Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
Google currently holds approximately 91.54% of the global search engine market share.
15% of all Google searches performed daily have never been searched before.
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%.
Moving from position #1 to position #2 results in a CTR drop of 30.8%.
90.63% of pages get no satisfaction from organic search traffic from Google.
46% of all Google searches are seeking local information.
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.
Articles with a word count between 2,250 and 2,500 earn the most organic traffic.
Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%.
Video is the #1 form of media used in content strategy, overtaking blogs.
SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC.
49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.
Content Marketing & Video SEO
- 1Articles with a word count between 2,250 and 2,500 earn the most organic traffic.
- 2Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%.
- 3Video is the #1 form of media used in content strategy, overtaking blogs.
- 4Content with at least one image gets twice as many shares as content with no images.
- 5Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic globally.
- 655% of video marketers say they created video content specifically to boost their SEO performance.
- 7Posts with videos earn more backlinks and see a 157% increase in search traffic from SERPs.
- 827% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile.
- 9Voice search results typically load in 4.6 seconds, giving them 52% faster load time than the average page.
- 10The average voice search result is 29 words long.
- 1172% of marketers describe content marketing as a key to SEO success.
- 12Websites with a blog have 434% more indexed pages.
- 1361% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority.
- 1473% of people admit to skimming blog posts while 27% consume them thoroughly.
- 15"How-to" searches on YouTube have increased by 70% year over year.
- 1653% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority.
- 17Pages with more than one variation of the H1 tag have less traffic than those with one.
- 1838% of marketers engage in content optimization or republication.
- 19List posts get 2x more shares than other blog post formats.
- 2062% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers want visual search capabilities more than any other new technology.
Interpretation
Think of modern SEO as a newsroom powered by multimedia and meticulous upkeep rather than a guessing game, because long in-depth articles between 2,250 and 2,500 words attract the most organic traffic, updating and republishing old posts can boost traffic by up to 106 percent, and packing each article with at least one image and a how-to video not only doubles shares but also earns more backlinks and can lift search traffic roughly 157 percent, which helps explain why video has overtaken blogs as the leading content medium and why 55 percent of video marketers now create videos expressly for SEO; meanwhile maintaining a company blog yields about 55 percent more web traffic and 434 percent more indexed pages, list posts and single H1 structures outperform cluttered formats, and with 27 percent of mobile users using voice search that typically returns short 29-word answers in 4.6 seconds, 52 percent faster than the average page, plus a 70 percent rise in YouTube how-to queries and 62 percent of younger consumers asking for visual search, content marketing remains the strategic heart of SEO for the majority of marketers.
Local SEO & Mobile Search
- 146% of all Google searches are seeking local information.
- 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"Where to buy" and "near me" mobile queries have grown by over 200% in the past two years.
- 561% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly site.
- 686% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps.
- 778% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase.
- 858% of all Google searches happen on a mobile device.
- 987% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2022.
- 10Listings with photos are 2x as likely to be considered reputable and get 35% more clicks.
- 1142% of local searches involve clicks on the Google Map Pack.
- 1297% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else.
- 1354% of smartphone users search for business hours and 53% search for directions to local store.
- 1462% of consumers will disregard a business if they can’t find it online.
- 15Mobile searches for "best" have grown by over 80% in the past two years.
- 1618% of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day compared to 7% of non-local searches.
- 17More than 50% of "near me" searches result in a store visit.
- 18Businesses claiming their free Google My Business profile is only approximately 56%.
- 19Reviews are the second most important factor for local pack rankings.
- 2088% of potential customers look for online reviews before choosing local services.
Interpretation
These stats make it brutally clear: customers pick, vet and often visit local businesses from their phones, so if your Google listing is not accurate, photo rich, mobile friendly and review worthy you are handing foot traffic and sales to the search results.
Ranking Factors & Technical SEO
- 1The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%.
- 2Moving from position #1 to position #2 results in a CTR drop of 30.8%.
- 390.63% of pages get no satisfaction from organic search traffic from Google.
- 4The average top-ranking page generally ranks in the top 10 for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords.
- 5Backlinks are one of top three ranking factors for Google.
- 6Pages with the highest number of total backlinks usually rank best in Google.
- 766.31% of pages have no backlinks.
- 8The average page loads in 8.7 seconds on desktop and 25.8 seconds on mobile.
- 9Website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time.
- 10HTTPS is a ranking signal that affects 95% of Google search results.
- 11URLs that contain a keyword have a 45% higher click-through rate.
- 1225.02% of top-ranking pages don’t have a meta description.
- 13Title tags that contain a question have a 14.1% higher CTR vs. pages that don't have a question in their title.
