85+ SEO Statistics for 2023

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial aspect of digital marketing that helps businesses to rank higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) and reach their target audience effectively. It involves various techniques and strategies to optimize a website’s content, structure, and functionality to improve its visibility and search engine ranking. In this article, we will discuss some important SEO statistics that every digital marketer should know.

1. Google dominates the search engine market share: Google is by far the most popular search engine, with a market share of over 92%. Bing, Yahoo, and others hold the remaining market share. This means that optimizing for Google should be a top priority for any SEO strategy.
2. Organic search is the primary source of website traffic: Organic search accounts for 53% of website traffic, followed by direct traffic (15%) and social media (5%). This highlights the importance of SEO in driving relevant traffic to a website.
3. Mobile optimization is crucial: Mobile devices account for over 50% of all website traffic. Google has also shifted to mobile-first indexing, which means that mobile-optimized websites will rank higher than non-optimized websites.
4. Page speed is a critical factor: Page speed is a crucial ranking factor, as slow-loading websites tend to have higher bounce rates and lower engagement rates. According to Google, websites that load in less than 2 seconds have the best user experience.
5. Content is king: High-quality, relevant, and informative content is essential for ranking high on search engines. Websites with a blog tend to have 434% more indexed pages than websites without a blog.
6. Backlinks still matter: Backlinks from high-quality and authoritative websites can significantly improve a website’s search engine ranking. According to a study, websites with more backlinks tend to rank higher on search engines.
7. Local SEO is essential for small businesses: Local SEO helps small businesses to target customers in their local area. 46% of all Google searches are local, and 72% of consumers who perform a local search visit a store within 5 miles of their location.
8. Social media can impact search engine ranking: While social media signals are not a direct ranking factor, they can impact search engine ranking indirectly. Social media can help to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to a website, and attract backlinks.

Below are some of the most compelling SEO statistics you should be aware of:

• The vast majority (68%) of online experiences start with a search engine. (Source: BrightEdge)
• Only 0.63% of clicks on Google search results come from the second page. (Source: Backlinko)
• Over half (53.3%) of all website traffic comes from organic searches. (Source: BrightEdge)
• Google dominates global traffic, accounting for 92.96% of all traffic from search engines, Google Images, and Google Maps. (Source: SparkToro)
• SEO can generate over 1,000% more traffic than organic social media. (Source: BrightEdge)
• 60% of marketers identify inbound strategies such as SEO and blog content as their highest-quality lead sources. (Source: HubSpot)
• Leads generated through SEO have a close rate of 14.6%. (Source: HubSpot)

Prepare to be surprised by these Google ranking statistics:

• According to Ahrefs, a staggering 90.63% of pages receive zero organic search traffic from Google. So, don’t be disheartened if your site is struggling to rank in search results.
• It’s also interesting to note that the top-ranking page gets the most search traffic only 49% of the time. This means that ranking on the first page of Google does not necessarily guarantee the most traffic to your site.
• A mere 5.7% of pages rank in the top 10 search results within a year of publication. So, if you’re looking for immediate results, SEO may not be the right strategy.
• Surprisingly, 7.4% of top-ranking pages don’t have a title tag, and Google rewrites title tags 33.4% of the time. This shows that title tags are not always essential to rank high in Google, and the search engine may choose to rewrite them to improve user experience.
• Google is 33% more likely to rewrite title tags now than in the past, and when it ignores the title tag, it uses the H1 tag 50.76% of the time instead.
• Another interesting fact is that Google is 57% more likely to rewrite title tags that are too long. So, it’s essential to keep your title tags concise and relevant.
• Approximately 25.02% of top-ranking pages don’t have meta descriptions, and 40.61% of pages have meta descriptions that truncate. Furthermore, Google shows meta descriptions in search results only 37.22% of the time. However, for fat-head keywords, that rises to 40.35% and drops to 34.38% for long-tails.
• The average top-ranking page ranks in the top 10 search results for almost 1,000 other relevant keywords, and it’s over two years old.
• Finally, only 33% of websites pass the Core Web Vitals threshold, meaning that there is significant room for improvement in website performance.
• These Google ranking statistics reveal that ranking on Google takes time and effort, and there are no guarantees. However, optimizing your website can still pay off in the long run.

Interesting statistics related to backlinks:

According to Google, backlinks are among the top three factors that determine a web page’s ranking on its search engine. Here are some interesting statistics related to backlinks:

• A staggering 66.31% of web pages have no backlinks, as reported by Ahrefs.
• Most top-ranking pages receive “followed” backlinks from new websites at a rate of between 5% to 14.5% per month, also according to Ahrefs.
• Generally speaking, the more backlinks a webpage has, the higher the amount of organic traffic it receives from Google’s search engine, again based on Ahrefs data.
• If you’re looking to purchase a link, be prepared to pay an average cost of $361.44, as reported by Ahrefs.
• If you prefer to publish a paid guest post, the average cost is $77.80, according to Ahrefs.
• Reciprocal links, where some of the sites a domain links to also link back to that domain, are present in 73.6% of domains, according to Ahrefs.
• Interestingly, 43.7% of top-ranking pages have reciprocal links, as per Ahrefs.
• In the last nine years, 66.5% of links to sites are dead, based on Ahrefs data.
• Out of all backlinks to the top 110,000 sites, 10.6% are marked as no-follow, according to Ahrefs.
• Finally, only 0.44% of links use “rel=ugc,” and a mere 0.01% use “rel=sponsored,” as reported by Ahrefs.

