50 SEO Statistics To Know For 2023

The SEO landscape is constantly changing, and it can be hard to keep up with the latest trends and changes.

Like any business owner, you always need to stay on top of the competition. When used consistently for over a year, SEO is the most cost-effective marketing tool on earth.

But with so much information, it can be hard to know where to start. There’s a lot to take into account and everything can become overwhelming pretty quickly.

That’s why we’ve compiled all the critical SEO statistics you need to know as we enter 2023. So sit back, relax, and let us teach you everything you need to know about SEO to improve your digital marketing with these must-know SEO stats!

But First, Why SEO?

But why do you need SEO? Do you even need it? These are valid questions since marketing existed way before SEO.

However, in today’s digital world, businesses of all sizes are striving to stay on top of the competition. Prospective customers are increasingly using the internet to research products and services. If your business doesn’t show up in their search results, you could miss out on huge numbers of potential companies.

That’s where SEO comes in.

A higher ranking means that your website will be more visible to potential customers, leading to more traffic and sales.

Let’s discuss why SEO is an essential marketing tool for small businesses.

It’s Cost-effective

One of the most significant advantages of SEO is that it is an extremely cost-effective marketing strategy. SEO only requires an initial investment to develop and optimize your website, unlike traditional paid advertising — every click costs you.

After the initial setup, your website will continue appearing in search results without additional cost.

But don't think SEO is just a one time fee. To be successful with SEO for your small business website, you need consistent work every single month. Does that sound daunting? Never fear, we have the definitive cost comparison of SEO services for your small business right here!

It Builds Trust and Credibility

When your site appears at the top of a potential customer’s search results, they will be more likely to trust you and your brand and see you as a credible source of information. This can lead to more website visitors and, eventually, conversions.

SEO can also help build trust by increasing the quantity and quality of your website’s backlinks.

Backlinks are links from other websites that link back to yours. High-quality backlinks from authoritative websites tell Google that your site is trustworthy and authoritative, which can help improve your ranking.

It Provides Long-term Results

Once you have invested in SEO and implemented all the necessary strategies to improve your ranking, the results will continue to pay off long term. As long as you keep your website up-to-date with fresh content and relevant keywords, you can maintain (or even improve) your ranking and continue reaping the benefits of increased traffic and visibility.

Paid advertising campaigns only last as long as you continue paying for them. As soon as you stop paying for ads, your traffic will drop off just as quickly. With SEO, you get a much higher return on investment (ROI) for less.

This is what consistent SEO work produces. Campaign started in 2018.

Is SEO Worth It?

When most people think of SEO, they think of it as an ongoing expense, and it’s true that SEO requires an ongoing investment of time and resources.

However, many people don’t realize that the benefits of SEO last long after that initial investment has been made. Once you reach the top of the search engine rankings, it becomes challenging for your competitors to unseat you.

That’s why SEO is often referred to as a long-term marketing strategy.

When compared to other marketing strategies, SEO is very cost-effective.

Once you’ve invested the time and effort required to develop a strong SEO foundation, your website will continue to generate leads and sales long into the future. In contrast, you must continuously replenish other marketing channels like paid advertising to remain effective.

Because SEO targets people who are already interested in what you offer, it tends to be much more efficient than traditional marketing methods like cold-calling or print advertisements.

Over time, SEO provides a much higher ROI than PPC advertising.

Look no further than SEO if you’re looking for a marketing strategy that will provide long-term benefits at a reasonable cost.

How To Get Started With SEO

The good news is that you don’t need to be an SEO expert to see results; often, simply hiring a trustworthy small business SEO services provider is enough to get the ball rolling. However, there are a few things you should keep in mind when selecting an agency or consultant.

1. Make sure they’re experienced and reputable. A quick Google search should produce plenty of customer reviews and case studies demonstrating their success.

2. Ask about their process and what kind of results you can expect within your budget and timeframe.

3. Remember that SEO results take time. However, it’s possible to see a brief uptick in traffic after implementing some quick fixes. Sustained growth usually takes at least six months (and often much longer).

