Top SEO Statistics To Swear By in 2024

Speak of digital marketing, and you can’t miss out on SEO.

From bloggers to small and medium enterprises, a large number of businesses have been focusing their marketing efforts around SEO for a long time now. After all, it’s one of the most effective means of online marketing.

However, to obtain desirable and profitable results, SEO needs an air-tight implementation.

In this blog, we share a list of popular, useful, and lesser-known SEO statistics that can help you shape your marketing strategy in 2023.

So, pick up your notebook, buckle up, and read on!

Key SEO Statistics

Here’s a list of key SEO statistics to give you an idea about the SEO ecosystem. Let us take a look.

How many searches does Google get a day?

1. Google gets about 9 billion searches per day.

Google is our sacred place.

We want to know our favorite recipes—we google it.

Searching for the nearest fun spot? We Google it.

Have a project report to submit? You guessed it right, we google that.

Google is the know-it-all master in our lives. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that every 9 out of 10 people rely on Google for answers to various questions.

How many web pages or sites does Google search?

2. There are about 30 to 50 billion web pages or sites that Google uses for its search engine.

You can Google anything, and you will find web pages for it.

Google has a wide network of websites and web pages providing information regarding a multitude of subjects. With so much information one search away, Google has aptly been regarded as one of the most reliable search engines online.

Ranking Statistics

To understand SEO better, going through different ranking statistics is important.

You may ask why–well, it can provide you with the insights needed to optimize your web pages. 

3. 90.63% of the pages do not get any organic search traffic from Google.

There can be quite a few reasons for the same.

One of the main reasons is that the page does not have any backlinks.

Backlinks help increase the traffic on a website. Another reason is that the topic of the page does not have long-term potential for traffic. If nobody searches for that particular page, there won’t be any search traffic!

It is always advisable to execute a backing strategy and do keyword research before launching a campaign. 

4. The top-ranking pages are able to garner search traffic only 49% of the time.

The top-ranking pages might not show the trend that you’re expecting.

It is always better to focus on the relevant search traffic by covering the topic in detail, creating an authority page on the topic, and emphasizing the search intent. 

5. 7.4% of the high-ranking pages do not have a title.

One would expect that the top-ranking pages will have a title!

But that is not always the case. It goes on to show that content is the king. If a page serves the search intent well, it can climb the ladder to become one of the most highly visited pages.

6. Google is 57% times more likely to rewrite title tags that are too long.

The ideal length of the title is somewhere between 50 to 60 characters.

If the title is too long, Google is most likely to cut it short. This can sometimes lead to a negative user experience as shorter titles do not provide sufficient context about the page.

But, at times, it can also be positive as longer titles might get tedious for users when a shorter one could convey the core idea equally well.

7. The average high-ranking pages also end up ranking in the top 10 search results for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords.

Certain web pages perform well, and that too, consistently!

Web owners make efficient use of SEO tools and target relevant keywords based on search intent. Before deciding on a topic, make sure to do a thorough research around the keywords in that particular niche.

8. The average page in the top 10 ranking is +2 years old.

The average top 10 ranking pages are 2+ years old, while the first ranking pages are mostly three years old. Only 22% of the pages which are in the top 10 were created in the last year.

It becomes clear that old pages find it easier to flood the SERPs.

It’s not surprising, as the websites with high domain ratings often perform better than those low domain ratings. In most cases, it can take longer to rank, and this might explain the rankings. 

9. 25.02% of the high-ranking pages do not have meta descriptions.

This reflects that metadata is not as important for SEO as has previously been declared. It may or may not directly affect the search engine result page ranking. However, it still remains crucial for user experience.

Keeping your meta description short, precise, and concise can inform the readers about your page’s content and increase viewer interaction.

10. Google ends up rewriting title tags 33.4% of the time.

Google rewrites a significant number of titles.

This primarily happens because Google’s algorithm makes changes to the title if it is not closely related to the context of the web page. This can be frustrating for the website owners who spend the time brainstorming catchy titles.

But, in certain cases, it can also help by creating more actionable title tags. 

Backlink Statistics

Backlinks help strengthen your website’s reputation on the web. Let us have a look at some important backlink statistics.

11. 66.31% of pages on Google do not have a backlink.

Backlinks help enhance the credibility of your website, signaling search engines to trust your website more.

Yet, around 66% of pages do not have backlinks. It is most likely to affect their search traffic. Building a robust link building strategy helps boost the authority of your website, also boosting its chances of appearing in the SERPs.

12. Most high-ranking pages get backlink mentions from the new websites at the rate of 5% to 14.5% per month.

High-ranking pages have reliable backlinks.

