89 Jaw-Dropping SEO Statistics In 2020

Whether you’re ready to catapult your website to the top of Google where it counts, ready to make your business case or start working with an SEO agency, you’ll need numbers to guide the way. 

Here’s the ultimate list of incredible, jaw-dropping SEO statistics and insights. 

We’ve divided the SEO statistics into topics so you can easily skip to the stats you need, or just sit back and read them all. 

Unmissable SEO Statistics 

SEO Strategy

How does search engine optimization fit within your digital marketing strategy?

These are the stats you can take to your boss to prove your business case for SEO. Or, compare your SEO strategy to other marketers to see if you’re on track.

(We also have a long list of digital marketing statistics you can use)

Let’s dive in…

• 41% of large companies consider link building as the most difficult SEO tactic. (Ascend2/Conductor)
• SEO has 20 X more traffic opportunity than PPC on both mobile and desktop. (Jumpshot/Moz) 
• 82% of marketers report the effectiveness of SEO is on the rise, with 42% stating it’s increasing significantly. (MarketDive)
• 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing organic presence is a top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot)
• 70-80% of search engine users are only focusing on the organic results. (HubSpot)
• The first result alone for any given search gets an average of 20.5% of the clicks on the page, dropping to 13.32% for the second result and 13.14% for the third. (Ignite Visibility)
• Google dominates the search engines (unsurprisingly!), accounting for 92.42% of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Bing at 2.61% and at Yahoo 1.9%. (StatCounter)
• Brands and agencies in the USA invested $72.02 billion for SEO services in 2018 alone (Borrell Associates).
• Organic search is responsible for 51% of all website traffic, compared to 10% from paid search, 5% from social media, and 34% from other sources. (BrightEdge)
• Marketers who use a combination of organic SEO and PPC ads in their marketing strategies see an average of 25% more clicks and 27% more profits compared to those who only use a single search engine marketing tactic. (Search Engine Land)
• 84% of marketing professionals say they outsource all or part of their SEO implementation to specialists. (Ascend2)
• The majority of businesses spend $5,000+ per month on SEO. (Moz)

User and Search Behaviour Statistics

Think you know how people are searching? You might be surprised! Use these fascinating stats to inform your SEO strategy and ensure you’re getting in front of the right audiences.

• 8% of search queries are phrased as questions. (Moz)
• The typical user performs searches that are about 3 words long. (Moz)
• 90% of searchers haven’t made their mind up about a brand before starting their search. (SearchEngineWatch)
• 18% of searches lead the searcher to change their query without clicking on any results. (Moz)
• Search is getting personal – Google has seen a 60% growth in mobile searches for “__ for me” in the past two years, and an 80% growth in mobile searches for “__ should I __” in the past two years. (Think with Google)
• 95% of people only look at the first page of search results. (Brafton)

Voice Search

No doubt about it, voice search is on the rise – but how will it impact your SEO strategy in 2019 and beyond?

• 50% of all searches will be voice searches by 2020. (comScore)
• 27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile. (GlobalWebIndex Voice Search Report)
• Around 30% of all searches will be performed without a screen by 2020 (Gartner)
• There were about 1 billion voice searches per month, as of January 2018. (Wordstream, 2018) 
• 65% of 25 to 49 year-olds speak to their voice-enabled devices at least once a day. (PWC, 2019) 
• Smart speaker shipments grew by almost 200% year on year in Q3 2018 globally. (Strategy Analytics, 2018)
• Voice is forecast to be a $40 billion channel by 2022. (OC&C Strategy Consultants, 2019)

SEO and Content

SEO and content marketing go together like peas and carrots. So exactly how important is content to your search marketing strategy, and what trends should you be using to inform your tactics?

• 61% of B2B marketers are concerned about SEO and search algorithms when it comes to content marketing. (CMI)
• Websites with a blog typically have 434% more indexed pages than those without. (Forbes)
• Business websites with blogs have 97% more inbound links, which ultimately helps SEO performance. (HubSpot)
• Refreshing old blog posts with new content and images can boost organic traffic by as much as 111%. (Backlinko)
• For 57% of marketing professionals, on-page content development is effective for SEO. (Ascend2)
• 1,000+ words is average length of long form content that receives more shares and links than shorter form content. (Buzzsumo/Moz)
• Websites with a blog typically have 434% more indexed pages. (TechClient)
• 45% of all companies say content marketing is ‘highly integrated’ with their SEO strategy. (Econsultancy)
• High quality content and link building are the two most important signals used by Google to rank your website for search, according to Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google. (Search Engine Watch)
• The average page 1 result on Google contains 1,890 words. (Backlinko)
• 7 out of 10 marketing professionals are optimizing video for SEO. (Renderforest)
• 1 in 10 blog posts are compounding, meaning organic search increases their traffic over time. (HubSpot)
• About 25% of Google searches have at least one video in them. (SearchEngineJournal)
• Including a video in a blog post increases organic traffic from search results by 157%. (Search Engine People)

General Google Statistics 2019

We can’t have a list of SEO stats without including some meaty numbers from the search chief itself, Google. Understanding Google and how it works helps you fine-tune your SEO strategy for success. 