Keyword research statistics

Keyword research is often the first step in any SEO campaign, and understanding how people search on Google is critical to that process.

• According to recent data, the vast majority of keywords, approximately 94.74%, receive 10 or fewer monthly searches.
• Conversely, a tiny fraction of keywords, only 0.0008%, receive more than 100,000 monthly searches.
• Approximately 8% of search queries are phrased as questions, and 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before.
• Interestingly, Google Ads Keyword Planner tends to overestimate search volumes significantly, with approximately 91.45% of search volumes being overestimated.
• Additionally, Google Ads Keyword Planner is accurate only 45.22% of the time, overestimating search volumes in 54.28% of cases.
• Finally, it’s worth noting that 46.08% of clicks in Google Search Console go to hidden terms.

Overall, understanding these statistics can help businesses and SEO professionals to refine their keyword research strategies and to develop more effective SEO campaigns.

Some statistics from the SEO industry

Let’s take a look at some statistics from the SEO industry, specifically regarding the pricing of services. If you’re an SEO professional, you might be wondering how your rates compare to others in the industry. Here are some key figures to keep in mind:

• According to data from Ahrefs, 74.71% of SEOs charge a monthly retainer fee for their clients. Of those, the most popular pricing tier is $501-$1,000 per month.
• For SEOs who charge hourly rates, $100-$150 per hour is the most common pricing tier.
• If you prefer to charge per-project, the most popular pricing tier is also $501-$1,000.
• The majority of SEOs (88.28%) charge $150/hour or less for their services.
• SEOs who have been in business for over two years tend to charge significantly more than those who have been in business for less than two years. On average, they charge 39.4% more per hour, 102.41% more for monthly retainers, and 275% more for one-off projects.
• SEOs who serve clients worldwide tend to charge 130.74% more for monthly retainers than those who focus on local markets.
• Finally, for SEO professionals based in the United States, the average salary is $60,548 per year, according to data from Backlinko.

These statistics can be useful for SEO professionals who want to ensure that they are pricing their services appropriately. Keep in mind that rates can vary widely depending on factors such as experience, location, and the specific services being offered.

Understanding Search Engine Trends

It’s essential for SEO professionals to stay up-to-date on the current and future state of search engines. Here are some important statistics to consider:

• According to Ahrefs, around 12.29% of search queries display featured snippets in their search results.
• Backlinko reports that the top organic result on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) has an average click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%.
• The top three search results on Google receive 54.4% of all clicks, as per Backlinko.
• Google processes an estimated 3.5 billion searches every day, according to Internet Live Stats.
• Around 39% of consumers are influenced by relevant search results when making a purchase, according to to Think With Google.
• SparkToro suggests that 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches do not result in clicks.
• Google dominates the global search market, with Statista estimating its market share to be approximately 83%.

Keeping track of these trends and statistics can help SEO experts stay informed and make informed decisions to improve their websites’ visibility and rankings on search engine results pages.

Statistics that highlight the significance of local SEO.

In case you are serving local customers, it is crucial to enhance your local search presence so that more people can locate you. Below are some statistics that highlight the significance of local SEO.

• Around 30% of all mobile searches are linked to location. (Think With Google)
• Approximately 76% of individuals who look for something nearby on their smartphones visit a business within one day. (Think With Google)
• Nearly 28% of searches for local products and services lead to a purchase. (Think With Google)
• Yelp is featured among the top five search results for 92% of Google web queries that contain a city and business category. (Fresh Chalk)
• Roughly 54% of smartphone users look for business hours, and 53% search for directions to local stores. (Think With Google)
• Nearly 45% of shoppers worldwide buy online and then pick up their orders in-store. (Think With Google)
• The search queries “Where to buy” + “near me” on mobile devices have grown by over 200% from 2017 to 2019. (Think With Google)
• Mobile searches for “store open near me” (such as “grocery store open near me”) have grown by more than 250% from 2017 to 2019. (Think With Google)
• Year-over-year, mobile searches for “on sale” + “near me” (like “tires on sale near me”) have increased by over 250% between 2017 and 2019. (Think With Google)

The following Video  SEO Statistics might be of interest to you

Video marketing has proven to be a successful approach in attracting customers. If you haven’t implemented this strategy yet, the following statistics might be of interest to you.

• Backlinko reports that the number of comments, views, shares, and “likes” strongly correlates with higher YouTube rankings.
• Furthermore, Backlinko’s research shows that 68.2% of first-page YouTube results are HD videos.
• The average length of a first-page YouTube video is 14 minutes and 50 seconds.

Statistics related to mobile SEO

Mobile-first indexing has become a norm for Google, and more people are using mobile devices to search. Consequently, mobile SEO has become extremely vital. Here are some key statistics related to mobile SEO:

• Mobile devices account for 58.99% of all website traffic globally, as per Statista.
• According to CNBC, 72.6% of internet users will exclusively use their smartphones to access the internet by 2025.
• More searches are conducted on mobile devices than desktops, states Think With Google.
• As per Think With Google, 51% of smartphone users have found a new product or company while searching on their mobile devices.
• Think With Google states that 18% of local searches on mobile devices result in a purchase within 24 hours, compared to 7% of non-local searches.
• Ranking at the top position on mobile devices results in a click-through rate of 6.74%, whereas on desktops, it is 8.17%, according to SEOClarity.
• Think With Google found that 56% of in-store shoppers used their mobile devices for researching or shopping while inside a store.

Some interesting Voice Search Statistics: