This is a complete list of up-to-date SEO statistics as of 2024.
What’s exciting here?
I’ve included a visual, easy-to-digest infographic that breaks down the latest stats in SEO, giving you a clear picture of where things stand.
I also tried to find data pre and post-core updates in 2024.
On this page, you’ll find well-researched stats about:
- SEO statistics
- Backlinks statistics
- Keyword statistics
- Search engine statistics
- Video SEO statistics
- Mobile Optimization
- Local SEO
- And much more
So, without further ado, let’s see the stats!
Top SEO Statistics
Let’s learn some important stats about SEO, how search engines are behaving, and all about the search engine optimization industry. I have gathered this data from my experience and also tried to analyze a bunch of websites and blogs that got hit by core updates, along with industry studies, reports, and surveys, and also tried to get some data from search engines like Google and Bing.
Do You Know?
Google has launched three core updates (March, August, and November 11 ongoing) and a bunch of nonofficial updates in 2024, and the whole year was full of volatility in search results.
Yes, that’s right—SEO is becoming increasingly complex to navigate. I have noticed that with each core update, particularly after the Sep HCU 2023 update, the algorithms prioritize new factors that challenge the old, established strategies, so that is the main reason we should try to focus on new stats and factors.
So, let’s dive right in.
1. Google is using between 90 to 200 ranking factors as per backlinko data but we all know that the number is much higher. Factors like search intent, website speed, link profile, etc., are the most known ranking factors.
2. Now, about 90% of online experiences begin with search engines and YouTube collectively. In 2021, I researched it, it was 70%, but now, with most searches on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and YouTube, it is collectively above 90%. (collective Reports from webfx and Brightedge)
3. Google will be the finest and most popular search engine in 2024, but after these core updates and their new product AI overview, the market of Google fell a little bit, and this helped Bing to gain some numbers. It was 93 before Sep 2023, but now it is lower to 90%.
4. After the AI overview, the top pages on Google SERP now receive lower than 30% clicks, which was 32%+ per update and AI overview. This means that for informational queries, people are just using AI overview rather than clicking on websites.
5. Only 0.78% of organic clicks are directed to Google’s SERP second pages. Yes, the websites and blogs ranked on the second page nearly get any traffic from search engines; that is why we call SERP’s second page the death page.
And after these AI updates, it can go lower for second-page websites.
6. Because of the search intent marketers get with Google, 49% of marketers believe that Google’s ROI is superior to that of other marketing channels.
7. For 93% of websites, search engines are the primary source of traffic as per big publications, but I have noticed that now brands are more concerned about brand awareness, the main reason for targeting social media rather than search engines.
8. I found that on search engines, the top-ranking pages’ average word count revolves around 1400 to 2000 words. I have covered various niches, and this is the final averages I got for all niches in the market.
9. The closure rate for SEO leads is 14.6 percent.
10. An SEO professional’s average annual compensation or salary is roughly around $65.5k.
11. According to top marketers, SEO and Blogging is the best source for qualified leads because of high search intent.
12. There are approx 65% of searches for informational queries, 15% for navigational, 10% for commercial and 10% for transactional, as per the industry reports and data sources.
13. On social platforms, search intent typically breaks down to about 50-60% informational, 20-30% social engagement, 10-15% commercial, and 5-10% transactional.
Top Backlinks Statistics
14. About 66% of the web pages that are indexed by google lack in backlinks, the major reason why most traffic lose traffic.
15. A growing number of backlinks can help you to increase your web traffic and also helps to build trust for search engines to rank your website continuously.
16. Research based content gets more backlinks then normal posts so i recommend you to do your own research and add your expertise into the article to get more backlinks.
17. Purchasing backlinks can cost you the average price is $361.44, where it depends on the authority of the website and the traffic it gets. The average cost of publishing a sponsored guest post is $77.80.
18. The web pages that rank first in search engines can receive around 5 to 15% more do-follow backlinks from new domains. Yes, for search engines, do-follow rel-tag works well for rankings and builds authority.
19. Reciprocal backlinks are seen on 43% of the top-ranked websites.
20. Seo takes on average 2 to 3 hours to make a link.
Importance of Backlinks!
