110 Amazing Stats That Prove SEO Works in 2024

SEO is an $80 billion a year industry with no signs of slowing down. The only problem is the majority of businesses don’t know what actually goes into SEO, or what they’ll get out of it.

What is SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Once you have a website, you need an engine to drive traffic. That’s where SEO comes in. SEO is optimizing your business’ website to appear when someone searches on Google, Bing, and other search engines.

To help with this, here’s a breakdown of the stats that shows SEO works in 2024 and why it’s worth the ROI (return-on-investment).

These are some of my favorites:

• B2B companies generated 2x the revenue from organic search than any other channel (BrightEdge, 2019)
• 85% of retailers say SEO and paid search are the most effective methods for getting new customers.
• SEO drives over 1,000% more website traffic than organic social media [53% vs 5%]. (BrightEdge, 2019)
• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate (cold calls, marketing, etc.). (Involve.me, 2023)
• Brands who engage in SEO save 400% on ad spending on average, whilst attracting the same level of traffic (Lyfe, 2022)

Let’s take a look at the rest of this year’s SEO statistics.

SEO ROI Statistics

• B2B companies generated 2x the revenue from organic search than any other channel (BrightEdge, 2019)
• SEO remains one of the top trends marketers are leveraging in 2023 (HubSpot, 2023)
• SEO drives over 1,000% more website traffic than organic social media [53% vs 5%]. (BrightEdge, 2019)
• Organic search and referral traffic are the largest and most effective sources of marketing ROI for brands (Semrush, 2023)
• Brands who engage in SEO save 400% on ad spending on average, whilst attracting the same level of traffic (Lyfe, 2022)
• SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate (cold calls, marketing, etc.). This means SEO leads are 8x more likely to turn into customers than outbound leads. (Involve.me, 2023)
• 60% of marketers say that inbound (SEO, blog content, etc.) is their highest quality source of leads. (Ahrefs, 2023)
• 89% of marketers say SEO is successful. (WebFX, 2022)
• 70% of marketers prefer SEO to PPC for sales generation (Databox, 2019)
• 80% of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) say they will maintain or increase their SEO budget this year. (Search Engine Land, 2023)
• 88% of marketers who already have SEO plan to invest more or maintain the same amount in 2023. (HubSpot, 2023)
• 57% of marketing executives view content development as the most effective SEO strategy (Content Marketing Institute, 2018)
• 74% small-to-midsized businesses will invest in SEO (WebFX, 2022)
• 85% of retailers say SEO and paid search are most effective for getting new customers. (WebFX, 2022)
• Businesses spend around $79 billion on SEO services (SEO.com, 2023)
• 14% of U.S. small businesses spend $5000 per year on SEO services. (Backlinko, 2019)
• 2% of U.S. small businesses spend over $25,000 per year on SEO services. (Backlinko, 2019)
• Businesses that spent less than $500 per month were 75% more likely to be dissatisfied than those that invested at least $500 per month on SEO. (Backlinko, 2019)
• Businesses that spent over $500 per month on SEO services were 53.3% more likely to be “extremely satisfied” compared to those that spent less than $500 per month. (Backlinko, 2019)
• 81% of people do online research before purchasing (Saleslion, 2019)
• 61% of companies outsource content marketing efforts. (Content Marketing Institute, 2021)
• 65% of small business owners have worked with at least one SEO provider before. (Backlinko, 2019)
• 39% of purchasers are influenced by a relevant search. (Search Engine Journal, 2021)
• 51% of users found a new product or company from search. (WebFX, 2021)

Search Engine Statistics

What is a Search Engine? Google Search, Bing, Yahoo, etc. It’s basically a digital library where you type in what you’re looking for, and it gives you a list of websites where you can find that information.

