Ever wondered how important SEO really is to your business? We’ve compiled some of our favourite SEO stats that will inspire you to improve your organic search performance.
The importance of appearing in SERPs (search engine results pages)
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge)
0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page. (Backlinko)
SEO drives 1,000%+ more traffic than organic social media. (BrightEdge)
The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%. (Backlinko)
These first four stats are real heavy hitters when it comes to demonstrating the importance of SEO and your presence in search. A lot of businesses overlook just how important search rankings are, because of the fact that you can pay your way to the top with PPC, or create eye-catching content on social media. However, what we can see from these stats is that nothing will compare to being at the top of Google search results, organically, when someone has a need and is searching with the intent to buy. It also highlights how important it is to be at the top of the SERPs, as not many people are clicking on websites that rank on page 2.
It takes time
The average page in the top 10 is 2+ years old. (Ahrefs)
Generally speaking, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it gets from Google. (Ahrefs)
Often we find that businesses expect to rank highly, fairly quickly once they start doing SEO. SEO is an art that takes time, and takes continuous changes and improvements to see the best results. These stats piqued our interest due to the fact that they both demonstrate that time is an important factor in achieving success on Google search. No matter how you’re gaining backlinks to your page, this will take time, in order to ensure that the links do not look spammy or fake, or to get your content in front of enough people who find it valuable to want to link back to you. Toxic backlinks from low DA (domain authority) sites can also have the reverse effect and bring down your domain authority and keyword rankings.
Focussing on search is multi-channel
76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think With Google)
72.6% of internet users will access the web solely via their smartphones by 2025. (CNBC)
The average length of a first-page YouTube video is 14 minutes, 50 seconds. (Backlinko)
40.7% of all voice search answers come from a featured snippet. (Backlinko)
The search landscape has changed considerably, with more of a focus on mobile as consumer habits have changed. Mobile users are more likely to use search in a myriad of ways, including local searches where Google Business profiles and Maps listings will be beneficial or voice-based searches. It’s important to consider how relevant the content is on your website so that you can appear in featured snippets and provide useful information for searchers. Interestingly, longer-form content is more likely to get you found on Youtube, which acts as an extension of the Google search network.
You win some, you lose some
61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no-clicks. (SparkToro)
On average, ranking in position #1 on mobile gets you 6.74% of the clicks, whereas ranking in position #1 on desktop gets you 8.17% of the clicks. (SEOClarity)
92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro)
Google clearly has the monopoly on search, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get millions of hits overnight if you rank highly. You must take into account many other factors, including the intent of the searcher, the relevance of your page to their search, how motivated the searcher is to find content and the type of content they are looking for.
Our key takeaways
SEO isn’t a walk in the park, but there are enough signals out there to point you in the right direction of what works when it comes to achieving top rankings. If you’re not sure where to start with your SEO strategy, contact our friendly team and we’ll help you.
Thanks to the guys over at ahrefs for creating their list of 78 SEO statistics for 2023, which inspired this post!