions are now screenless (voice-only)
- 13The average voice search result is 29 words long
- 14Double the number of mobile users utilize voice search compared to desktop users
- 1553 percent of mobile website visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than 3 seconds to load
- 16Mobile searches for "where to buy" + "near me" have grown by over 200 percent
- 1740.7 percent of voice search answers come from a featured snippet
- 18Android devices account for 70 percent of the mobile operating system market affecting default search choices
- 1961 percent of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 20Voice search queries tend to use more conversational language and are 76 percent longer than text queries
Interpretation
Search is now a mobile and voice-driven speed-dating scene where most users expect instant, local, conversational answers from top-ranked featured snippets, so slow or non-mobile sites get ghosted while faster voice ready competitors win.
Search Query Behavior & Demographics
- 1The average Google search session lasts less than 1 minute
- 250 percent of search queries contain 4 or more words (long-tail keywords)
- 38 percent of search queries are phrased as questions
- 492.42 percent of keywords get ten monthly searches or fewer
- 514.1 percent of search queries are misspelled
- 6The average searcher uses 3 words in their search query
- 721 percent of searchers access more than one of the search results
- 8Users aged 18-29 are the most active search engine users
- 959 percent of users search for a specific brand or product name
- 10Only 0.16 percent of the most popular keywords are responsible for 60.67 percent of all searches
- 1177 percent of searchers quit their search session if they can't find what they are looking for on the first page
- 12Complex search tasks involving multiple queries account for 10 percent of user sessions
- 1379 percent of people took a relevant action on their phone prior to making a big purchase
- 1439 percent of purchasers are influenced by a relevant search
- 15College graduates are 12 percent more likely to use search engines daily compared to those with high school diplomas
- 1618 percent of users change their search terms without clicking any results first
- 1762 percent of Gen Z users prefer visual search over any other new technology
- 18Searches including "avoid" have increased by 150 percent as users try to eliminate bad options
- 1969 percent of searchers use specific terms to narrow down their product hunt
- 2016-20 percent of searches conducted every day have never been asked before in that exact phrasing
Interpretation
Search is a sprint: users spend under a minute on mostly three word queries that are often long tail, misspelled, or newly phrased, Gen Z prefers visual search and 59 percent hunt brands, yet a tiny slice of keywords drives most traffic and 77 percent abandon after the first page, so if your site is not first page, mobile friendly and tuned to niche, "avoid" and specific terms, you will miss the buyers who act on search.