• 8.59 is the average number of organic desktop search results that Google shows on page 1. (SearchMetrics)
• 32.5% is the average traffic share the first Google organic search result gets. (Chitika)
• The average traffic share generated by the sites listed on the first Google search results page is 91.5%. (Chitika)
• Google shows on average 8.5 organic mobile search results on page 1. (SearchMetrics)
• In 2019, there are around 5.5 billion searches done on Google per day, or over 63,000 search queries done every second. (InternetLiveStats)
• 1 billion+ people use Google search every month. (Google via Business Insider)
• There are around 40-60 billion searches happening on Google in the United States each month. (Jumpshot/Moz)
• Google currently holds 76% of the total search engine market share. (Net Market Share)
• 15% of daily queries on Google have never been searched before. (Google)
• The average Google search session lasts under one minute, from the time of the initial query to loading of the search results page and selection of any results. (Jumpshot/Moz)
• 66% of distinct search queries result in one or more clicks on Google’s results, while 34% of searches get no clicks at all. (Jumpshot/Moz)
• Google has indexed hundreds of billions of web pages – the index is about 100,000,000 GB large. (Google)
• Search queries using the “is __ worth it?” format have increased by 80%. (Google)
• Search queries using the “__ to avoid” format have increased by 150%. (Google)
• The top five Google searches in 2018 were “World Cup,” “Hurricane Florence,” “Mac Miller,” “Kate Spade,” and “Anthony Bourdain.” (Google)
• In 2018, Google Images made up 22.6% of all internet searches and Google Maps accounted for 13%. (SparkToro)
• When Google began in September 1998, it only averaged about 10,000 daily search queries. (The Search)

Local SEO Statistics 2019

If you’re not optimizing your site for local search, these statistics will soon put that right. See what all the fuss is about:

• 30% of all mobile searches are related to location. (Think with Google)
• 0.9% of Google.com search results get a click on Google Maps. (Jumpshot/Moz)
• Google “near me” searches increased by 500% from 2015 to 2017. (Think with Google)
• 4 in 5 consumers use search engines to find local information. (Google/Ipsos Media)
• 18% of local smartphone searches led to a purchase within a day. (Google/Ipsos Media)
• 54% of smartphone users search for business hours (Google/Ipsos MediaCT/Purchased)
• And 53% search for directions to a local store. (Google/Ipsos MediaCT/Purchased)
• 65% of people use their phone in their “I-want-to-buy” moments. (Think with Google)
• 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. (HubSpot)
• 46% of all searches have a local intent (SEOroundtable)
• 50% of consumers visit a retail outlet within 24 hours of a local mobile search. (Marketing Land)
• 86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps. (SEMRush)
• Yet 56% of local businesses have not yet claimed their listing for Google My Business. (SearchEngineLand)

Mobile Search Statistics 2019

Mobile SEO is no longer an option – it’s an imperative. These insights prove the incredible power of mobile search, as well as some little-known trends in how people are using mobile search to get the answers they need.

• 40.9% of Google searches performed on mobile devices result in an organic click, 2% in a paid click, and 57.1% in no click at all. (Jumpshot/Moz)
• The top position on page one of a Google search result has a CTR of 31.28 (AdvancedWebRanking)
• 52% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. (Statista)
• 73 billion is the estimated number of phone calls generated from mobile search alone by end 2018. (Acquisio)
• Mobile searches for “brands like” and “stores like” have grown by 60%+ over the past two years. (Think with Google)
• 71% of mobile searchers expect mobile pages to load as fast or faster than desktop sites (Hubspot)
• 9 out of 10 mobile searches result in the consumer taking action, with over half leading to purchase (Search Engine Land)
• Over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new brand or product while conducting a search on their smartphone. (Google, 2018) 

SEO Results 2019 And Beyond

Need some solid numbers to add to your SEO business case? We’ve sourced some of the most performance-driven stats for SEO.

• Branded searches have higher click-through rates on the top half of page 1 of Google. (HubSpot)
• The average click-through rate for position 1 on a Google search query is 19.30%. The CTR for position 2 is almost half at 10.57%. (HubSpot)
• The average CTR for first place on desktop is higher than mobile, at 31.52% and 24.05% respectively. (Advanced Web Ranking)
• 21% of searches lead to more than one click on Google’s results. (Jumpshot/Moz)

Ecommerce SEO Statistics

SEO is a powerful marketing tactic for online stores, driving conversion rates like never before. See for yourself…

• 44% of people start their online shopping with a Google search. (nChannel)
• 23.6% of ecommerce orders are directly linked to organic traffic. (Business Insider)
• 37.5% of all traffic to ecommerce sites comes from search. (SEMrush)
• Amazon was the brand with the biggest overall improvement in organic search performance on Google in 2018, with a 21% increase in search visibility. (Searchmetrics)
• 56% of consumers visit Amazon first if they have shopping in mind. (Kenshoo)

Over to you 

Surprised to find out how people are searching today? Shocked to see the impact of mobile, local and voice search?

Now, your next step is to work out how to use these statistics to inform your future SEO strategy. 

Whether you’re just getting started or ready to invest more in your SEO, dive into our A-Z SEO Guide to plan your next move. It’s totally free and all yours to digest today!