Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%
Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on something from the second page
For every $1 spent on Google Ads, businesses earn an average revenue of $2
65% of all clicks on paid Google ads come from mobile devices
PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors
46% of all Google searches have local intent
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
Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic
Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%
Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results than plain text
58% of consumers find Voice Search to be faster than typing
27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
As page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds bounce rate increases 32%
Content & Video Marketing
- 1Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic
- 2Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%
- 3Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results than plain text
- 4The average top-ranking page usually has over 35000 backlinks
- 5Content with at least one image gets twice as many shares as content with no images
- 691% of all pages never get any organic traffic from Google mostly due to lack of backlinks
- 7Pages with video are 53x more likely to rank on the first page of Google
- 862% of B2B marketers say that video is effective for lead generation
- 9Long-form content generates 77.2% more links than short articles
- 10Posts with videos earn more backlinks and see a 157% increase in search traffic
- 11The average first-page result on Google contains 1,447 words
- 1243% of people admit to skimming blog posts usually looking for visual content
- 1372% of marketers say content creation is their most effective SEO tactic
- 14Websites with a blog have 434% more indexed pages
- 1594% of people watch the total amount of an explainer video
- 16Headlines ending with a question mark get 23.3% more social shares
- 17Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website
- 1840.8% of SEOs say that content marketing provides the best ROI
- 19YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world processing 3 billion searches a month
- 20Listicles get 2x more shares than other blog post formats
Interpretation
If content is king, blogging is the coronation: updating posts with fresh images and long-form depth earns the backlinks and shares that rescue you from the 91% of invisible pages, and adding video, especially on YouTube, multiplies rankings, backlinks and leads while smart headlines and listicles boost shares even further.
Emerging Tech & User Experience
- 158% of consumers find Voice Search to be faster than typing
- 227% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile
- 3As page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds bounce rate increases 32%
- 440.7% of all voice search answers come from a featured snippet
- 570% of consumers admit page speed impacts their willingness to buy from an online retailer
- 662% of smart speaker owners have used them to make a purchase via voice commerce
- 7Visual search creates 600 million monthly searches on Pinterest alone
- 8Pages that load in 2 seconds qualify as average speed but still have a 9% bounce rate
- 9Google Lens generates more than 10 billion searches per month
- 10Almost 30% of all web pages are now using HTTPS
- 1146% of voice search users look for a local business daily
- 1290% of users stopped using an app due to poor performance
- 1348% of consumers would use a Visual Search engine to shop if it was integrated into their mobile browser
- 14Voice search results load in 4.6 seconds on average which is 52% faster than the average page
- 15A 1-second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions
- 16Only 21% of the top 100000 websites are mobile-friendly by Google's Core Web Vitals standards
- 1761% of users say the primary reason they use voice assistants is to use them when their hands/vision are occupied
- 1871% of consumers prefer voice search to typing a query
- 19Websites that load in one second have a conversion rate 3x higher than websites that load in 5 seconds
- 20HTTPS correlates with higher rankings on Google’s first page
Interpretation
Welcome to the new shopping economy where 71% prefer speaking to typing, voice queries load 52% faster and featured snippets answer 40.7% of voice searches, visual search is exploding with 600 million monthly Pinterest queries and over 10 billion Google Lens searches per month, smart speakers have converted 62% of their owners into buyers, and consumers punish slow, insecure, non-mobile sites: 70% say speed affects purchases, a one second delay cuts conversions by 7%, a three second load raises bounce by 32% and 90% abandon apps for poor performance; if your site is not fast, HTTPS enabled, Core Web Vitals friendly and optimized for voice, visual and local queries you will be handing sales to faster, smarter competitors.
Local & Mobile Search
- 146% of all Google searches have local intent
- 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
- 461% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site
- 5"Near me" or "nearby" searches grew by more than 900% over two years
- 658% of consumers use voice search to find local business information
- 786% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps
- 888% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours
- 997% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else
- 1078% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase
- 1154% of smartphone users search for business hours
- 12Mobile searches for "Where to buy" + "near me" have grown by over 200%
- 1392% of searchers will pick a business on the first page of local search results
- 14Google Maps is preferred by 67% of smartphone users
- 15Searches for "open now near me" have grown globally by over 400% YOY
- 1625% of companies invest in mobile optimization as a top tactic for SEO
- 17Over 50% of "near me" searches result in a store visit
- 1830% of all mobile searches are related to location
- 19Yelp appears in the top five search results for 92% of Google web searches that include a city and business category
- 2018% of local smart phone searches lead to a purchase within a day
Interpretation
If your business isn't obsessed with local, mobile, and voice search—because 'near me' and 'open now' queries have exploded and most people call, visit, or buy within a day from first-page map results—a mobile-friendly, location-focused presence is the difference between turning searches into customers and watching foot traffic walk into your competitors.