They are also very informative. To state the obvious, the more a page gets mentioned in a backlink, the higher it may rank in the SERPs. 

13. The higher the number of backlinks present on a page, the more organic traffic it gets from Google.

Backlinks serve as one of the most important ways to boost organic traffic on a website.

They play a decisive role in how trustworthy Google finds a website. But quality before quantity must be ensured while building backlinks.

14. 73.6% of domains have reciprocal links.

Nowadays, reciprocal links are a byproduct of being a site owner. While not advised by most marketers, they may or may not have a positive impact on a website’s SEO.

However, linking to a quality site can indeed increase the reliability of your web page and drive organic traffic. 

15. 66.5% of the links to the sites in the last nine years are no longer relevant or dead.

This can happen for a number of reasons.

Incorrect URL spellings, changes in your website’s URL structure, unavailability of external links, linkage to content that has been removed, broken elements within the page, or simple firewall or geolocation restrictions can weigh down your SEO efforts.

You can easily fix these concerns by running a backlink audit on your site. 

16. The average cost of buying a link is $361.44.

This can be attributed to the high demand from SEO specialists.

As the size of the audience increases, the web page owners may have to pay more for the backlinks. However, this is not an admirable practice.

Keyword Statistics

Many bloggers start their journey with keyword research. It helps find keywords that are best to target, also providing insight into target populations’ behavior.

17. 0.0008% of the keywords get almost 1,00,000 searches per month.

These numbers are sets of keywords usually relevant in a specific niche.

Undertaking keyword research enables markets to target the most searched keywords that boost their chances to rank higher in the SERPs. 

18. Approximately 8% of search queries are framed as questions.

Most of us go to Google to search for things we do not know.

If there is a question in our heads, we are more likely to frame it as a question while searching. It is instructive for all the bloggers looking to boost their SEO with question keyword optimization.

You can do so by answering the question in your blog, elaborating it for the readers to comprehend. However, make sure to start with keyword research.

19. 15% of the Google searches are new and have never been searched before.

Google searches as many as 20 billion different web pages to present search results for topics that are new and haven’t been searched before.

As a result, new information is more likely to come up quite often. 

20. Google Ads Keyword Planner inflates the search volumes by 54.28% and is accurate only 45.22% of the time.

Google keyword planner data is based on the language of the user performing the search; if people are using different languages to compare, the algorithm may present different results.

Search volume data reflects the average monthly search volume for a particular keyword. It can fluctuate over time, also showing inflated search volume results. 

21. 94.74% of keywords get searched only ten times or even less per month.

Information on the Internet is growing at a fast pace.

Almost 1.8 million new pages are created every 24 hours. A large number of published pages do not rank in Google search results, and neither get any significant search traffic.

This is why optimizing your website for SEO is considered an advisable marketing strategy.

SEO Industry Statistics

Knowing a bit more about the SEO industry can help us strategize better. Here are some statistics related to it. 

22. 78.2% of SEOs charge a monthly retainer fee for their clients.

Getting on a phone call with an SEO expert can be valuable. It can be the deciding factor between failure and success. SEOs charge a monthly retainer fee as there is quite a bit more work at the backend of the websites than it appears.

SEO deliverables cannot be determined by budget as they are activity experts.

As SEOs specialize in a particular activity, they are often able to provide high-quality services. SEO experts are skilled at Google ranking factors and marketing principles–so they are paid for the business goals and not the time allocated. 

23. Agencies and consultants charge significantly more than freelancers.

It is evident that there is a clear positive correlation between experience and rates.

57.4% of SEO agencies charge $1001+ per month, whereas only 32.2% of freelancers do the same. On average, SEO agencies and consultants make almost double of what SEO freelancers make. 

24. On average, SEOs that serve locally earn $93.89 per hour, whereas those serving internationally charge $106.69 per hour for their services.

It is clear by the fact that SEOs offering services locally charge $1,557 per month, whereas SEOs serving worldwide markets earn $3,473 per month.

This accounts for a whooping difference of 123.1%. 

25. $75-$100 per hour is the most popular rate in the SEO industry.

24% of the SEOs charge $75 to $100 per hour.

47% of the SEOs charge between $75 and $200 per hour. Meanwhile, 90% charge $150 per hour or less, and only about 4.1% charge an hourly rate of $201+.

26. $2501-$5,000 is the most popular pricing in the SEO industry for a project.

21.2% of the SEOs charge $2501 to $5000 per project.

Meanwhile, 60.6% of the SEOs charge $1,001 or more. 50.6% charge $2,000 or less. It implies that less than half of the SEOs charge a $2,001+ fee per project.