• Over 2 trillion searches are conducted on Google each year. (SEO.ai, 2024)
• 92.96% of the search market is owned by Google, including Google Search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro, 2018)
• Bing has under 3% of the search market. Yahoo!, Yandex, and Baidu all float around 1%. (Statcounter, 2023)
• Google owns nearly 94% of the market share for mobile search (Forbes, 2024)
• 79% of global searches from a desktop were through Google. (WebFX, 2021)
• When searching on a mobile phone, 96% of users utilize Google. (WebFX, 2021)
• 84% of people use Google 3+ times per day. (WebFX, 2021)
• 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge, 2019)
• The number one organic search result earns 34% clickthrough rate on desktop and a 31% clickthrough rate on mobile. (WebFX, 2021)
• The first five organic results receive over 65% of all clicks. (SEO.ai, 2024)
• Snippets have the highest overall CTR at 42.9% (First Page Sage, 2023)
• Over 90% of search traffic goes to the first search results page. (MailChimp)
• Only 0.63% of Google searchers click on results from the second page. (Backlinko)
• It takes an average of 3-6 months to begin seeing SEO results, and 12 months to see significant results. (Epic Ranks, 2024)
• 95% of new pages do not reach the first page of search results for the first year. (WebFX, 2022)
• Over 12% of search query result pages have featured snippets. (TechCrunch, 2021)
• The average page in the top 10 is 2+ years old. (Ahrefs, 2023)
• Over 65% of search queries contain at least four words. (Status Labs, 2023)
• 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before. (Google, 2022)
• Google has over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm. (Backlinko, 2023)
• The top organic search result receives an average of 19x more clicks than the top paid search result (First Page Sage, 2023)

On-Page SEO Statistics

What is On-Page SEO? Making your website’s content clean and tidy so search engines can understand it better. On-Page SEO includes things like using the right keywords and making sure your site is easy to read.

• The average one-page article on Google contains 1,447 words. (Backlinko, 2023)
• Updating old blog posts with new content and republishing can increase organic traffic by around 106%. (HubSpot, 2021)
• Long-tail keyword searches have a 5% higher click-through rate than generic searches. (Semetrical, 2021)
• Long blog articles receive over 70% more backlinks than short articles. (Backlinko, 2019)
• Search traffic is over 100% higher for blog posts with videos than those without. (OptinMonster, 2024)
• Over 45% of users interact with over three pieces of content before reaching out to a business. (WebFX, 2022)
• 25% of small business websites are missing an H1 tag. (Backlinko, 2024)

Off-Page SEO Statistics

What is Off-Page SEO? Simply, it’s your website’s popularity contest. It’s about getting other websites to link back to yours, which tells search engines your site is trustworthy and relevant. Generally speaking, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it gets from Google.

• Companies that have blogs receive over 90% more backlinks to their site. (Semrush, 2023)
• Over 50% of qualified sites without at least one backlink never reached the first page (Semrush, 2023)
• 66.31% of pages have no backlinks. (Ahrefs, 2023)
• A slightly older study found that long-form content is ideal for backlink acquisition, with an average of 77.2% more links than short articles (Backlinko, 2019)
• The number one ranking pages have over 3.8 times more backlinks than those in the second to tenth positions. (Forbes, 2024)
• The average cost of publishing a paid guest post is $77.80. (Ahrefs, 2022)
• On average, each paid backlink costs $361.44. (Ahrefs, 2022)
• Almost half of those in the SEO industry spend $5,000 to $10,000 a month on link building (uSERP, 2022)
• Video results have 41% higher click-through-rates compared to text-based search results. (Forbes, 2024)
• Posts that include videos generate 157% more search traffic and earn more backlinks. (Search Engine People, 2017)
• 73.6% of domains have reciprocal links, meaning that some of the sites they link to also link to them. (Ahrefs, 2020)
• 43.7% of the top-ranking pages have some reciprocal links. (Ahrefs, 2020)
• 41% of marketers think link building is the most difficult part of SEO. (Authority Hacker, 2024)

Technical SEO Statistics

What is Technical SEO? The behind-the-scenes items that make sure your website works well, like loading fast and being easy for search engines to crawl through your pages.

