As long as search engine technology evolves, so will SEO. 

While Google’s methods remain secretive, you need to keep up with the latest research to stay ahead of your competitors.

In this article, we’ll share 106 of the most up-to-date, verified SEO statistics. 

You can use them to dictate your strategy and enhance your content marketing efforts.

Key Takeaways

High-quality content remains a crucial strategy for organic search and link-building. Video and technology (like phones and smart speakers) are increasingly impacting the way we search and shop.

The information below dives deeper into SEO statistics. Here are the top takeaways from each section: 

• Less than 1% of searchers click on the second page of Google results (Backlinko, 2023)
• Pages with the highest number of total backlinks usually rank best in Google (Backlinko, 2020)
• The top traffic source for all websites is organic search (HubSpot, 2022)
• Long-tail keywords make up the vast majority of all Google searches (Semrush, 2022)
• Over 70% of shoppers use their phones to buy online (Semrush, 2023)
• Some 36% of Americans own a smart speaker (Edison Research, 2023)
• Some 91% of companies (an all-time high) now use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl, 2023)
• A staggering 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal, 2023)
• Almost 70% of consumers head to the search bar when they land on an online retailer’s site (Nosto, 2023)
• Around 57% of B2B sellers feel the content their marketing team produces is “generic and unresponsive” (McKinsey, 2022)
• Some 88% of marketers who already invest in SEO plan to allocate more or maintain the same amount in 2023 (HubSpot, 2023)

Let’s dive into the details.

Google Search Engine Usage Statistics

Google is the most visited website in the world. 

So let’s look at some statistics that show how searchers are using it:

• Organic web listings get 73% of clicks (BrightEdge, 2022)
• Consumers are using search engines 20% more year-over-year (BrightEdge, 2022)
• In 2020, 64.82% of Google mobile and desktop searches were “zero-click searches” (they ended in the search results without visiting another webpage) (SparkToro, 2021)
• Less than 1% of searchers click on the second page of Google results (Backlinko, 2023)
• Search traffic for the Electronics, Beauty, Media, and Food industries all grew in 2022. Traffic for both Service and Technology and Fashion dropped significantly. (Semrush, 2023)

• Google holds over 90% of the worldwide search engine market share. Bing has under 3%. Yahoo!, Yandex, and Baidu all float around 1%. (Statcounter, 2023)
• About 15% of all Google searches are queries the site is seeing for the first time (Google, 2022)
• The “Computer and Video Games” category grew web traffic by 183% in 2022 (Semrush, 2023)
• “Wordle” was the number one most-searched keyword in 2022 (Google, 2022)

Backlink Statistics

Link building is a significant part of any SEO strategy. 

And the number of referring domains (the sites that provide the backlinks) is one of Google’s most important ranking factors.

Here are some of the latest statistics surrounding backlinks:

• In a 13-month Semrush study, nearly all (92.3%) of the 100 top-ranking domains had at least one backlink (Semrush, 2023)
• In the same study, over 50% of qualified sites without at least one backlink never reached the first page (Semrush, 2023)

• Pages with the highest number of total backlinks usually rank best in Google (Backlinko, 2020)
• The top result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than those in second to tenth place (Backlinko, 2020)
• A slightly older study found that long-form content is ideal for backlink acquisition, with an average of 77.2% more links than short articles (Backlinko, 2019)
• Approximately 94% of all blog posts in existence have zero external links (Backlinko, 2019)

• The same theory applied in 2019: top-ranking pages have more backlinks than those in lower ranks (Backlinko, 2019)
• Around 67.5% of SEO experts believe backlinks impact search engine rankings (uSERP, 2022)
• Almost half of those in the SEO industry spend $5,000 to $10,000 a month on link building (uSERP, 2022)
• Backlinko’s Brian Dean found that sending “Feeler” emails (outreach where you don’t ask for a backlink) increased conversions by over 40% (Backlinko, 2023)

Ranking, First Page SERP, and Click-Through Statistics

The more people see and click your content in Google Search results, the more organic traffic you’ll get. 

These SEO stats compare the first page in the search engine results pages (SERPs) to click-through rates (CTR):

• The top traffic source for all websites is organic search (HubSpot, 2022)
• Ranking in the top position on the first page of Google translates to a 39.8% organic click-through rate (First Page Sage, 2023)
• Over two-thirds (68.7%) of all clicks go to the top three organic search results (First Page Sage, 2023)
• Snippets have the highest overall CTR at 42.9% (First Page Sage, 2023)
• The top organic search result receives an average of 19x more clicks than the top paid search result (First Page Sage, 2023)
• All the clicks from the third to tenth results combined are less than those that go to the top organic search result (First Page Sage, 2023)
• The first organic result in Google is 10x more likely to receive a click than the page in the #10 spot (Backlinko, 2023)
• About 28% more new domains ranked in the SERPs in 2022. That’s a lower percentage than in 2021 but higher than in 2020. (Semrush, 2023)

• Out of 28,000 domains in a Semrush report, only 7.65% ranked in the top 100 for the 13-month duration of the study (Semrush, 2023)
• Sites that received a large number of valid removal notices saw their Google search traffic drop by 89% on average (Google, 2022)

Keyword Statistics

Keyword research is the basis of all high-quality content marketing. 

Here’s how to use it efficiently to impact rankings:

• Backlinko found almost zero correlation between using a keyword in your title tag and ranking higher on the first SERP (Backlinko, 2020)
• Keywords that are roughly 10-15 words long get 1.76x more clicks than single-word terms (Backlinko, 2023)
• Posts that contain target keywords or similar terms in the URL have a 45% higher click-through rate compared to those that don’t (Backlinko, 2023)
• Titles with a positive sentiment have a 4% higher CTR (Backlinko, 2023)
• For short-tail searches (high search volume terms with one or two keywords), the top-ranking results have shifted from transactional to informational (Conductor, 2023)

• SERP volatility (fluctuation in rankings for specific keywords) was higher in 2022 than it was in 2021 (Semrush, 2023)
• Long-tail keywords make up the vast majority of all Google searches (Semrush, 2022)

• In one of our recent studies, the average length of keywords for the top-ranking 10% of sites ranged from 3.2-3.5 words (Semrush, 2023)
• Keyword searches for AI shot up to 101M monthly searches in March 2023 from 10 in November 2022 (Semrush, 2023)

Mobile Search Statistics

Google uses your site’s mobile version for indexing and ranking. This “mobile-first indexing” is why marketers must develop mobile SEO strategies.

A poor mobile user experience can lead to high bounce rates. And both negatively impact SEO.

Here’s why mobile search is so crucial:

• There are 5.44 billion unique mobile phone users worldwide (We Are Social, 2023)
• Just under 96% of internet users ages 16-64 own a smartphone (We Are Social, 2023)
• Users submit 57% of local search queries with a mobile device or tablet (ReviewTrackers, 2022)
• Searches from mobile devices make up the most web traffic, with 41% (HubSpot, 2022)
• Over 70% of shoppers use their phones to buy online (Semrush, 2023)
• Mobile traffic dropped in summer 2022 but has since bounced back (Semrush, 2023)
• Related Searches is the most common feature in the SERPs for mobile searches (Semrush, 2023) 
• In 2022, Popular Products appeared 17% more frequently for mobile users in the SERPs compared to the previous year (Semrush, 2023)

• Smartphone users turn to Google Lens to answer 8 billion queries each month (Google, 2022)
• In 2020, 77.22% of mobile searches ended without users clicking on another webpage (SparkToro, 2021)
• The average web page takes 87.84% longer to load on mobile than on desktop (Backlinko, 2019)

Voice Search Statistics

Voice SEO is a marketing strategy that involves optimizing your content and listings for voice search. 

That way, you’re more likely to appear as a top-ranking page when users ask Alexa or Google Nest (previously Google Home) a question.

Here’s how the sector is growing:

• Some 36% of Americans own a smart speaker (Edison Research, 2023)
• Amazon dominates the smart speaker market in the US (Statista, 2023)
• Half of US consumers use voice search every day (UpCity, 2022)
• The number is higher for US consumers ages 25-34; around 58% of them use voice search every day (UpCity, 2022)
• Queries about the weather and local “near me” searches are the two most popular uses for voice search (UpCity, 2022)

• Health and beauty, electronics, and household supplies are the top three categories of smart speaker purchases (Comscore, 2021)
• Between August 2019 and August 2021, consumers purchased 8.9 million health and beauty items via smart speakers (Comscore, 2021)
• Around 90% of consumers who use voice search do so with English queries (UpCity, 2022)

Video SEO Statistics

Video SEO is the process of optimizing your video content for higher rankings and extra visibility. That includes your website, social media platforms, and YouTube.

Here’s how this branch of SEO is growing:

• Some 91% of companies (an all-time high) now use video as a marketing tool (Wyzowl, 2023)
• Around 70% of marketers who weren’t using video yet planned to start in 2023 (Wyzowl, 2023)
• YouTube is the most popular video marketing platform, used by 90% of video marketers. Around 86% use Facebook, while 79% use Instagram and LinkedIn (Wyzowl, 2023)
• The top YouTube searches in 2022 were “TikTok mashup 2022” in the US and “Ukraine” worldwide (Semrush, 2022)

• In the US, 40% of the top 20 trending searches on YouTube were music-related (Semrush, 2022)
• The top YouTube searches of all time are “Fortnite” in the US and “Minecraft” worldwide (Semrush, 2022)
• The dominant categories in the top 10 most-subscribed channels on YouTube in 2022 were Music, Children’s, Sports, and Entertainment (Semrush, 2022)
• In 2022, people watched an average of 17 hours of online video content per week (Wyzowl, 2023)
• Over 80% of marketers agree that video content has become “more important” than ever (Vidyard, 2022)

• YouTube delivers unexpected inspiration for 75% of shoppers and enhances the traditional shopping experience (Google, 2021)
• When consumers are shopping on YouTube, 87% say they can make purchasing decisions faster (Google, 2021)
• Almost 90% of viewers trust YouTube creators' recommendations (Google, 2021)
• Some 89% of YouTube viewers agree that creators provide the best information on brands and products (Google, 2021)

Local SEO Statistics

Local SEO involves optimizing your online presence to increase visibility, online traffic, and brand awareness.

These statistics highlight the growing importance of this strategy for small businesses:

• A staggering 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal, 2023)
• Around 87% of consumers researched local businesses with Google Search in 2022 (6% more than in 2021) (BrightLocal, 2023)

• Customers are 2.7x more likely to consider your business “reputable” if they see a complete Business Profile when browsing Search and Google Maps (Google, 2023)
• Those with a complete Business Profile are also 70% more likely to have customers visit and 50% more likely to have them consider purchasing (Google, 2023)
• Consumers using Google Maps for “shopping near me” searches have grown by more than 100% YOY worldwide (Google, 2022)
• Google is the most trusted platform for consumers looking for local business reviews across all industries (BrightLocal, 2023)

Ecommerce SEO Statistics

Online stores use ecommerce SEO to improve their rankings. The higher you rank for product keywords, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Here are the latest SEO stats for ecommerce store owners:

• Almost 70% of consumers head to the search bar when they land on an online retailer’s site (Nosto, 2023)
• The ecommerce industry saw 10 years of growth within three months during the pandemic (McKinsey, 2020)
• Amazon.com is the most-visited ecommerce site in the US (Semrush, 2023)
• Mangakakalot.com is the most-visited ecommerce site in the world (Semrush, 2023)
• The number of keywords has risen for transactional and commercial searches but dropped for navigational and informational (Semrush, 2023)

• On average, top ecommerce sites ranked for 20% more keywords per page in 2022 than they did in 2021 (BrightEdge, 2022)
• About 33% of overall traffic to ecommerce sites comes from organic search (Wolfgang Digital, 2020)
• Around half of shoppers say they research potential purchases using Google before buying online (Google, 2019)
• In a Google survey, 59% of shoppers said they used Google to research in-store and digital purchases (Google, 2019)
• Over 50% of consumers say they find new brands using Google (Google, 2019)

B2B Marketing Statistics

B2B marketing revolves around companies buying from each other. 

So with B2B SEO, your goal is to get your business’s content in front of other businesses.

Here’s why it’s worth investing in this form of SEO:

• B2B companies generate double the revenue from organic search than any other channel (BrightEdge, 2019)
• B2B buyers spend the highest percentage of their buying journey (27%) researching online independently (Gartner, 2019)
• SEO is the third most-implemented marketing tactic for B2B businesses after social media and email marketing (Sagefrog, 2022)
• Website traffic is the top metric B2B marketers use to track content performance (CMI, 2023)

• Eight out of 10 B2B buyers prefer to be the ones to initiate contact with vendors (Google, 2022)
• Around 94% of B2B buyers are “somewhat” or” fully informed” about what they’re going to purchase before reaching out to sales reps (Google, 2022)
• Some 81% of B2B buyers prefer watching videos over reading content when learning how to use a product or service (Brightcove, 2022)
• Around 57% of B2B sellers feel the content their marketing team produces is “generic and unresponsive” (McKinsey, 2022)
• You can see a 5-10% increase in B2B revenue from increasing the relevance and engagement of your content (McKinsey, 2022)

SEO Industry Statistics

Google updates its algorithm as technology evolves; there were 10 confirmed Google updates in 2022. So the SEO industry must constantly shift to keep up.

Here are the top statistics that relate to the sector:

• Some 88% of marketers who already invest in SEO plan to allocate more or maintain the same amount in 2023 (HubSpot, 2023)
• SEO remains one of the top trends marketers are leveraging in 2023 (HubSpot, 2023)
• Only 29% of marketers attract and convert leads with a website and blog that uses SEO tactics (HubSpot, 2023)
• Organic search and referral traffic are the largest and most effective sources of marketing ROI for brands (Semrush, 2023)
• Around 46% of marketers and business owners agree that SEO leads to success in content marketing; 47% said the same about audience research (Semrush, 2023)

• In our survey of marketing experts, organic traffic was the top metric for measuring content performance (Semrush, 2022)
• Over 70% of marketers employ internal SEO staff compared to 38.7% that utilize external consultants (Searchmetrics, 2022)
• In a recent SEO survey, nearly 40% of respondents said they allocated over 40% of their total marketing budget to organic search (Searchmetrics, 2022)
• Just over 53% of businesses planned to increase their spending on SEO over the past year. Nearly two-thirds anticipated they’d increase PPC spend (Searchmetrics, 2022)
• 84% of bloggers say AI and automation have impacted their SEO strategy for 2023 (HubSpot, 2023)
• Marketers are split on overall sentiment towards the future of AI; 44% foresee a positive impact on their SEO strategy, 51% predict no impact, and 5% see a negative impact (HubSpot, 2023)

Prepare Yourself for the Ever-Changing SEO Landscape

Consumer search behavior is never static. 

We cover the latest trends and more search engine optimization statistics in our most recent annual “State of Search” report.

Or, you can check out the tools we used to compile it. Including Semrush Sensor, Domain Overview, and Traffic Analytics.