Even for marketing professionals, SEO can be a tricky task!
Without the intricate knowledge of Google’s search algorithms, it’s hard to know what strategies will help land you on the front page of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Even though SEO algorithms are constantly changing, the importance of SEO has not changed.
After all, at the time this blog was written (9:30 AM on a Tuesday!), Google had already received 3,267,554,048 searches.
If you want to be first on the SERPs, your SEO strategies have to be amazing. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of Search Engine Optimization stats to help your small business rank higher and faster.
General SEO Statistics
Google quarantines around 10,000 suspicious websites every day
While it’s not necessarily something most small businesses need to worry about, Google’s blacklist is very real. One of the easiest ways to get blacklisted is if your web traffic has a sudden decrease in traffic. This can happen when you tinker with your website, headlines, keywords, or other SEO factors. One sure way to feel secure that your website won’t be blacklisted is by hiring an SEO professional who has experience in keeping your website up-to-date and SEO-friendly.
46% of all Google searches are local
Local SEO is a strategy that helps your business be more visible in local search results on Google. With almost 50% of all searches on Google being used to find local resources, businesses, and companies, any business that has a physical location or serves a geographic area can benefit from local SEO. You can learn more about how to improve your SEO and brand awareness, here.
Mobile searches using phrases like “where to buy X near me” have grown by over 200% since 2017
Increasing search visibility is becoming increasingly important with more and more locals using Google to search for businesses near them. Zoek’s Listing Sync ensures your NAP consistency on multiple platforms such as Yelp, Trustpilot, Foursquare, and more - guaranteeing your search engine rankings don’t take an unnecessary hit.
76% of smart speaker users perform local voice searches at least weekly, with 46% of users performing it daily
If your website isn’t optimized for local searches and voice searches, you’ll never be able to be found by your target audience. One way to optimize your website for voice search is to use long-tail keywords and answer questions; include a FAQ that answers questions like “Who,” “What,” “Where,” “When,” “Why,” and “How.”
Less than 1% of people click anywhere past the second page of Google
You heard that right - 99% of consumers only interact with results they find on the first two pages of the SERPs. This statistic highlights the profound value and importance of having a great SEO strategy that will help your website get on page 1 of Google for your keywords.
67.6% of all clicks are on the first 5 organic results
That’s right! As we stated above, having your business show up on the first page of Google, specifically as one of the first few options, is especially important for your organic traffic. Hiring a professional who knows the ins and outs of Google's constantly changing algorithm will help you have a better chance at being one of the top results for your industry.
Google’s organic search results were responsible for almost 58% of all web traffic worldwide in 2018
Yep, you read that right; Google controlled almost 60% of all web traffic a few years ago. Combined with the other major three search platforms -YouTube, Yahoo, and Bing - over 70% of all web traffic came from searches and search engines. No wonder we’ve turned the word “Google” into a verb.
90.63% of websites get no organic search traffic from Google
If you’re trying to rank on Google and be seen by your target audience, you must be on the first page of Google. If you’re not, you risk being a part of the almost 91% of websites that get no organic traffic from search engines. Understanding which keywords your audience is searching for, optimizing your on-site and off-site SEO, and ensuring that your website is readable by crawlers is essential.
On-site SEO Statistics
It takes the average person 50 milliseconds to decide if they want to stay on your page
In case you didn’t know how long 50 milliseconds really is...that’s 1/20th of a second! The best way to ensure your target audience is staying on your homepage is to improve its design. While this may feel like a Web Design issue rather than an SEO issue, if search engines notice you have a high bounce rate (the percentage of visitors on a website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page), they’re less likely to show other people your website as a result.
(source)
A good bounce rate is considered 26 to 40%
As we mentioned above, if search engines feel like the traffic they send to your site isn’t being helped by it, they will start to lower your organic reach and rankings. To ensure your target audience is staying on your website and actually enjoying it, make sure you’re designing the ultimate user experience, keep your loading time between 2 and 5 seconds, and launch A/B testing to see how they respond to certain content.
Content creation improves indexation rates by more than 434%
The only thing Google loves more than high-quality content is websites that post high-quality content often. A good marketing agency will understand that producing multiple pieces of content per week that are relevant and includes target keywords will help rank your site faster by search engines.
Over 29% of keywords with over 10K+ monthly searches consist of 3+ words
Long-tailed keywords are phrases that are generally made from three to five words. Since these keywords tend to be more specific than generic terms, they allow you to target niche demographics. Long-tail keywords are known for getting lower search volumes, but will usually have a higher conversion value due to the targeted nature of their traffic.
