91+ SEO Statistics For 2023 (Updated Insights)

With over 5 billion internet users worldwide and over 8.5 billion searches on Google alone every day, the importance of having a strong SEO strategy cannot be overlooked. As such, businesses and individuals are constantly seeking ways to improve their SEO strategy to gain more organic traffic, leads, and ultimately revenue. In this blog, we will delve into the world of SEO statistics to provide insights into the current state of SEO, highlight trends, and offer actionable advice to help you improve your SEO campaigns in 2023

We have compiled over 90 up-to-date statistics on search engine optimization from our research that will help you to build your base to climb to the top of the SERPs. Let us take you through the facts and figures without wasting any more time.

SEO Statistics (Top Picks)

1.   Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches in a day as of March 2023.

2. 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

3.  27.1 % of google’s traffic comes from the U.S.

4.  93% of people use online searches to find a local business.

5. organic and local searches make up 69%  of overall digital traffic.

6. 91% of large and multi-businesses have full-time SEO resources.

7. 49% of market experts generate revenue faster if they use videos in their marketing strategy.

8.  85% of internet users associate with video content every month in the U.S.

9. 62.2% of younger millennial consumers want visual search more than any other new technology. 

10. 87% of smartphone users globally use a search engine daily. 

11. With 78.7%, YouTube holds the top position as the most famous U.S. Smartphone App. 

12. In the U.S., 63% of google’s organic traffic is generated via mobile phones. 

13.  36.6% of U.S. people use voice assistants.

14.  57% of marketing experts say content development is the most effective strategy. 

15. 0.16% of the most popular keywords are included in 60.67% of all searches.

General SEO Statistics

16. The terms ‘Where to Buy’ and ’Near Me’ have increased by 200% since 2017.

17. 63% of all shopping starts with an online search, even if it ends in a store.

18. 70% of marketers think that SEO is better than PPC for increasing sales. 

Source: thinkwithgoogle

Search Engine Statistics

Everyone knows the famous search engine Google. It dominates the search market. 

But here are the statistics of some more search engines which you should know.

19. Google processes more than 8.5 billion daily searches as of 2023.

20. Google dominated desktop searches with 75.34% as of 2023. 

Here table shows the percentage of users using the top search engines.

Rank	Search Engine	Percentage of users
1.	Google	91.88%
2.	Microsoft Bing	3.19%
3.	Yandex	1.52%
4.	Yahoo	1.33%
5.	Baidu	0.76%
6.	DuckDuckGo	0.64%
7.	Others	0.68%

21. 24.6% of search engine optimization professionals said that depth and accuracy of content was the most crucial factor in search ranking. 

Here is the list of some more factors which are impacting ranking. 

Factors of search ranking	Share of Respondent
On-page elements	32.8%
Organic User Behavior	30.9%
Depth & Accuracy of content	24.6%
Structured data	21.1%
Content freshness	19%
Mobile friendly	17.9%
Brand awareness	17.8%
Topic relevance	17.5%
Links	17.4%
Site Speed	13.8%
Internal linking	13.17%
Domain authority	12.4%
Site security	11.9%
Expertise, authority, and trust (E-A-T)	9.4%
Social Signals	7.1%

22. 21% of users click on more than one search result.

23. 12.3 % of search queries contain a featured snippet.

24. On google, 99.58% of featured snippets holders rank in positions 1 to 10.

25. 27.1 % of google’s traffic comes from the U.S.

Source: Netmarketshare, Oberlo, Moz, Ahrefs, WordStream, StatCounter, 99firms, Statista

Local SEO Statistics

Local SEO has become necessary for business in the last few years. 46% of all google searches were seeking local information. In this section, you will learn more about local SEO Statistics.

26. 93% of people used online searches to find a local business in 2023. 

27. In overall digital traffic, organic and local searches make up 69%. 

28. 35% of U.S. consumers use the internet to search for local businesses multiple times every week. 

Here are some more insights into the frequency of online searches for local businesses.

Sr. No.	Frequency	Share of Respondent
1	Daily	21%
2	Multiple times per week	35%
3	Weekly	22%
4	Monthly	16%
5	Less than once per month	5%
6	Not at all	1%

29. 35% of marketers agreed that local SEO is essential to the business.

30. 42% of marketers say that google is becoming the homepage for local businesses. 

