30 Important SEO Statistics

updated/reviewed 2024

We’re sure you’ve heard the term SEO before, but do you really know what it means and how it can benefit your business? In this article, we’ve compiled a list of helpful SEO stats that are so convincing you may want to start implementing this technique into your strategy today. 

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, refers to a series of techniques that aim to improve the visibility of your website in search engines. There are hundreds of ranking factors that contribute to where your website will be placed in search results. SEO rewards businesses that adhere to its ranking factors with higher placement in search engines. 

Why is SEO important?

SEO gives businesses the power to improve their online presence by using a series of website optimization techniques. It helps build customer trust, improves the user experience, and it can ultimately boost your search engine ranking. Without SEO, these opportunities would not be possible.

• 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results (Entrepreneur)
• 53 percent of all website traffic comes from organic searches (Search Engine Land)
• 66 percent of people perform some type of online research before making a purchase online (SemRush)

How effective is SEO?

If done correctly, SEO can be highly effective. Not to mention, SEO is a cost-effective solution that can increase your company’s online visibility and build your authority in a specific industry.    

There are over 160 search engines in the world. Google holds the highest market share of them all at over 90 percent. According to Ahrefs, a majority of web traffic comes from Google’s organic search results, which are powered by SEO. While 57.80 percent of web traffic generally comes from Google’s organic search results, only 3.70 percent of traffic comes from search engines like Bing.

View the chart below to compare and contrast how much web traffic you can receive from each platform.    

• It is predicted that Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second (HubSpot)
• 70 percent of marketing experts believe that SEO yields better results than PPC (SERPWATCH)
• 49 percent of respondents say that organic search has the highest return on investment (ROI) of any marketing channel (Search Engine Journal)

SEO Keywords

SEO keywords are phrases or queries that help identify what your web page will be about. When a user performs a keyword search by entering those keywords into a search engine, it can connect online users to your are entered into search engines your website will be easy to find online. 

Why do SEO keywords and search queries matter? 

• 50 percent of search queries contain four or more words (WordStream)
• 16 percent to 20 percent of daily Google searches are queries that have never been raised before (Internet Live Stats)
• 91.8 percent of search terms on Google are long-tail keywords (Backlinko)

How do SEO keywords improve your online visibility?

• Pages in Google’s top 10 results contain 65 percent to 85 percent of the keywords that they’re ranking for in the title tag (Backlinko)
• 79 percent of keywords and 47 percent of keywords in positions 1-20 rank differently on mobile and desktop (BrightEdge)
• Over 25 percent of online users click the first Google search result (Search Engine Journal)

Can SEO help generate leads for my business?

• 14.6 percent of SEO-generated leads are converted into sales (Business 2 Community)
• 61 percent of B2B marketers stated that SEO and organic traffic generate more leads than any other marketing initiative (Entrepreneur) 
• Organic SEO results receive 94 percent more clicks than paid ads displayed in search results (MonsterInsights)

Mobile SEO

Mobile SEO refers to how well your website has been optimized for compatibility with mobile. Mobile search engine optimization isn’t limited to just smartphones, it can also refer to tablets and other similar digital devices. 

Is mobile SEO effective?

• 56 percent of all online consumers in the United States have searched for local businesses on a mobile device (Statista)

• 82 percent of consumers shopping from a smartphone conduct “near me” searches (Uberall)
• 61 percent of mobile users say they are more likely to contact a local business if it has a mobile-friendly website (BrightLocal)

Local SEO

Local SEO refers to online tactics that aim to help your business increase its visibility in Google’s local search results.  

How effective is local SEO?

• 46 percent of all searches on Google are for a local business or a local service (Search Engine Roundtable)
• 76 percent of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone visit a physical place within 24 hours and 28 percent of those searches result in a purchase (Think with Google)
• 86 percent of users use Google Maps to look up the location of a business (Korona POS)

Google’s Algorithm

Google’s algorithm is a major factor that determines how your website will rank in search engines. These updates are made continually and failure to keep up with its latest requirements can cause your website to rise or fall off the first page of search results.  

What is a Google algorithm?

Google’s algorithm, also known as a Google search algorithm, is a methodology that enables Google’s web crawlers to better discover, rank, and list relevant web pages in search results for relevant keyword searches. Google’s algorithm takes several factors into consideration, such as the user experience of a page, relevance, website security, and more.   

How does Google’s algorithm work with SEO?  

• Google uses over 200 factors in its algorithm for ranking websites (Backlinko)
• Google introduces 500 to 600 changes to its search algorithms every year (Search Engine Land)
• There have been eight major Google algorithm updates (Search Engine Land) 

Backlinks

Backlinks are an integral part of every winning SEO strategy. Not only are backlinks the core of your off-page SEO strategy, but they are also considered by Google to measure the value of your web page.   

What are backlinks? 

Backlinks, also referred to as inbound links, refer to links from another web page that have been added to your website. The best backlinks come from a trusted and authoritative source and if implemented correctly, a solid backlink strategy has the power to help boost your company’s online authority.    

How effective are backlinks?

• Web pages that rank number one in search engines often have 35,000 backlinks or more (Backlinko)
• Results that rank number one in Google SERPs have approximately 279 referring domains (Backlinko)
• 99 percent of the websites ranking in the top results of Google have at least one external link (Forbes)

SEO & Marketing Agency

What should I know before working with a marketing & SEO agency? 

• For SEO agencies that charge per-project, $501-$1,000 is the most common price range (Ahrefs)
• 65 percent of companies stated that they’ve worked with several different SEO providers. 25 percent have worked with three or more providers (Backlinko)
• Businesses in the United States spend around $79 billion on SEO each year (Statista)  

References

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Chris Gregory

Chris founded DAGMAR Marketing and directs all of the agency's SEO strategy development and implementation. He is a Certified Master SEO by Market Motive and OMCP.

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