Are you interested in the state of SEO in 2023? Then look no further.
We’ve picked, checked, and categorized a list of current statistics below.
Top SEO statistics
These are the most interesting SEO stats we think you should know:
- 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge)
- 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page. (Backlinko)
- Organic search drives 53.3% of all website traffic. (BrightEdge)
- 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro)
- SEO generates 1,000% or more traffic than organic social media. (BrightEdge)
- 60% of marketers claim that their highest-quality lead source is inbound (SEO, blog content, etc.). (HubSpot)
- SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate. (HubSpot)
Ranking Statistics
These stats about ranking on Google may surprise you.
- 90.63% of pages get no organic search traffic from Google. (Ahrefs)
- Only 49% of the time does the top-ranking website receive the most search traffic. (Ahrefs)
- Only 5.7% of pages will rank in the top 10 search results within a year of publication. (Ahrefs)
- 7.4% of top-ranking pages don’t have a title tag. (Ahrefs)
- 33.4 percent of the time, Google rewrites title tags. (Ahrefs)
- Google now rewrites title tags 33% more frequently. (Ahrefs)
- When Google ignores the title tag, it uses the H1 tag 50.76% of the time instead. (Ahrefs)
- Overly long title tags are 57% more likely to be rewritten by Google. (Ahrefs)
- 25.02% of top-ranking pages don’t have meta descriptions. (Ahrefs)
- 40.61% of pages have meta descriptions that truncate. (Ahrefs)
- Only 37.22% of the time does Google display meta descriptions in search results. That number jumps to 40.35% for fat-head keywords and falls to 34.38% for long-tail keywords. (Ahrefs)
- The average top-ranking page also ranks in the top 10 search results for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords. (Ahrefs)
- The average page in the top 10 is 2+ years old. (Ahrefs)
- 33% of websites pass the Core Web Vitals threshold. (Ahrefs)
Backlink statistics
Google says that backlinks are one of its top three ranking factors. Check out these link-related stats.
- 66.31% of pages have no backlinks. (Ahrefs)
- Most top-ranking pages get “followed” backlinks from new websites at a pace of +5%-14.5% per month. (Ahrefs)
- In general, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it receives from Google. (Ahrefs)
- The average cost of buying a link is $361.44. (Ahrefs)
- The average cost of publishing a paid guest post is $77.80. (Ahrefs)
- 73.6% of domains have reciprocal links, meaning that some of the sites they link to also link to them. (Ahrefs)
- 43.7% of the top-ranking pages have some reciprocal links. (Ahrefs)
- 66.5% of links to sites in the last nine years are dead. (Ahrefs)
- 10.6% of all backlinks to the top 110,000 sites are nofollow. (Ahrefs)
- 0.44% of links use “rel=ugc” and 0.01% use rel=“sponsored”. (Ahrefs)
Keyword statistics
Most SEO campaigns begin with keyword research. Here are some stats about how people are searching on Google.
- 94.74% of keywords get 10 monthly searches or fewer. (Ahrefs)
- 0.0008% of keywords get more than 100,000 monthly searches. (Ahrefs)
- Around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions. (Moz)
- 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before. (Google)
- 91.45% of search volumes in Google Ads Keyword Planner are overestimated. (Ahrefs)
- Google Ads Keyword Planner overestimates search volumes 54.28% of the time and is roughly accurate 45.22% of the time. (Ahrefs)
- 46.08% of clicks in Google Search Console go to hidden terms. (Ahrefs)
SEO industry statistics
- The global SEO market size is projected to reach $134.26 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 22.1% from 2021 to CAGR of 20.7% in 2026. (ResearchAndMarkets)
- 69% of marketers use SEO as part of their digital marketing strategy. (HubSpot)
- 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing their organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot)
- Only 21% of businesses increased their SEO investment in 2020. (Linkedin)
- Moving Up One Position Increases CTR By 32.3%. (Backlinko)
- Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors for Google. (Ahrefs)
- The average cost per click (CPC) for Google Ads is $2.69 for search ads and $0.63 for display ads. (WordStream)
- The most popular SEO tools professionals use are Google Search Console at 92%, Screaming Frog at 86%, and SEMrush at 63%. (Aira)
- The most important on-page SEO elements are content, title tags, and meta descriptions. (Moz)
- The average SEO specialist’s salary in the United States is $52,000 per year. (Indeed)
Search engine statistics
As SEOs, it is essential to understand where search engines are right now—and where they’re going.
- 12.29% of search queries have featured snippets in their search results. (Ahrefs)
- The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 27.6%. (Backlinko)
- The top three Google search results get 54.4% of all clicks. (Backlinko)
- There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. (Internet Live Stats)
- A relevant search influences 39% of purchasers. (Think With Google)
- 61.5% of desktop searches and 34.4% of mobile searches result in no clicks. (SparkToro)
- Google accounts for around 83% of the global search market. (Statista)
Local SEO statistics
If you serve customers locally, you should focus on improving your local search presence so more people can find you. These stats show the importance of good local SEO.
- 30% of all mobile searches are related to location. (Think With Google)
- 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think With Google)
- 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase. (Think With Google)
- Yelp appears in the top five search results for 92% of Google web queries that include a city and business category. (Fresh Chalk)
- 54% of smartphone users search for business hours and 53% search for directions to local stores. (Think With Google)
- About 45% of global shoppers buy online and then pick up in-store. (Think With Google)
- “Where to buy” + “near me” mobile queries have grown by over 200% from 2017 to 2019. (Think With Google)
- Mobile searches for “store open near me” (e.g., “grocery store open near me”) have grown by over 250% from 2017 to 2019. (Think With Google)
- Mobile searches for “on-sale” + “near me” (e.g., “tires on sale near me”) have grown by over 250% YOY from 2017 to 2019. (Think With Google)
Video SEO statistics
We’ve had great success driving customers using video marketing. Are you doing it too? If not, these stats may surprise you.
