The staggering stats behind Search Engine Optimization
The number of organizations using Search Engine Optimization continues to grow, from the automotive industry, real estate to the small local business. SEO has continually evolved as has the internet. In the early days of the www, early search engines provided needed access and organization after a ton of websites came online. Organizing information was far messier. Search engines, such as Excite, changed the game on how information was cataloged, making it easier to find information by sorting results based on keywords found within the sites’ content.
See my SEO article specific to automotive dealers
It was easier to game the system in these days. Marketers engaged in keyword stuffing, encouraged backlinking, which was often spammy, and excessive tagging to rank high in search. Major algorithm changes were not employed as quickly, so this allowed black hat SEO methods to remain in place for a while. Along came Google and Yahoo, and they put in place the rules we have today after seeing opportunities for connecting users to more valuable content. This in turn led to the internet search rules we have today.
There have been many articles over the past decade proclaiming that ‘SEO is dead’ or ‘SEO Doesn’t Matter in (choose any year). The numbers don’t agree with the doomsayers as SEO is alive and well.
5 reasons why You need SEO
1. More Organic Website Traffic
It’s simple: when your site is optimized, it will eventually sit high up on the search results page, you’ll get more traffic, which raises the possibility of a sale.
2. Site Authority Grows
Authority is a big thing online. It’s not enough to have great content, it should be valuable, which means it meets the needs of the user. When your content is valuable to many, other sites will link to your content, giving your content an endorsement of sorts.
3. Higher Credibility
When most people see a website at the top of a search results page, the site is deemed credible, higher quality and trustworthy.
4. Become More Competitive
SEO can be the big difference between your business’ website getting more traffic and sales than your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you are going up against a more well-established business, if you are using SEO and your competitors are not, you are at an advantage.
5. Track Your Customers
Google Analytics and other analytics platforms allow stakeholders to track important site metrics. This information can help you better narrow your target market, while determining the best marketing/advertising strategy.
Organic Traffic Statistics
- 32.5 percent: The average traffic share the first Google organic search result gets.
- 91.5 percent: The average traffic share generated by the sites listed on the first Google search results page.
- 1,890 words: The average content length of a Google first page result.
- 51 percent of all website traffic comes from organic search, 10 percent from paid search, 5 percent for social, and 34 percent from all other sources.
- Over 40 percent of revenue is captured by organic traffic.
- 73 billion: The estimated number of phone calls that were generated from mobile search alone by the end of 2018.
- 8.5: The average number of organic mobile search results that Google shows on page 1. It previously consisted of 10 “blue links” in its search results.
- 8.59: The average number of organic desktop search results that Google shows on page 1.
Business Spending Statistics
- $65 billion: The amount that companies spent on SEO in 2016.
- $72.02 billion: The estimated amount brands and agencies in the United States will shell out for SEO services in 2018. The amount is forecasted to rise to $79.27 billion by 2020.
- >$5,000: Most businesses are spending this amount on SEO.
- 77.8 percent of US search ad revenues earned by Google in 2017.
Local Search Behavior Statistics
- 80 percent of Google search interest in “near me” came from mobile in Q4 2014.
- 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information.
- 18 percent of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day.
- 88 percent of users search on a smartphone, while 84 percent search on a computer/tablet.
- 54 percent of smartphone users search for business hours, 53 percent search for directions to a local store
- 4 in 5 consumers want ads customized to their city, zip code, or immediate surroundings.
- >70 percent of consumers say it’s important to have directions and a call button in ads.
- 2.1X: The increase in mobile searches for “stores open now” or “food open now” in the past year.
- 1.3: The number of times mobile searches for “where to buy/find/get” increased in the past year.
- 65 percent of people use their phone in their I-want-to-buy moments.
- 76 percent of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day and 28 percent of those searches for something nearby result in a purchase.
User Search Behavior Statistics
- 51.3 percent of internet users worldwide operate mobile and tablet devices, while 48.7 percent use desktops
- 15 percent of the millions of active US web users performed at least one or more searches in a day, 45 percent performed at least one query in a week, and 68 percent performed one or more queries that month.
- 79 percent of people took a relevant action on their phone prior to making a purchase.
- 39 percent of purchasers were influenced by a relevant search.
- 3: The average number of words a typical searcher uses in their search query.
- ~8 percent of search queries are phrased as questions.
- 8 percent of queries on Google result in the searcher changing their search terms without clicking any results.
- 21 percent of searches lead to more than one click on Google’s results.
- 8 percent of Google queries result in pogo-sticking (i.e. the searcher clicks a result, then bounces back to the search results page and chooses a different result).
Link Building Statistics
- Over 1,000 words: The average length of long form content that receives more shares and links than shorter form content.
- 41 percent of large companies consider link building as the most difficult SEO tactic
Google Statistics
- 130 trillion: How many webpages Google indexed in 2016.
- ~2 trillion: The estimated number of searches Google is handling per year worldwide. That breaks down to 63,000 searches per second; 3.8 million searches per minute; 228 million searches per hour; 5.5 billion searches per day; and 167 billion searches per month.
- 1 billion+: How many people use Google search every month.
- 40-60 billion: The estimated number of searches happening on Google in the U.S. each month.
- 1,600+: How many improvements to search Google launched in 2016.
- 81.12 percent: The total search engine market share that Google currently holds.
- 15 percent: The percentage of daily queries Google sees that have never been searched for previously.
- Under 1 minute: The all-in time of the average Google search session (from the time of the initial query to the loading of the search results page and the selection of any results, plus any back button clicks to those SERPs and selection of new results.)
- 30 percent of all mobile searches are related to location.
- 66 percent of distinct search queries resulted in one or more clicks on Google’s results, while 34 percent of searches get no clicks at all.
- 3.4 percent of distinct search queries in Google resulted in a click on an AdWords (paid) ad.
- 0.9 percent of Google.com search results get a click on Google Maps.
- ~0.5 percent of clicks on Google search results go to links in the Knowledge Graph.
- 3 percent of clicks on Google search results go to image blocks.
- ~0.23 percent of clicks on Google search results go to Twitter block results.
- 1.8 percent of clicks on Google search results go to YouTube.
- 0.16 percent of clicks on Google search results go to personalized Gmail/Google Mail results.
- 0.55 percent of clicks on Google search results go to Google Shopping results.
- 11.8 percent of clicks from distinct Google searches result in a click on a Google property, i.e. YouTube, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Books, the Google Play Store on mobile, and Google+.
- ~25 percent of all searches are distributed across the top 1 MM queries, with the top 10MM queries accounting for about 45 percent and the top 1BB queries accounting for close to 90 percent.
- 25 percent of all search volume happens outside the top 100 million keywords.
- 40.9 percent of Google searches done on mobile devices result in an organic click, 2 percent in a paid click, and 57.1 percent in no click at all.
- 62.2 percent of Google searches done on desktop devices result in an organic click, 2.8 percent in a paid click, and 35 percent in no click.
SEO & Other Marketing Channels
- ~20: The number of times SEO has more traffic opportunity than PPC on both mobile and desktop.
- 45 percent of all companies say content marketing is ‘highly integrated’ with their SEO strategy.
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