Now that we’ve clarified why it’s worth checking out SEO, let’s look at the most compelling SEO statistics. We aim to give you an idea of what the SEO landscape looks like today and going into 2023.

Here are the 50 SEO stats you need to know for 2023.

General SEO Stats

1. 70 percent of marketers saw search engine optimization as more effective than pay-per-click in driving sales (Source: Databox)

2. Pages with a perfect query match in their URL had a 45 percent better click-through rate than those without the search terms in their URL (Source: Backlinko)

3. Content marketing is rising, as 82 percent of marketers reported using it in 2021, up from 70 percent the year before (Source: HubSpot)

4. Title tags with 40 to 60 characters have an 8.9 percent higher click-through rate (CTR) than shorter or longer tags (Source: Backlinko)

5. Organic search is one of the most critical channels for B2B companies, accounting for twice as much revenue as any other channel (Source: Brightedge)

6. A mere 0.78 percent of Google users will select a result from the second page (Source: Backlinko)

7. The average website will receive 25.1 clicks per query (Source: Backlinko)

8. More than half of the clicks go to the first three search engine results (Source: Backlinko)

9. The three most crucial on-page SEO factors to improve an old blog post’s ranking are the depth and freshness of the content, as well as adding new relevant keywords (Source: Databox)

10. The highest e-commerce conversion rates are achieved when the page loads in under two seconds (Source: Portent)

Backlink Stats

1. 43.7 percent of the highest-ranking pages have reciprocal links (Source: Ahrefs)

2. The number one top Google search result has 3.8x more backlinks than pages in positions 2-10 (Source: Backlinko)

3. Almost 80 percent of pages that link to another website do so multiple times (Source: Ahrefs)

4. It’s essential to build quality backlinks for SEO purposes because they are one of Google’s most important ranking factors (Source: Blue Corona)

5. A large majority of pages — 66.31 percent — don’t have any backlinks. Additionally, 26.29 percent only have backlinks from three websites or fewer (Source: Ahrefs)

6. Almost three-fourths of domains have links to other websites that link back (Source: Ahrefs)

7. As of July 2022, Google.com had the most referring C-subnets than any other website and the highest Global Majestic Million ranking, with 488,945 subnets (Source: Statista)

8. The average rate at which new websites give “followed” backlinks to top-ranking pages is 5 to 14.5 percent per month (Source: Ahrefs)

9. A page with more backlinks will organically receive more traffic from Google (Source: Ahrefs)

10. On average, buying a link will set you back $361.44 (Source: Ahrefs)

Local SEO Stats

1. 50 percent of companies believe localization is vital to their SEO strategy (Source: HubSpot)

2. Local consumer surveys indicate that most people trust online reviews just as much as recommendations from family and friends (Source: Moz)

3. Most local businesses will still offer customers home delivery, curbside pickup, and video conferencing even after the COVID pandemic ends (Source: Moz)

4. 77 percent of consumers read online reviews for local businesses — an increase from 60 percent the preceding year (Source: BrightLocal)

5. According to Google, 30 percent of mobile searches are location-based (Source: Go Gulf)

6. The Better Business Bureau is the most trustworthy website for consumers, with 81 percent of people saying they trust its reviews (Source: BrightLocal)

7. More than half of companies focus on marketing to consumers based on geographic location (Source: HubSpot)

8. Yelp is one of the top search results for 92 percent of Google web queries, including city and business categories (Source: Fresh Chalk)

9. A whopping 54 percent of smartphone users search for business hours and an additional 53 percent look up directions to local stores (Source: Think With Google)

10. 36 percent of shoppers purchase items online and pick them up at a local curbside location (Source: Pymnts)

Mobile SEO Stats

1. 58.99 percent of the world’s web traffic comes from people using their phones (Source: Statista)

