150+ Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Statistics & Facts

Statistics on Organic Search Results

• More than 25% of people will click on the first Google result (Search Engine Journal)
• After the first search result, the average CTRs of the second and third positions are 15% and 11%, respectively (Search Engine Journal)
• The highest-ranking result in Google’s organic search achieves an average CTR of 27.6%, and the top three results get a combined 54.4% of all clicks (Backlinko)
• Companies that can move up a single position in search results get a bump in CTR of approximately 2.8% on average, while moving from #2 to #1 can bring as much as a 74.5% boost (Backlinko)
• The average across all positions for movement of a single position results in a 32.3% bump in clicks (Backlinko)
• A click-through rate of 3% or above is considered a positive indicator of effective SEO performance (Backlinko)
• A mere 9% of users on search engines make it to the bottom of the first page of results (Backlinko)
• Google is responsible for 57.8% of the web traffic worldwide (SparkToro)
• The first five organic results on search account for 69.1% of all clicks (Up Inc.)
• 17% of users revisit their search results after clicking on an initial page, but only 5% come back more than once (Backlinko)
• Surprisingly, recent research found that product schema listed on website pages did not have an impact on search rankings (180 Marketing)
• 75% of users never go past the first page of search results (AISEO)
• The #1 organic search result is 10x more likely to be clicked on than the #10 result (Backlinko)
• 84% of search engine users will use Google 3 times a day or more (Oberlo)
• Having keyword variations can be greatly beneficial, as 15% of searchers alter their initial search terms and make another attempt at finding what they need (Backlinko)
• Organic searches that are ranked on the first page of Google have an average word count of 1,447 words (Backlinko)
• 49% of respondents who answered a poll agree that organic search has the best ROI out of all the other marketing channels (Search Engine Journal)
• The average age of the #1 organic result on Google is almost 3 years old (Ahrefs)
• Around 60% of the pages ranking 10 or higher on Google were published 3 or more years ago (Ahrefs)
• According to one recent industry study, only 148 search terms made up nearly 15% of the complete volume of searches within Google (SparkToro)
• 44% of the searches conducted on Google are for branded terms, with non-branded terms making up 56% (SparkToro)
• One recent study showed that Amazon ranks in the #1 spot on Google Shopping a whopping 52% of the time, highlighting the importance of optimizing your pages to be able to compete for the other 48% of search results (180 Marketing)
• Website product pages that rank in the 1^st or 2^nd positions on search results received 2.72x more referring domains than competing pages that ranked in the 3^rd through 10^th spots (180 Marketing)
• Movies, TV shows, actors, and music rank as the most searched topics on Google, so if you can tie your products or services to these aspects in any natural way, you might get some increased traffic (SparkToro)
• Google states that they provide more than 5 trillion search results every year (Search Engine Land)
• According to one study, about a third of regular internet users only conduct about 1–20 searches per month, another third conduct 21–100 searches per month, and the last third conduct 100–1,000+ searches per month (SparkToro)
• In 2024, 86.7% of user searches on Google used the default search engine format, 10.62% used Google Images, and the remaining searches used the areas for Video, Maps, News, and Shopping (SparkToro)

Statistics on Mobile Search Results

• Nearly 63% of organic search traffic on Google in the United States comes through a mobile device (Oberlo)
• The average click-through rate for searches conducted via mobile device in the United States is over 50%, illustrating how important it is to have your site optimized for mobile (Backlinko)
• 87% of smartphone owners use a search engine daily (Go-Globe)
• Nearly 55% of organic search traffic worldwide comes from a mobile device (Statista)
• 20% of searches on mobile devices are conducted via voice search (Search Engine Land)
• 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when searching for their smartphones (Ahrefs)
• 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly through the search results, using features such as the “click to call” option (Google)
• 57% of local search queries are submitted using a mobile device or tablet (Ahrefs)
• At the end of 2024, websites ranked first on mobile for short queries (1-word) saw a 1.94% increase in their CTR (Advanced Web Ranking)