31. 79% of companies are paying google for online advertisements. 

32. 91% of large and multi-business have full-time SEO resources.

33. With 91%, SERP’s feature strategy is mainly used by marketing professionals.

Here are some Local SEO strategies used by marketing professionals.

Sr. No.	Local SEO Strategies	Share of marketing professionals using it.
1.	SERP’s feature strategy	91%
2.	Local link-building strategy	71%
3.	Conversion and revenue approach	66%

34. With 33%, Google My Business (GMB) is top in overall local search ranking factors.

The table shows the top local search ranking factors:

Sr. No.	Ranking Factors	Percentage
1.	Google My Business (GMB)	33%
2.	Reviews	16%
3.	On-page	15%
4.	Links	15%
5.	Behavioral	8%
6.	Citations	7%
7.	Personalization	6%

Source: Statista, MOZ, Whitespark

Image & Video SEO statistics

There is no doubt that video content marketing is increasing faster. Please go through our insights to learn more about image and video SEO statistics that will help you gain extra organic traffic in 2023.

35. 49% of market experts generate revenue faster if they use videos in their approach. 

36. 51% of market professionals say video marketing is the finest content for ROI.

37. 85% of internet users are associate with video content every month in the U.S.

38. 86% of U.S. consumers say they like watching more video content from the top brands they like. 

39. 20.9% of google SERP comes from the image. 

40. 62.2% of younger millennial consumers want visual search more than any other new technology.

Here are some technologies that millenials want while using search engines:

Sr. No.	Technology	Share of Younger Millennials Respondents	Share of Older Millennials Respondents
1.	Ability to search by image	62.2%	61.7%
2.	Shoppable content/click to purchase	57.0%	58.5%
3.	Augmented reality	36.8%	28.6%
4.	Live chat/messaging( Digital Assistant)	24.8%	30.6%

Source: Wordstream, MOZ

Mobile SEO Statistics

If you thought mobile-friendly websites were unnecessary, hold on for a minute, and review our Mobile SEO statistics. 

41.   Mobile devices accounted for 58.99% of website traffic worldwide in 2022.  It crossed its 50% mark in 2017.
42. In Q1 2015, mobile devices accounted for 31.16% of website traffic worldwide. 
43. 87% of smartphone users use a search engine daily. 

44. 60% of all google searches come from mobile devices.

45. If your website takes 1 to 3 seconds to load, 32 % of mobile users will leave it.

The table shows the amount of time it takes to load your website and the number of mobile users leaving it.

Sr. No.	Seconds	Leave rate increases by
1.	1s to 3s	32%
2.	1s to 5s	90%
3.	1s to 6s	106%
4.	1s to 10s	123%

46. With 78.7%, YouTube holds the top position as the most famous U.S. Smartphone App.

Here is the table showing the most famous smartphone Apps in the U.S.

Rank	Smartphone App	Percentage of users
1.	YouTube	78.7%
2.	Facebook	72.4%
3.	Google	68.9%
4.	Google Maps	63.6%
5.	Facebook Messanger	61.5%
6.	Gmail	57.0%
7.	Snapchat	53.4%
8.	Google Play	52.3%
9.	Amazon	46.8%
10.	Instagram	46.4%
11.	Google Drive	38.2%
12.	Pandora	36.3%
13.	Google Photos	35.3%
14.	Apple News	29.0%
15.	Spotify	28.8%

47. 85.8% of mobile search results gain more impressions than results on Desktop.

48. 92% of internet users access the internet through their mobile phones. 

49. More than half (57%) of users would not recommend a business with imperfectly designed mobile websites. 

50. 30% of mobile searches come right before visiting the store.

51. 66% of E-commerce browsing time comes from mobile, but less than 30% of sales come from mobile.

52. In the U.S., 63% of google’s organic traffic is generated by mobile. 

53. In a worldwide search engine market share, google tops on mobile devices with 95.31%.

Here are some more insights into mobile devices. 

Rank	Search Engine	Share on Mobile
1	Google	95.31%
2	Yandex	1.54%
3	Baidu	0.83%
4	Yahoo	0.73%
5	Bing	0.53%
6	DuckDuckGo	0.5%
7	Others	0.56%

54. 45.2 million keywords came from mobile in the U.S. as of January 2023.