Title tags are the second most important on-page factor for SEO
A title tag is an element that specifies the title of a web page and is often displayed as part of the search snippet in a search engine results page (SERP). By keeping your title tags at 60 characters or less, you can expect the majority of your titles to display properly in the SERPs.
Google’s search algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites
You heard that right, Google considers more than 200 factors when ranking a website. Some of these factors are the following…
Domain registration length
Presence of the keywords in your H1 tag
Chrome page load speed
The originality of the page's content
Presence of a sitemap
Brand Signals (such as real social media accounts, branded anchor text, or the physical location of your offices)
Popups that are spammy and difficult to close
Low-quality directory links
We understand how confusing optimization and creating a website guaranteed to rank can be. That's why we can set you up for a free 30 minute SEO audit meeting with one of our SEO experts when you click here.
In 2015, Google made how mobile-friendly a website is one of the factors for SERPs
How many times have you opened a website on your phone and left once you realized how difficult it was to navigate? You’re not alone. That’s why in 2015, Google shifted its ranking factors to also include how mobile-friendly your website is. This was not just an algorithm update, it was a cultural transformation, and Google almost single-handedly forced business owners to rethink how they market to mobile users.
Pages with shorter URLs rank higher
Your website isn’t just for your target audience - it’s also for search engines. Websites with complex URLs not only make your site look disorganized, but it also makes it difficult for web crawlers to search each page, resulting in lower search rankings.
Off-site SEO Statistics
The top 4 ranking positions on Google have more Facebook activity than sites ranked lower
As you can see from the graph below, activity on your social media sites may be a ranking factor in your rank on the SERPs. While the basic existence of a Facebook site for your business doesn’t mean you’ll rank higher, when search engines see that your social media sites are credible, shared often, and post high-quality content, they’re more likely to consider you a valued brand.
91% of marketers optimize their social media profiles for SEO
Speaking of social media, your Instagram might not help much when it comes to SERPs, but optimizing your profiles, bio, and hashtags can still help your SEO off-site. When your target audience can find you on social sites, it’s more likely that your backlinks will increase as well.
Articles shared on social media see a 22% performance increase compared to those not shared
Just another reason social media marketing is essential to your small business! A lot of people aren’t going to go to your website every time you post a blog, an article, a case study, or something else. So serving that content up to them where they spend their time is going to increase the chances they’re going to see it and read it.
Companies with blogs get 97% more backlinks than those without
We’ve mentioned them a little bit in this blog so far, but exactly what are backlinks? Backlinks are links that are shared from one website to another. For example, every SEO statistic on this post has (source) underneath each of them. Those are backlinks. We are crediting where we got this information by linking their content that we found valuable. The more quality blog content you produce, the more probability you have to get backlinks and increase your rankings.
The average page in the top position of Google SERPs has over 35,000 external backlinks
You read that right. Pages with backlinks are always going to rank higher than ones that don’t or that don’t have many. This is because search engines see these backlinks as “votes” for your websites. These votes tell Google and other search engines that your content is high-quality, valuable, and resourceful. A strong blog strategy is necessary for your small business to thrive online.
The average PR campaign contains between 10 and 24 unique backlink opportunities
Any good marketing agency (hi!) is going to recommend having a strong content strategy as part of your growth campaign. Besides it being a way for search engines to see you as an authority figure, it’s also great for your overall brand awareness. By producing content and backlink opportunities, you can increase your organic reach and help be found by your target audience. Not every consumer is going to find you on Google; some may find you from someone else’s page.
55.24% of pages don’t have a single backlink
Building backlinks can be one of the most difficult parts of a marketing strategy, especially if your brand is new or unknown. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. If you’re struggling with how to create backlink opportunities, check out our blog, here, where we teach you 5 simple ways how to build them.
Did Our List of Facts About SEO Help Your Future Marketing Strategies?
We hope so. If there’s anything you take away from this blog, it’s that your marketing strategies have to be on point from multiple different angles. Search engines love content and backlinks, but they also love mobile-friendly websites, short URLs, and audience-specific keywords!
And don’t worry if you need help with your SEO, we completely understand. That’s why we offer free 30 minute SEO audits to help you grow your online presence and expand your reach. Feel free to book a call at the link below.
Kellyann Doyle is a Content Marketing Writer at Zoek, an SEO, Web Design, and Digital Marketing Agency that assists small and medium-sized businesses with their online footprint. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in 2013 from the University of Houston with a Major in Communications and a Minor in Marketing and has been working in the Digital Marketing world ever since. When not working, you can find Kellyann trying new recipes, enjoying a good nap, or watching Friends for the 500th time.
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