PPC & Paid Advertising
- 1For every $1 spent on Google Ads, businesses earn an average revenue of $2
- 265% of all clicks on paid Google ads come from mobile devices
- 3PPC visitors are 50% more likely to purchase something than organic visitors
- 4Search ads can increase brand awareness by 80%
- 596% of brands spend money on Google Ads
- 6The average click-through rate in Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% for search
- 7The average cost per action (CPA) in Google Ads across all industries is $48.96 for search
- 841% of clicks on a search results page go to the top 3 paid ads
- 950% of people arriving at a retailer’s site from paid search are more likely to buy than those who came from an organic link
- 1032% of companies use PPC to sell products directly to consumers
- 1165% of B2B companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn paid ads
- 12Ad blockers are used by approximately 27% of internet users in the US
- 1375% of people say paid search ads make it easier to find the information they are searching for
- 1463% of people said they would click on a Google ad
- 15Paid Search accounted for 39% of total digital ad spend in 2020
- 16Google Shopping Ads generate 85.3% of all clicks on Adwords and Google Shopping combined
- 1745% of small businesses use paid advertising
- 18On average, the legal industry has the highest cost per click at $6.75
- 1952% of people who click on a PPC ad call the advertiser
- 20Ads with sitelinks have a 10-20% higher CTR than those without
Interpretation
Think paid search is optional, think again, because for every $1 spent on Google Ads businesses earn about $2 in revenue; 65% of paid clicks come from mobile and PPC visitors are roughly 50% more likely to buy than organic visitors; paid ads can boost brand awareness by 80% and accounted for 39% of digital ad spend in 2020, which helps explain why 96% of brands and 45% of small businesses advertise; Google Shopping generates 85.3% of shopping clicks and the top three paid spots grab 41% of search clicks; the average search CTR is about 3.17% and CPA is roughly $48.96, sitelinks can raise CTR by 10 to 20%, 52% of PPC clickers call the advertiser and 63% say they would click an ad; 65% of B2B companies have acquired customers via LinkedIn ads and 32% of firms use PPC to sell directly to consumers, yet about 27% of US users run ad blockers, so with legal CPCs averaging $6.75 smart targeting and creative execution now decide whether your ad converts or gets skipped.
SEO & Organic Search Behavior
- 168% of online experiences begin with a search engine
- 2The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%
- 3Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on something from the second page
- 453.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search
- 592.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Images, and Maps
- 612.29% of search queries have featured snippets in their search results
- 790.63% of content gets no traffic from Google
- 815% of all searches on Google have never been searched before
- 9Moving up one spot in the search results increases CTR by 30.8% on average
- 10Organic search drives more than 1000% more traffic than organic social media
- 1169.7% of search queries contain four words or more
- 12A featured snippet gets approximately 8.6% of clicks
- 1360% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc) is their highest quality source of leads
- 14Websites with a strong keyword in the business name rank 1.5 spots higher than those with no keyword in the name
- 1566% of people perform some type of online research before making a purchase online
- 1675% of users never scroll past the first page of search results
- 1770% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC
- 188% of search queries are phrased as potential questions
- 1949% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel
- 20Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day
Interpretation
With about two thirds of online experiences starting at a search engine and Google handling over 8.5 billion searches a day, the fact that the top organic result grabs roughly 27.6% of clicks while only 0.63% of searchers make it to page two and 75% never scroll past the first page, featured snippets appear in about 12% of queries and net roughly 8.6% of clicks, most queries are long or unique, and moving up one spot can boost CTR by about 30.8% makes it painfully clear that smart SEO and intent-driven content are not optional but the highest-ROI way to turn massive search intent into traffic and leads, because organic search supplies the majority of visits, dwarfs organic social by over 1000%, and yet 90.63% of content gets no Google traffic unless it’s intentionally optimized.
