Unlock the power of search with 60 game-changing SEO statistics for 2023! Stay ahead of the competition and supercharge your organic campaigns with the latest search trends. Discover the keys to success and dominate the SERPs like never before
2023 is here, and the battle for Google’s top page ranking continues.
You can better prepare for this battle if you know what trends will sweep the year. And that’s the essence of this post.
We’ve curated 60 key statistics that define what route SEO will take in 2023. It’s information you want to have in your arsenal.
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Check out the stats and trends below:
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2023 Top Search Trends to Inform Your SEO campaigns
Leverage insights from these 2023 search trends to plan your SEO strategies.
Key SEO Stat #1: Google maintains over 85% of the desktop search engine market share
Currently, Google commands more than 85% of the desktop search engine market share. For most of 2022, Google’s share was less than that, hovering around 83 to 84%.
With this new trend, Google SEO remains the path for businesses that target desktop users.
Pro Tip: Identify the top keywords your prospects use and optimize your website to rank for them. Ensure your website is both desktop and mobile friendly.
Key SEO Stat #2: Companies that blog generate 97% more inbound links
If you own a business website and you don’t run a blog, you’re missing out. In particular, you’re missing out on 97% more inbound links.
Backlinks continue to be a key factor for SERP rankings. And it’s not going to change in 2023.
Pro Tip: Read this article to learn how to write content that generates backlinks.
Key SEO Stat #3: Mobile search drives about 58.03% of searches
The advice is always to focus on mobile optimization for any website. The trend endures as stats show mobile search gets more than 58% of searches, unlike desktop searches get around 38%.
Pro Tip: Make your website mobile-friendly and fast loading to optimize for mobile.
Key SEO Stat #4: Featured snippets take 40% of voice search traffic
Not many business websites focus on landing featured snippets. Much less focus on voice search optimization. But stats show featured snippets drive about 40% of voice search traffic. This isn’t a trend to overlook.
Pro Tip: use the appropriate JSON schema structured data markup to improve your chances of landing featured snippets. TechnicalSEO tool is one of our favorite tools for generating schema codes.
Key SEO Stat #5: Local search drives over 20% of traffic
For search location-based businesses, it pays to optimize your content for local search — Local SEO. When you do that, you get more than 20% more traffic. Local SEO involves using keywords and phrases that relate to a particular demographic.
Pro Tip: List on Google Business profile and other relevant local business directories to drive nearby searches to your website. Get an updated list of all relevant business directories from this resource.
Key SEO Stat #6: YouTube gets 75% relative search volume
If you’re unaware, “YouTube” is the second most searched word on Google — “Google” is the first. On top of that, the keyword gets 75% relative search volume. You can leverage this trend by publishing more video content on YouTube.
Pro Tip: Use Lumen5 online video maker to create quick, engaging videos.
Key SEO Stat #7: SEO delivers between 5x and 12x ROI
As a business, ROI is always important. And if you’re wondering whether investing in SEO is worth it, the answer is Yes! It is. You get between five to 12x Return On Investment.
Pro Tip: Follow the SEO tips in this resource to rank your website on Google first page. First, download this SEO audit checklist to lay a solid foundation for top search ranking.
Key SEO Stat #8: Over 90% of web pages have no backlinks
Despite their importance, many web pages have no backlinks. Your web pages can gain more traction than 90% of others in 2023 if they feature just one backlink. Make sure you leverage it.
Pro Tip: Building backlinks is not a walk in the park. However, you can pull it off with the tips and strategies in this article.
Key SEO Stat #9: SEO drives 20x more traffic than PPC on desktop and mobile
Many businesses believe running PPC campaigns and ads would bring more traffic. But that’s wrong. PPC does bring traffic, but 20x less than SEO. So, it’s worth spending money on proper SEO rather than PPC campaigns.
Pro Tip: Surfer SEO can help you quickly rank on Google. Use this resource to learn how.
Key SEO Stat #10: It could take 100 days to rank top 2 on Google
When you publish a new web page, do you think quickly ranking top on Google is impossible? Well, not so much. Stats show you can rank top 2 on Google in 100 days. You must, of course, follow the right SEO practices.
Pro Tip: Quality backlinks can greatly improve your lots. Source quality inbound links from human-written guest posts from Adsy.
Key SEO Stat #11: Google has over 96% of the mobile search engine market
Google is the giant of the search engine market; we all know that. But do you know the search engine floors others with 96% of the mobile search engine market? When optimizing for mobile users, 100% focus should be on Google.
Pro Tips: Don’t leave anything on the table. Also, optimize for Bing to exceed your reach and Baidu if you are targeting the Chinese market.
Key SEO Stat #12: Pages that rank 1st on SERPS get 10x more clicks compared to the 10th
Naturally, everyone wants to rank high on Google. In 2023, that should be your target too. If you land the first position, you get 10x more traffic than the 10th page.