Statistics on Localized Search Results & Local SEO

• 76% of searches from mobile devices are related to something near them (Think with Google)
• 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)
• 46% of Google search queries have local search intent (LinkedIn)
• 58% of businesses don’t optimize for local search (ReviewTrackers)
• 72% of consumers who conducted a local search also visited a business that was within 5 miles of their location (HubSpot)
• 18% of local mobile searches lead to a purchase within one day (AIOSEO)
• 97% of people will learn more about a local business on the internet than anywhere else (SEO Tribunal)
• After searching on the phone for something nearby, 76% of people end up visiting the business within 1 day (Google)
• 72% of desktop and tablet users and 67% of mobile users want advertisements that are tailored to their area (Microsoft)
• 42% of users conducting local searches click results on the Google Map Pack (AIOSEO)
• Meanwhile, 19% of searches focused on products produce a Google Shopping click from users (Backlinko)
• Approximately 80% of consumers (or 4 out of every 5 people) will use a search engine to find local information (Think with Google)
• When you write Google Business Profile posts, it’s important to instill a sense of urgency in your audience, as posts that do so receive an average of 2.68 clicks per post (Sterling Sky)
• Google Business Profile posts that use real photos rather than stock photography get 5.6x more clicks (Sterling Sky)
• When people use their mobile phones to search for a local business, 88% of those individuals will end up visiting the physical location within the week (Think with Google)
• Google Business Profile posts that used titles without all caps got nearly double the number of clicks when compared to similar posts with all-cap titles (Sterling Sky)
• 86% of people look up a business location on Google Maps (AIOSEO)
• 76% of individuals who conduct a local search on their smartphone will visit the physical location within one day, and 28% of those overall searches will result in a purchase (Think with Google)
• 63.6% of consumers say they are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a business location (AIOSEO)
• Google Business Profile posts that use titles get almost twice as many clicks from users, and twice the conversions, when compared to posts that lack titles (Sterling Sky)
• Posts on companies’ Google Business Profiles that featured questions accrued an average of 1.23 clicks per post (Sterling Sky)
• Unsurprisingly, people who are upset with a business and leave a negative review online often have a good amount to say, as 1–2-star reviews tend to be longer, clocking in at an average of 80 words per post (Localo)
• Positive reviews, namely 5-star reviews, tend to be shorter, coming in at an average of only 20 words (Localo)
• Posts on GBPs that focus on explaining who you are as a company average 1.03 clicks per post, while ones emphasizing that you are open end up receiving 1.93 clicks on average (Sterling Sky)
• Meanwhile, GBP posts that featured emojis got twice the number of clicks and greater conversions when compared to posts without emojis (Sterling Sky)
• Companies that fill out their Google Business Profiles fully are 70% more likely to draw in users and 50% more likely to be considered for potential purchases (Google)
• 74% of online consumers will look at business reviews on at least two sites before selecting a local company for a purchase or service (BrightLocal)
• For online reviews, users favor Google, Yelp, and Facebook (BrightLocal)

Statistics on Keywords for SEO

• Approximately 94% of keywords get 10 or fewer monthly searches (Ahrefs)
• Recent research indicated that website pages using exact match keywords within meta descriptions ranked higher than competitor pages that lacked them (180 Marketing)
• 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)
• In fact, even having a partial match for keywords can lead to a boost in CTR (Backlinko)
• Around 8% of all search queries are phrased as questions (Moz)
• Branded keywords tend to do better than their non-branded counterparts, especially when it comes to ecommerce sites on desktop (Backlinko)
• Keywords that are roughly 10-15 words long get 1.76x more clicks than single-word terms (Backlinko)
• Half of all searches contain 4 or more words (WordStream)
• Approximately 15% of Google searches have never been searched before (Google)
• 95% of the entire keyword database gets less than 10 searches per month (which can equate to around 3.8 billion keywords!) (Ahrefs)
• 34.71% of Google search queries have four or more words (AIOSEO)
• More than 29% of keywords with 10,000 searches per month consist of 3 or more words (Ahrefs)
• Long-tail keywords make up the vast majority of all Google searches (Semrush)
• In fact, 90.3% of queries within Google Search Console receive 10 impressions or fewer, highlighting just how many low-volume, long-tail keywords are spread across the web (Backlinko)
• Google AI Overviews has impacted keywords, with one study of 1,022 keywords finding that more than 70% of keywords produced AIO results, but only 3.76% showed ads alongside them (SE Ranking)
• AI Overviews also show the exact search only 5.4% of the time, highlighting the importance of using natural language over strict keywords (Surfer SEO)
• In 2024, websites being ranked on searches with four or more keywords saw a 1.73% drop for those in the second position on desktop and a 1.02% drop in the third position (Advanced Web Ranking)
• Only 0.024% of keywords have been shown to accrue more than 100,000 searches every month (SE Ranking)
• Roughly 14% of all keyword searches are done to uncover information about local businesses or services (SE Ranking)