Source: Statista, Go-Globe, Comscore Mobile Metrix, SoarkToro, demandsage, SEMrush.

Voice SEO Statistics

55. 36.6% of U.S. people use voice assistants. 

56. 72% of people searches using their personal voice assistants. (Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant)

How are people engaging with voice assistants?

Sr. No.	Engaging with voice assistants	Percentage
1.	Voice searches through a personal digital assistant. (Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant)	72%
2.	Voice search through smart home speakers	35%
3.	Voice commands to a TV or small home device that is not a smart home speaker	36%
4.	Voice commands to a vehicle	31%
5.	Voice skills or actions through a smart home speaker.	52%

57. Google Assistant(36%) and Apple’s Siri(36%) are the most popular voice assistant. Both hold 36% of the total market share.

Here are some more insights regarding this.

Sr. No.	Voice Assistant	Percentage
1.	Apple’s Siri	36%
2.	Google Assistant	36%
3.	Amazon Alexa	25%
4.	Microsoft Cortana	19%
5.	Others	1%

58. 34% of people purchase food using voice assistants as of 2023.

Here are some more items people purchased with voice assistants.

Sr. No.	Items	Have purchased by using voice assistants	Would consider purchasing in the future
1.	Food	34%	35%
2.	Groceries	32%	27%
3.	A book	24%	23%
4.	Homecare items, electronics	22%	26%
5.	Transportation (e.g., Uber)	21%	29%
6.	Reservation (e.g., Dinner Plans)	16%	32%
7.	Clothing	3%	22%
8.	Travel reservations		26%

59. 93.7% of answers can give by voice assistants to all search queries. 

60. 80% of answers come from the top 3 results on Google Assistant.

61. 70% of answers come from SERP features in voice search. 

Source: Microsoft & Bing, PWC, SEMrush

Content Marketing SEO Statistics

62. 57% of marketing experts say content development is the most effective strategy. 

63. 47% of users interact with 3 to 5 pages of content before contacting the business. 

64. The first search result contains almost an average 1890 word count for a page.

65. Updating existing content with fresh images and written content can increase organic traffic by 111.3%. 

66. 72% of marketing experts say that relevancy is essential to a successful SEO campaign.

67. More than 434% of the indexation rate improved due to content creation.

68. Less than 40% of marketers publish content once a week.

69. In 2022, 85% of marketers used content marketing.

Source: Demand Gen Report, HubSpot

SaaS SEO Statistics

70. SaaS companies with content have almost 30% higher growth than those not using content marketing.

71. 15% of the world’s top SaaS brands don’t have a blog.

72. 53.6% of average traffic received by SaaS companies is from direct searches.

Here is the source from that SaaS companies receive average traffic. 

Sr. No.	Source	Percentage
1.	Direct search	53.6%
2.	Organic Search	26.4%
3.	Referrals	10.7%
4.	Email	4.8%
5.	Social Media	2.2%
6.	Paid Search	1.7%
7.	Display Ads	0.6%

73. YouTube is the top contributor, with 98% of social media traffic received by SaaS companies. 

Here is the list of some top social traffic channels in the U.S.

Sr. No.	Top Social Traffic Channels	% of Co.’s where the channel is top 5 social traffic contributor	Average of Social traffic Contributed
1.	YouTube	98%	33%
2.	Facebook	96%	28%
3.	LinkedIn	78%	19%
4.	Twitter	72%	9%
5.	WhatsApp Webapp	52%	9%
6.	Reddit	42%	7%
7.	Stack Overflow	18%	9%
8.	Instagram	8%	6%
9.	Pinterest	6%	4%
10.	Vkontakte	4%	3%
11.	Quora	2%	10%

Source: Mike sonders, UserGuiding, 

Backlinks Statistics 

74. 77.2% of backlinks are received by longer content.

75. 66% of the web pages have zero backlinks.

76. 43.7% of top-ranking pages in google have reciprocal links. 

77. 97% more backlinks are received by companies who are engaged in blogging.

78. Top ranking page in search results, get 5% to 14.5% more do follow backlinks from new websites every month.

79. SEMrush has 43 trillion backlinks in its database as of January 2023. 

80. It was found in the Aira survey that Ahrefs is the best link-building tool by 82% of respondents.

Here is the list of the best link-building tools.