Backlinks can help you succeed faster in the SEO game as it is one of search engines’ most crucial SEO ranking factors. You can build links from guest postings, PR campaigns, collaborations, and natural links with information content. A page’s search traffic positively correlates with the number of websites linking to it.
Top keyword Statistics
Keyword research is the most crucial part of SEO, as it can help you distinguish between success and failure. With proper keyword research, you can easily grow a website within a short period, and it can help you leverage sales or leads efficiently for your business.
In fact, On-Page SEO is all about keyword research, so let’s learn some stats about keyword research.
21. Its shocking to know that 92.42% of keywords have less than 10 monthly searches. Yes, it’s also shocking to me, but most keywords receive less than 10 searches per month per Ahrefs report.
22. Most search volume keywords are 2 words long, and it is over 70% of those keywords.
23. People are now using AI, and their search queries are now more question-related than keyword searches. Around 9% of the searches are question-related keywords.
24. Almost 60.67% of searches are driven by 0.16 percent of the most popular keywords.
25. New websites use long-tail keywords since they are easier to rank on search engines.
I have noticed that the keyword stats you see today will eventually increase over time. For example, if you’re seeing a keyword difficulty and traffic of less than 10 for a keyword today, it means that with time, these metrics will likely rise, so there’s no fixed keyword difficulty or traffic stat.
Search engine statistics
If you are doing SEO or working in the SEO industry, it is good practice to know what is happening in the SEO world and what search engines are preferred nowadays.
26. Did you know the featured snippet appears for over 12% of Google search queries before AI overviews? Yes, AI overviews have taken over feature snippets with these updates.
27. Links in AIOs generally get a higher CTR per link than traditional SERP links.
28. As we know, AIO is the AI-powered answers gathered from different websites and blogs where the featured snippet is part of an article from one particular blog ranked on the first page, so collectively, AIO delivers more wealth of information for a particular query.
29. The first position of the search result has a 31 percent CTR, meaning that people still like to visit the first result to solve their query.
30. Every day, Google receives over 3.5 billion searches, and Bing gets over 900 million searches daily.
31. More than one search result is selected by 21% of searchers.
32. About 93 percent of SERP’s result clicks go to organic search.
33. Every second, Google receives around 99,000 queries, which was 86000 in 2022.
34. There are no clicks in 61.5 percent of desktop searches and 34.4 percent of mobile searches.
Video SEO statistics
35. The survey found that the quantity of comments, views, shares, and likes significantly impact your ranking after analyzing 1.3 million YouTube videos.
36. I found that the average length of the first page videos on YouTube is 14 minutes and 50 seconds.
37. Instead of blogs and infographics, videos are the most popular medium for content strategy.
38. HD videos appear in 68 percent of YouTube search results.
39. For most tutorial-based queries, Google and other search engines are now running video-based content from YouTube and other media platforms to deliver good results.
40. Videos are now the priority for all big companies. Google is also promoting video-based content over content-based content for some queries.
Mobile Optimization
47. Out of 8.8 billion searches per day on Google, there are around 5.5 billion mobile searches each day on Google. This means 64.7% of the total daily searches come from mobile.
48. Only mobile devices account for 65% of global website traffic, so users should focus more on mobile devices.
49. Almost 30% of queries are tied to location on the internet.
50. Search engines are used by more than 87 percent of mobile users daily.
51. Voice search currently accounts for 20% of all mobile queries.
52. It’s shocking to know that over 8 billion searches are solved with the Google Lens feature.
Local SEO
53. 63% of the users have said they try to check for reviews on Google and other review-based apps before visiting the business location.
54. 58% of the businesses don’t optimize their business for local searches.
55. 88% of the customers trust the business that replies to their reviews on Google and other platforms.
56. A purchase is made in 28% of local searches.
57. 76% of people visit a business within a day if they search for business on their smartphones. (Think with Google)
58. A purchase is made in 28% of searches for something nearby. (Consider Google)
59. Only local companies are the subject of 46% of Google searches.
60. Only around a quarter of corporate websites contain an h1 element.
Conclusion
These are the overall SEO stats on my list.
I had a lot of fun and gained good knowledge by compiling this collection of statistics as someone who works full-time in SEO.
Now I’d want to hear your thoughts.
Which statistics on a list surprise you the most?
Please accept my apologies if I have forgotten to include any point in the statistics list.
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