55 Compelling SEO Statistics and Facts For 2022
Dec 17, 2021|Read time: 9 min.
Key Points
- Search engine optimization (SEO) can drive more ROI than other marketing strategies.
- Google has a market share of over 85% in the global search market.
- Video will continue to show impressive growth and opportunity to generate leads.
The SEO statistics below offer important insights into the state of search.
Understanding this data can offer opportunities to improve your content marketing and SEO strategies to win those top rankings in the search results.
Search engine statistics
Search engines play a dominant role in our lives, influencing how we shop, our entertainment choices, and how we find new information.
The following SERP statistics offer a better understanding of the current state of search engines.
- Search engines are the starting point for 68% of online experiences. (BrightEdge)
- Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps account for 92.96% of global traffic. (SparkToro)
- Google owns 91.94% of the search engine market share. (Statcounter)
- In 2021, 70% of all global desktop search traffic came from Google, followed by Baidu (13%), Bing (12%), and Yahoo (2%). (NetMarketShare)
- It is estimated that a #1 organic position in Google can result in a click through rate (CTR) of 34.2%. (Sistrix)
SEO statistics about business impact
As with any digital marketing channel, the only thing that really matters is impact. So, how does SEO stack up against PPC? Here are some stats directly from our customer portfolio about the SEO impact on business results.
- SEO ROI can be as high as 12.2x marketing spend. (Terakeet)
- SEO can reduce the cost of customer acquisition by 87.41% on average compared to digital advertising. (Terakeet)
- Search engine optimization can increase the business value of a blog visit by 429%. (Terakeet)
Google traffic statistics
The organic search channel is incredibly powerful, driving both huge amounts of website traffic and revenue. Smart brands tap into the power of organic search traffic using search engine optimization (SEO) as a strategic competitive advantage.
The power of SEO lies in the fact that, unlike social media platforms, search engines intentionally direct people away from their platforms to other websites.
The more optimized your website and content are, the more likely it is that Google will direct searchers to your website. Here are some eye-opening SEO facts about the percentage of traffic from search engines.
- Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic. (BrightEdge)
- 23.6% of U.S. e-commerce orders originate from organic search (Business Insider)
- Organic traffic from SEO is more than 1,000% higher than organic traffic from social media. (BrightEdge)
- More than 90% of all website pages receive zero organic search traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
- B2B companies generate 2x more revenue from organic search than any other channel. (BrightEdge)
Value of Organic Search White Paper
See how an investment in organic search delivers ROI that compounds over time.
Content marketing statistics
Content strategy plays a key role in SEO. A well-developed strategy addresses your customer’s pain points and desires while targeting the keywords and topics they search for. In addition, a content marketing strategy provides the framework to promote your brand across multiple channels and expand your audience.
- 47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. (Demand Gen Report)
- 82% of marketers used content marketing in 2021. (HubSpot)
- The average length of content that ranks in the top 10 Google search results is 1,447 words. (Backlinko)
- For articles, the top Google search result averages 2,416 words. (serpIQ)
- In large companies, 61% have indicated they outsource content marketing work. (Content Marketing Institute)
47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep
Demand Gen ReportSearch behavior statistics
Search engines play a prominent role in the buying process, particularly during the research stage. This is when people search more broadly and prefer long-form content that helps them understand a topic. Then, as they become more familiar with the subject, users search more specifically with long-tail keywords.
Marketers that only focus on the later stages of the customer journey will miss out on the brand building power of search queries in the awareness and research stages.
But, search behavior extends beyond how users interact with the SERP. It also bleeds into the web pages users ultimately click through to read.
For instance, does your content align with user intent behind the search terms your page ranks for? If not, you’ll likely have a high bounce rate and low conversion rates.
Ultimately, if you want to influence search behavior, you’ll need to rank on the first page of Google. And to convert traffic, you’ll need to offer an incredible user experience.
- Results on the 2nd page of Google receive 0.63% of all clicks. (Backlinko)
- Around 27.6% of all clicks go to the first position in the Google search engine results page (SERP). (Backlinko)
- 53% of US consumers conduct research using a search engine before they make a purchase. (Google)
- Relevant searches influence 39% of people to make a purchase. (Think With Google)
- Searches with no clicks is nearly 65%. (Search Engine Land)
Off-page SEO statistics (backlinks)
There are more than 200 Google ranking factors, and backlinks are one of the top 3 factors. Backlinks can be earned by creating in-depth content or acquired with a link building campaign.
The more authoritative backlinks a website has, the more Google will view it as an authority which in turn results in higher keyword rankings. The following search engine optimization statistics are specific to off-page SEO.
- Top-ranking pages tend to get new ‘do follow’ backlinks at a pace of +5%-14.5% per month. (Ahrefs)
- All things equal, more backlinks to a page results in higher search rankings and more organic traffic. (Ahrefs)
- Longer articles get approximately 77% more backlinks than shorter pieces. (Backlinko)
- 66.31% of all pages on the internet have zero backlinks. (Ahrefs)
- Brands that consistently blog on their website get 97% more backlinks than those who don’t. (HubSpot)
- The top Google search results have 3.8x more backlinks than lower results. (Backlinko)
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B2B SEO statistics
B2B SEO is even more important than B2C SEO. With more decision makers involved and higher dollar amounts at stake, the B2B sales cycle tends to be significantly longer. It’s critical to create high-quality, valuable content that highlights your expertise, spans the entire sales funnel, and is relevant to all the decision makers involved.