Sr. No.	Tool	Share of respondents
1.	Ahrefs	82%
2.	Google Sheets	60%
3.	Semrush	56%
4.	HARO	42%
5.	Screaming Frog	36%
6.	Moz	31%

Source: Backlinko, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Aira

Keywords Statistics

81. Half of the search queries contain four or more words.

82. 0.16% of the most popular keywords are included in 60.67% of all searches.

83. 94.75% of keywords get ten monthly searches. 

Here is the search volume distribution of 4 billion keywords. (US database)

Sr. No.	Share of Keywords	Search Volume of keywords	Number of Keywords
1.	94.74%	0-10	3,814,523,865
2.	5.14%	11-1,000	206,978,647
3.	0.10%	1,001-100,000	4,066,678
4.	0.0008%	>100,001	31,339

84. 15% of all google searches have not been searched before.

85. Almost 8% of search queries are in the form of a question.

86. ‘Facebook’ is the top searched word on google with a 151,500,000 search volume.

Here is the list of the top 20 searched keywords on google. 

Sr. No.	Searched Keyword	Search Volume of Keyword
1.	Facebook	151,500,000
2.	YouTube	142,200,000
3.	Amazon	87,440,000
4.	Gmail	71,240,000
5.	Google	63,840,000
6.	Weather	43,400,000
7.	EBay	41,010,000
8.	Yahoo	39,170,000
9.	Walmart	31,970,000
10.	Yahoo Mail	31,880,000
11.	Google Translate	31,640,000
12.	Google Maps	30,560,000
13.	Craigslist	27,140,000
14.	Netflix	26,860,000
15.	Google docs	25,100,000
16.	Translate	23,520,000
17.	Home Depot	22,040,000
18.	News	19,110,000
19.	Fox News	19,060,000
20.	Calculator	17,790,000

87. According to SEMrush, the total number of keywords in a Keywords Magic Tool exceeds 23.7 billion keywords as of January 2023. 

88. Out of these 23.7 billion keywords, 3.2 billion were from the U.S. database as of January 2023.
89. Over 50% of Google search queries contain four or more words.
90. 92% of keywords have a search volume of fewer than 10s searches per month

Source: Ahrefs, Google, Moz, SEMrush

Statistics On Challenges To SEO.

91. 37.9% of search engine optimization professionals state that budget cut is the main challenge for search engine optimization. 

Here is a list of some more challenges that search engine optimization professionals face.

Sr. No.	Challenges Faced by Search Engine Optimization professionals	Share of Respondents
1.	Budget cuts	37.6%
2.	Strategy Issue	34.8%
3.	Lack of resources	32.9%
4.	Pandemic-related issues	27.9%
5.	Management/stakeholders	27.3%
6.	Alignment with other departments	27%
7.	Scaling processes	25.8%
8.	Client Relationship	14.1%
9.	Legal Approval	10.6%
10.	Not experienced	5.2%
11.	Others	1.76%

Source: Statista

Threats to SEO 

91. 38.7% of search engine optimization professionals state that google zero click pages is one of the biggest threats to SEO. 

Here is a list of leading threats to search engine optimization. 

Sr. No.	Threats to search engine optimization	Share of Respondents
1.	Google zero-click pages	38.7%
2.	Google Updates	35.1%
3.	Machine Learning	28.4%
4.	Third-party cookie changes	22.9%
5.	Messaging Platforms	21.3%
6.	Offline brand awareness	17.8%
7.	Government Regulations	16.7%
8.	GPT-3	16.1%
9.	Apps	14.1%
10.	Site Security	13.7%
11.	Email Marketing	12.7%
12.	Do not think there is any	4.9%

Source: Statista

Related Read:

• Best Blogging Tools
• Best Surfer SEO Alternatives

Conclusion: SEO Statistics (2023)

In digital marketing, search engine optimization is important for your business’s growth. As a business owner, you must appear your website in relevant searches.

SEO Statistics will help you build your next search engine optimization strategy. As per our research, creating good long content for your blog is more appropriate than short content. Remember that content is king in SEO. 

Statistics show that mobile searches are constantly increasing, that is why websites must be mobile-friendly. 

The biggest threat to the SEO is google zero click pages. Before building your strategy for SEO, you must be aware of the threats to SEO.

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