2. By 2025, around 72.6 percent of internet users will only use their smartphones to go online (Source: CNBC)

3. Mobile devices are now used more to search the internet than desktop computers (Source: Think With Google)

4. 51 percent of smartphone users have found a new business or product while using their phone to search (Source: Think With Google)

5. People who search for local products or services on their smartphones are 18 percent more likely to purchase within the day than those who don’t search locally (Source: Think With Google)

6. The average click-through rate (CTR) for the top position on mobile is 6.74 percent, while the CTR for the top position on a desktop is 8.17 percent (Source: SEOClarity)

7. 56 percent of all in-store shoppers used their smartphones for shopping or researching items while they were still in the store (Source: Think With Google)

8. Google displays an average of 8.5 organic mobile search results on page one (Source: Search Metrics)

9. Mobile searches that include terms like “best” and “right now” have increased by 125% in the past two years (Source: Think With Google)

10. 30 percent of all mobile searches are either related to a location or looking for something close by — out of those, 28 percent result in a purchase being made (Source: Think With Google)

Keyword and Search Engine Stats

1. Eight percent of all search queries take the form of a question (Source: Moz)

2. A staggering 15 percent of all Google searches are brand new (Source: Google)

3. 91.45 percent of the search volume estimates in Google Keyword Planner (GKP) are inflated (Source: Ahrefs)

4. GKP is not always accurate with its search volume estimates, being overestimated 54.28 percent of the time and accurately 45.22 percent of the time on average (Source: Ahrefs)

5. 46.08 percent of all clicks in Google Search Console are for terms that aren’t visible (Source: Ahrefs)

6. More than 94 percent of keywords get 10 searches or fewer each month (Source: Ahrefs)

7. Only 0.0008 percent of keywords get more than 100,000 searches per month (Source: Ahrefs)

8. 12.29 percent of all search queries display featured snippets in their results (Source: Ahrefs)

9. The average click-through rate (CTR) for the number one result on Google’s organic search results is 27.6 percent (Source: Backlinko)

10. The top three Google search results combined receive 54.4 percent of all clicks (Source: Backlinko)

Frequently Asked Questions

How Should These SEO Statistics Help Shape Your 2023 Strategy?

The SEO statistics above show that mobile devices are now being used more to search the internet than desktop computers, so it’s essential to ensure your website is optimized for mobile.

It’s also clear that people are using their smartphones to search for local businesses, so if you want to appear in the top results, you need to make sure your business is listed on local directories such as Yelp.

Finally, remember that most keywords don’t get very many monthly searches, so don’t spend too much time focusing on low-traffic keywords.

How Many Searches Does Google Get a Day?

More than 8.5 billion searches are conducted on Google every day, which averages out to over 99,000 per second, according to recent data.

How Many Web Pages or Sites Does Google Search?

As of September 2022, there are 1.98 billion websites currently online.

Google Search’s index boasts billions of web pages and is 100,000,000+ gigabytes in size.

What Is the Voice Search Market Share?

According to a report by eMarketer, 40.2 percent of the United States population use voice search features on their smartphones.

This increased adoption will be driven by continued enhancements in natural language processing (NLP) technology, which will make it easier for users to interact with virtual assistants and get the results they are looking for.

How Many Local Searchers Are There per Month?

There are over 97 billion local searches a month. That’s a vast number, and it’s only going to continue increasing as more people become comfortable using their smartphones to find what they need nearby. This is why local SEO is so vital for businesses — not just brick-and-mortar stores but also service providers and online businesses.

Make Marketing Matter With Agency Jet

There you have it! All the SEO statistics you need to know as we head into 2023. All that’s left to do is put these insights to good use and ensure your marketing strategy is ready to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

If you need help, you can’t go wrong by getting a free, guided website assessment with Agency Jet. It’s been called the best 90 minutes in marketing, and it will help you formulate the SEO services that are right for your small business.

Agency Jet is a full-service digital marketing agency that can help you with all aspects of your online presence, from SEO services for small businesses to digital advertising to web design and development.

Get your free website assessment here: https://www.agencyjet.com/website-assessment