- 14The average Google first page result contains 1,447 words.
- 1556.8% of pages in the top 10 search results were published 3 or more years ago.
- 16Only 5.7% of pages rank in the top 10 within a year of publication.
- 17Websites with strong domain authority tend to rank higher than those with weak domain authority.
- 18At least 34% of the top 30 Google results have the exact match keyword in their title.
- 19Bounce rate is not a direct ranking factor, according to Google representatives per industry analysis.
- 2040.9% of Google searches on mobile result in organic clicks, compared to 62.2% on desktop.
Interpretation
Think of SEO as a ruthless popularity contest: the #1 organic result grabs about 27.6% of clicks and sliding to #2 cuts that by 30.8%; because roughly 90% of pages get no organic traffic, your strategy must be surgical: earn backlinks since most top pages have them while 66.31% have none; use HTTPS which affects 95% of results; speed up pages that average 8.7 seconds on desktop and 25.8 on mobile because conversions fall about 4.42% per extra second; optimize keyword-rich URLs and question titles as URLs lift CTR by 45% and question titles raise CTR by 14.1%; publish long authoritative content because the average top result has 1,447 words and often ranks for nearly 1,000 related keywords; add meta descriptions since 25.02% of top pages lack them; and build domain authority and longevity since 56.8% of top ten pages are three or more years old while only 5.7% reach the top ten within a year, all the while remembering that bounce rate is not a direct ranking factor and mobile organic clicks lag behind desktop at 40.9% versus 62.2%.
SEO Industry & Business Strategy
- 1SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
- 270% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC.
- 349% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel.
- 4The average hourly rate for SEO agencies in the US is between $100 and $150.
- 5Businesses are expected to spend $79 billion on SEO services by 2020 (Historical Context for growth).
- 664% of marketers actively invest time in search engine optimization.
- 760% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc) is their highest quality source of leads.
- 844% of businesses say their top challenge with SEO is a lack of budget.
- 993% of B2B buying processes begin with an online search.
- 1057% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.
- 11Small businesses spend an average of $500/month on SEO services.
- 1274.71% of SEOs charge a monthly retainer fee.
- 13On a scale of 1 to 10, businesses rate the importance of SEO at 8.9.
- 1465% of digital marketers state link building is the hardest part of SEO.
- 1570% of online marketers say that SEO is better than PPC for generating sales.
- 16About 64% of marketers actively invest in SEO, with the remaining 36% intending to or doing so passively.
- 17Only 30% of small businesses have an SEO strategy in place.
- 1889% of marketing professionals say SEO is successful at driving business results.
- 1945% of total enterprise marketing budget is spent on SEO.
- 2082% of marketers who run a blog see positive ROI from their inbound marketing.
Interpretation
SEO closes more deals, outperforms paid channels on ROI, drives almost every B2B buying decision and commands growing budgets, yet many companies underfund or lack a strategy, so investing consistently in SEO and content is the straightforward, high-return way to turn searches into sales.
User Behavior & Search Trends
- 168% of online experiences begin with a search engine.
- 2Google currently holds approximately 91.54% of the global search engine market share.
- 315% of all Google searches performed daily have never been searched before.
- 4Why roughly 65% of all Google searches end without a click to another web property (Zero-Click Searches).
- 575% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
- 6Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic.
- 712.29% of search queries have featured snippets in their search results.
- 88% of search queries are phrased as questions.
- 9Google processes over 8.5 billion searches per day.
- 1092.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps.
- 1118% of people enter a new search query before clicking on any result for their original search.
- 1221% of searchers click on more than one result.
- 13Google Lens is used for 12 billion visual searches every month.
- 14Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page.
- 1547% of consumers view 3-5 pieces of content before interacting with a sales representative.
- 16Long-tail keywords account for 70% of all web searches.
- 1759% of shoppers use Google to research a purchase they plan to make in-store or online.
- 18Approximately 2 trillion searches are performed on Google every year.
- 1998% of people choose a business that is on the first page of the results.
- 2043% of users skim blog posts while only 29% read them thoroughly.
Interpretation
With Google owning over 90% of search and handling roughly 8.5 billion queries a day, and with 68% of online experiences starting with search, 75% of users never leaving the first page, 98% picking a first-page business, only 0.63% clicking to page two, 65% of searches ending without a click, 12.29% featuring snippets, 15% of queries being brand-new, 70% being long-tail, and visual, multi-touch, and organic discovery dominating, the witty-but-serious takeaway is this: if your content isn't crafted to answer fresh, long-tail, snippet-friendly questions at a glance and shepherd users through multiple touchpoints, you might as well be invisible at the party Google is hosting.