Statistics on Link Building for SEO

• Almost 94% of link builders agree that the quality of links is more important than the quantity of links (Authority Hacker)
• The more backlinks that you have, the more likely you are to receive organic search traffic (Ahrefs)
• 99% of sites that rank in the top 10 on Google have over 100 unique websites linking to them (Internet Marketing Ninjas)
• On average, long content receives 77.2% more backlinks than short articles (Backlinko)
• Approximately 74% of link builders will build fewer than 10 links per month (Authority Hacker)
• Google’s #1 search ranking usually has about 3.8x more backlinks than positions two through ten (Backlinko)
• 95% of all pages have no backlinks at all (Backlinko)
• Sites with a blog receive 97% more inbound links than websites without one (HubSpot)
• Companies who engage in blogging receive 97% more backlinks to their site (HubSpot)
• Although they are usually deemed as unhelpful, NoFollow links can actually help your SEO, but only if the link is from a page that both ranks well on Google AND gets organic traffic (Sterling Sky)
• In a recent study on internal linking, it was found that if you utilize more anchor text variations, the more likely you are to get clicks on Google (Zyppy SEO)
• And on average, the ideal amount of internal links a page should have in order to get the most Google click in between 40-44 (Zyppy SEO)
• While buying links is seen as a black hat SEO tactic, 92% of marketers think their competitors are buying links (Search Engine Land)
• However, a recent study found that buying links have minimal impact, with only 6.6% of sites that bought seeing boosts in traffic (Editorial Link)
• Approximately 63% of backlinks are directed at a site’s homepage, with the remaining 37% going to other pages like service pages, blogs, and more (SE Ranking)
• 3 out of every 10 backlinks on a site have been shown to feature medium to high “toxicity” levels in terms of site quality and reputation, creating problems for site owners and marketers (SE Ranking)
• Roughly 53% of SEO experts think service and product pages need link acquisition efforts the most, since homepages tend to garner links naturally (Editorial Link)
• 80% of SEO professionals state that search engine rankings typically receive an impact from acquired backlinks in approximately 2 to 6 weeks (Editorial Link)
• Acquiring links can provide a real boost to businesses, as quality, reputable links can help to generate between $5,000 and $15,000 per link long-term (Siege Media)

Statistics on Technical SEO Strategies

• 61% of searchers on a mobile device are more inclined to contact a local business if their website is mobile-friendly (HubSpot)
• Nearly 86% of marketers said that a slow site speed is the main reason that visitors choose to leave a website (GoodFirms)
• Having a page load time between 0-4 seconds is known to have the highest conversion rate (HubSpot)
• 50% of online shoppers said that photos help them determine what to buy (Google)
• Pages with structured data have a 40% higher CTR than pages without it (Schema App)
• If a site loads in 2 seconds or less, the conversion rate jumps 15% on mobile devices (Landingi)
• According to a study conducted on web performance analytics, even a 100-millisecond delay in the load time of a website can harm a site’s conversion rate by 7% (Akamai)
• 95.2% of websites feature 3XX redirect problems (Ahrefs)
• Though the majority of mobile traffic is now coming over 4G networks rather than 3G, most mobile sites are still too slow, often due to having too many components that bog down their site speed (Think with Google)
• A mere two-second delay in a website’s load time can increase the bounce rate by as much as 103% (Akamai)
• When page load time reaches ten seconds, a site’s bounce rate can increase by as much as 123% (Think with Google)
• 88% of websites were found to have problems with redirecting from HTTP to HTTPS, a critical component to having a safe and secure site (Ahrefs)
• 53% of users who visit a mobile site will exit a page that takes more than three seconds to load on their phones (Akamai)
• 80.4% of websites lack alt attributes, which can both affect SEO and create potential legal issues for ADA compliance (Ahrefs)
• Pages that “break” and become 404 errors should be rerouted to relevant pages connected to their original content, and should not all be redirected to the site’s homepage, as Google views these lumped-together redirects as soft-404s and they can negatively affect your site value (Search Engine Journal)
• 25.02% of high-performing webpages lack meta descriptions, holding these pages back from ranking even higher and enticing users to click (AIOSEO)
• 59.5% of websites are reported to lack H1 tags, while 51.3% of websites have more than one H1 tag, with both aspects harming a site’s page structure (Ahrefs)
• As Google’s John Mueller has confirmed on X (formerly Twitter), notifying Google that your XML sitemap has been updated can help sites get fresh content indexed more quickly (Search Engine Land)
• As of November 2025, only just over half of websites – 54.6% – meet the requirements for Core Web Vitals (Chrome UX Report)
• 32% of websites have been shown to grant permission to AI platforms to access content, while 29% restrict these permissions to certain platforms, and 11% completely block AI scrapers for safety (NewzDash)