Even though the B2B SEO process can be more rigorous and time consuming, the rewards are well worth it. The higher dollar amounts involved in B2B transactions means that the ROI on B2B content and SEO is also high.
- 90% of B2B buyers research potential purchases using search engines. (Google)
- As part of the B2B purchasing process, 42% of buyers use search on their mobile device. (Think With Google)
- On average, a B2B buyer conducts 12 different online searches before interacting with a specific website. (Google)
- 62% of B2B marketers noted changes to SEO algorithms as an area of importance to them. (Content Marketing Institute)
Local SEO statistics
Local SEO is critical for businesses that serve customers in their local area. Improving your local search optimization can help people find your business. If your business is not optimized to capture some of this search traffic, you’ll miss out on a significant amount of potential revenue.
The below local SEO stats outline the importance of a thorough local SEO strategy.
- Almost one-third of all mobile searches are location-specific. (Think With Google)
- Searches for a product or store nearby result in purchases 28% of the time. (Think With Google)
- Websites of small businesses fail to include an H1 tag 25% of the time. (Fresh Chalk)
- Mobile searches for something nearby lead 76% of people to visit the business within one day. (Google)
- Approximately 45% of global shoppers will make a purchase online and then pick up the item in the store. (Think With Google)
Video SEO statistics
Access to smartphones equipped with high-quality video cameras as well as high-speed internet pushed video creation and consumption to the top content marketing format.
Video isn’t just for entertainment, either. Consumers turn to video for product research, education, and more.
People watch billions of hours of video each day on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms. As a result, video gives brands a unique opportunity to interact with their audience, demonstrate their expertise, and attract new customers.
Given its popularity and high ROI, now is the time to start including video production and video SEO in your content strategy.
Strong video engagement correlates with higher YouTube search rankings.
- Higher numbers of comments, views, shares, and likes on a video strongly correlate with higher YouTube search rankings (Backlinko)
- Video is the top form of media used in content strategy. (HubSpot)
- 49% of marketers say that using video in their digital marketing strategy drives faster revenue growth. (WordStream)
- 51% of marketers say that videos are the best type of content for ROI. (WordStream)
- Half of potential B2B buyers watch more than 30 minutes of B2B related videos. (Think With Google)
- People watch more than one billion hours of video content every day on YouTube. (YouTube)
- 77% of people say watching a brand’s testimonial video influenced their purchasing decision. (Wyzowl)
Voice search statistics
Since the introduction of voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, voice search has exploded. Instead of typing in their searches, people can just speak to them. But voice searches have unique characteristics that differentiate them from typed searches.
They’re often phrased as questions, are often location-specific, and sound more conversational. To capture voice search traffic, brands need to take these unique differences into account and optimize their data accordingly.
- Voice searches done on mobile devices are 3x more likely to be related to something local than text searches. (Search Engine Watch)
- 58% of voice searches are done to find local business information (Search Engine Land)
- 40.7% of all voice search answers come from a featured snippet. (Backlinko)
- A strong backlink profile tends to increase a website’s ranking in voice search. (Backlinko)
- More than 50% of American homes are expected to have a smart speaker with voice search enabled by 2022. (Google)
- Voice search will be used by more than 1.1 billion smartphone users at least once a week (Google)
Mobile SEO statistics
With Google switching to mobile-first indexing, it’s clear that we now live in a mobile search world. Brands must give users a superior browsing experience, regardless of what type of device they’re using.
This goes beyond simply having a mobile responsive website. It also includes elements like page loading speed, layout, text formatting, navigation menus, images, and more. All things equal, websites that provide a superior user experience across all devices will rank higher in search results.
- 75% of internet users will access the internet exclusively with mobile devices by 2025. (CNBC)
- 58% of all Google searches happen on mobile devices. (hitwise)
- Mobile search results have an organic click-through rate that’s almost 50% less than desktop results. (SparkToro)
- The number one organic search result on mobile devices gets 27.7% of clicks, while the top desktop result gets only 19.3% of clicks. (SEOClarity)
- More than 50% of smartphone users have discovered a new brand or product through mobile search. (Google)
SEO industry statistics about budgeting and spending
With so much revenue at stake, it’s no surprise that companies invest heavily in SEO.
As mentioned above, SEO provides a much higher ROI than many other marketing channels. This gives brands a good reason to use marketing dollars to improve search results. Here are several statistics about global SEO priorities
- 61% of marketers say growing SEO and organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot)
- An estimated $79 billion dollars was spent in 2020 on SEO services. (Borrell Associates)
- 49% of enterprises invest more than $20,000 on B2B SEO per month. (Markletic)
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