• 53% of mobile site visitors will leave a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. (Google, 2016)
• For every additional second it takes for a website to load, the conversion rate reduces by 4.42% (HubSpot, 2024)
• Only 33% of websites pass the Core Web Vitals threshold. (Ahrefs, 2022)
• 20% of the world’s largest 502 websites don’t use https, a known ranking signal (Avira, 2018)
• Almost 24% of the top 1 million most popular websites in the world are not mobile friendly. (Canonicalized, 2023)

Local SEO Statistics

What is Local SEO? If you have a local business, local SEO helps people nearby find you when they search online. This includes Google Search, Google Maps, Google Images, and reviews.

• There are over 1.5 billion “near me” searches per month. (Local SEO Jet, 2024)
• 62% of customers will ignore a business without a web presence. (Fit Small Business, 2023)
• 49% of consumers buy from brands with a local presence. (Search Engine Land, 2024)
• 80% is the average conversion rate of local searches (WebFX, 2022)
• 46% of all Google searches are for local businesses or services. (SEO Round Table, 2018)
• 28% of all local searches result in a purchase. (Google)
• 18% of all local searches result to a purchase within one day. (WebFX, 2024)
• 900% increase in “near me” or “close by” search phrases in the last two years. (HubSpot, 2019)
• 200% increase in mobile searches for “open” + “now” + “near me”. (Google, 2017)
• 84% of “near me” searches are on mobile. (Google, 2016)
• 96% of people learn about local businesses online. (WebFX, 2024)
• 82% of smartphone users use a search engine when looking for a local business. (Synup, 2023)
• 87% of consumers use Google to decide on a business. (Publer.io, 2023)
• Businesses with Google Business Profiles are 94% more likely to be viewed as reputable. (WebFX, 2024)
• Those with a complete Business Profile are 70% more likely to have customers visit and 50% more likely to have them consider purchasing (Google, 2023)
• 68% of people who search online prefer to click on a local 3-pack. (Local SEO Jet, 2024)
• 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses (BrightLocal, 2023)
• Positive reviews can increase customer spending by 31%. (Statista, 2024)
• 79% of consumers trust online reviews as much as private recommendations. (Search Engine Land, 2013)
• 88% of consumers are likely to use or visit a business if they see the owner responds to all reviews. (CMS Wire, 2023)
• Over 85% of people look up the location of a business using Google Maps. (Safari Digital, 2023)
• 70% of consumers use Google Maps to look for nearby businesses. (ZipDo, 2023)
• Yelp appears in the top five search results for 92% of Google web queries that include a city and business category. (Fresh Chalk, 2019)
• Google is the most trusted platform for consumers looking for local business reviews across all industries (BrightLocal, 2023)
• Over 50% of all local searches are direction-related. (WebFX, 2024)
• Over 40% of shoppers go to Google when researching a purchase they plan to make in-store or online. (Google, 2022)
• 88% of people who search for a local business on their smartphone either call or visit the business within 24 hours. (HubSpot, 2022)
• Over 88% of people who conduct a local search on their phone visit within a week. (Google, 2016)
• Local mobile searches are growing 50% faster than overall mobile searches. (Synup, 2023)

Mobile SEO Statistics

What is Mobile SEO? Since the majority of people browse the internet on their phones, mobile SEO is making sure your website looks good and works well on mobile devices.

• 54% of the Internet’s traffic comes from mobile devices (Statista, 2023)
• 72.6% of internet users will access the web solely via their smartphones by 2025. (CNBC, 2019)
• More than 50% of people discover new businesses during a mobile search. (Google, 2015)
• 30% of all mobile searches are location-related. (Google, 2016)
• Over 60% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile-friendly website. (BrightLocal, 2015)
• Over 50% of customers avoid business with low-quality mobile websites. (Fit Small Business, 2023)
• The organic click-through rate is approximately 50% less on desktop than compared to mobile. (SparkToro, 2018)
• Over 70% of shoppers use their phones to buy online (Semrush, 2023)
• 18% of local searches on smartphones lead to a purchase within a day vs. 7% of non-local searches. (Google, 2014)
• 56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to shop or research items while they were in-store. (Google, 2019)

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