27. Only 9.9% of the SEOs charge more than $150 per hour.

This signifies that 1 in 10 SEOs charge more than $150 per hour.

This is driven by the fact that the higher the experience of an SEO in the field, the higher the rates it charges from its clients. 

Search Engine Statistics

Search engine statistics become crucial to perform better in the algorithm. Let us take a look at a few of them. 

28. The top three Google search results garner a total of 54.4% of all clicks. 

This is further corroborated by the fact that #1 organic results are ten times more likely to receive a click as compared to a page in the first ten spots.

The higher a web page on the Google search result, the more exposure it has to a larger audience. This comes along with a good CTR for SEO.

29. Approximately 3.5 billion searches take place on Google per day.

A person is googling something every second of the day.

Now that’s quite a lot! Google search volume is approximately 145 million searches per hour. 2.4 million per minute or 40 every second. (Internet Live Stats)

30. Almost 39% of the buyers are influenced by the search results.

In this day and age, everything starts with a search.

Buyers search regarding a product or service to read about its features, reviews, and testimonials. It has become a powerful tool to sway peoples’ purchasing habits. 

31. 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches end up with no clicks.

The focus should be to build your SEO and marketing techniques to meet the intent and needs of the users and adapt to Google’s infrastructure. 

32. Google dominates the global search market by accounting for 83% of the market.

Google has a large number of web pages and sites in its search index.

It also incorporates newer websites faster than any other search engine. This enables you to search for the latest news and information by providing better search results.

Local SEO Statistics

If an SEO functions locally, knowing local SEO statistics can help improve local presence, also allowing businesses to get an  idea of the market rates. Let us have a look.

33. How many local searchers are there per month?

The number of monthly local searches is 97 billion. Over the course of 12 months, it accounts for 1.17 trillion a year.

34. What percent of people searching locally end up visiting?

About 80% of the local searches convert.

It is quite eye-opening as local search strategies can have a major impact on your business’s success.

Adapting to the local SEO strategy is the way to go for businesses looking to target local audiences.

35. What percent of people searching locally actually buy?

76% of people undertake a local search on their smartphones and reach a physical place within 24 hours.

Around 28% of the search results lead to a purchase by the user.

Video SEO Statistics

Video Marketing Engagement Statistics

Videos remain pivotal for higher viewer engagement and favorable business outcomes. Some of the important video marketing engagement statistics are as follows.

36. Online videos have an audience reach of 91.8% worldwide.

37. 82% of the global internet traffic came from videos. This signifies the increasing role of video marketing in today’s digital era.

38. 45% of the global B2B marketers create training videos, and 39% are client testimonials. This indicates that video content is popular for product demos and social videos.

39. 40% of organizations feel that a major barrier to video marketing is the lack of a dedicated budget for video creation. Clearly, emphasis needs to be laid on leveraging video content for marketing and engagement strategy.

40. 70% of marketers plan on using YouTube as a video marketing tool.

Using these statistics to enhance engagement and conversion rates can help your business in the long run. 

41. How many videos are there on YouTube?

Currently, YouTube has more than 800 million videos present on its platform.

There are 37 million YouTube channels, making YouTube the second most visited website in the world.

An estimated 1 billion hours of YouTube videos are  watched per day. 

42. How many daily video views are on Facebook?

Approximately 4 billion video views take place on Facebook every day.

This can be further broken down into 30- 30-second organic view rate for organic being 42.7% and the average rate for paid views being 25.2%.

Mobile SEO Statistics

43. Percentage of searches on mobile vs. tablet

50.48% of web traffic comes from mobile devices, whereas desktops account for 46.51% of the total website traffic.

Tablets account for the least amount of search traffic at 3%. 

Voice Search Statistics

44. What is the voice search market share?

The global voice search market share accounted for $20.3 billion in 2022.

It is estimated to reach a market size of $112.5 billion by 2032. This implies that it will be growing at a CAGR of about 19.2% from 2023 to 2032. 

45. How many people use voice search on mobile?

27% of the people use voice search on their mobile devices. The average voice search result is around 29 words long.

46. How many people use Alexa or Google Home?

Around 123.5 million people use Alexa or Google Home (voice assistants). It tends to load faster by a rate of 52% than an average search result.

On average, around 36% of internet users make use of these digital assistants.

Wrapping Up

SEO statistics help businesses and marketers gain insight into the behavior of their target audiences.

The blog shared a number of SEO statistics for 2023 that can help you enhance user engagement and make data-driven decisions to improve your search engine rankings. 

Hopefully, this is helpful.