Pro Tip: Use Surfer SEO to rank #1 on Google. Learn how here.
Key SEO Stat #13: Keywords that are 10-15 words long get 1.76x more clicks
Long-tail keywords, long-tail keywords, long-tail keywords. They always give the content an advantage, and that’s not going to change in 2023.
Try optimizing your content with keywords 10-15 words long. You’ll get 1.76x more clicks.
Pro Tip: Use Marketing Miner to find long-tail keywords. You can begin with the keyword profiler below.
Key SEO Stat #14: Pages with 2,500 to 3,000 words get the most traffic
Quality content will help draw traffic. But you have a higher chance of drawing traffic if your content is long as well. In 2023, more websites will publish long-form content, as content with 2,500 to 3,000 words draws the highest traffic.
Pro Tip: Long-form content is not enough. Use Surfer SEO to optimize it to rank on Google and also build quality backlinks to the page.
Key SEO Stat #15: CTR for question and non-question tags is around 15.5%
When creating content, debate sometimes arises on whether to use question or non-question tags. But statistics show it doesn’t matter. Both question and non-question tags have about the same CTR: 15.5%.
Pro Tip: Mix the two to maximize the impact and be on the safe side.
Key SEO Stat #16: Google considers around 200 factors to rank content
Google regularly updates its ranking factors, with the most recent being Experience. All in all, the search engine utilizes up to 200 ranking factors. This number could well increase in 2023.
Pro Tips: Good SEO audit tool can analyze your website against some of these factors. We listed our top options in this comprehensive resource.
Key SEO Stat #17: SEO leads to a 14.6% average conversion rate
We’ve talked about how SEO brings about a higher CTR than PPC. In the same vein, SEO leads to a 14.6% conversion rate on average. So, if you need more reasons to focus on SEO in 2023, you have it.
Pro Tip: you can improve your close rate further with long-tail keywords.
Key SEO Stat #18: About 21% of Google users access more than one search result
You can expect some good news even if your page is not number one or two, or three on Google. About 21% of users will click on more than one result. Hence, if your page is on the first page, it has a chance of getting clicked with every search.
Pro Tip: Having rich snippets on your search result can attract quality clicks and improve your CTR. Implement relevant schema markup to enable Google to display rich results in your search result.
Key SEO Stat #19: The average session duration for traffic coming from Google organic search is 1 minute and 53 seconds
Your website cannot afford to be slow in 2023. If it is, you’ll lose many visitors. Why? Searchers on Google spend less than two minutes on average per session. They won’t hesitate to exit your site if loading takes time.
Pro Tips: Optimize your page load speed. You can consider using CDN to boost your website speed.
Key SEO Stat #20: 68% of all online experiences kick off on search engines
Not all businesses have websites on search engines. And any business in that category is at a disadvantage, as 68% of all online experiences start on search engines. With internet proliferation, the number will increase before 2024.
Pro Tip: Use Marketing Miner to learn what your customers are doing and reverse-engineer their strategies. Use this resource to pull it off.
Key SEO Stat #21: 50% of all search keywords contain no less than four words
When optimizing your content with keywords, ensure your keywords are at least four-word long. That’s the trend for about half of all keywords on the web, and it’s efficient.
Pro Tip: Use long-tail keywords in your search optimization to reach more targeted searchers.
Key SEO Stat #22: More than 25% of users click the first link on Google search result
Pages that rank number one on Google attract over 25% of user clicks. That’s impressive, no doubt. But it leaves about 75% to other top-ranking pages. So, again, it’s worth it to rank high on Google, even if not number one.
Pro Tips: Use Surfer SEO to optimize your content. It can help you rank at #1.
Key SEO Stat #23: Google second page results have a CTR lower than 1% for each page
A joke says if you want to hide a dead body, put it on the second page of Google. In truth, that’s not where you want your pages to rank. The CTR is less than 1% and could depreciate further in 2023.
Pro Tip: Pay attention to pro tip number 22.
Key SEO Stat #24: 12.54% of product searches begin on Amazon, not Google
Here’s a stat to note if you’re in the eCommerce industry. More customers will search for products online in 2023. While the go-to platform before was Google, that has changed. Amazon is now the leading platform for product searches.
Key SEO Stat #25: 50% of visitors will click a result if the brand appears multiple times in SERPs
In 2023, be consistent and versatile with your content and SEO efforts. You’ll get clicks from 50% of visitors if your website constantly appears on search engine result pages.
Key SEO Stat #26: About 25% of companies consider mobile optimization a major technical SEO investment
Technical SEO is just as important as any other SEO aspect. And a simple way to implement it is by optimizing your website for mobile. It worked for 25% of companies and will likely work for you in 2023.
Key SEO Stat #27: Fast-loading sites have pages that rank far higher than slow-loading pages
It’s one thing for your site to load fast and another for a particular webpage to load fast. Both are important, but the former has more advantages. If your site generally loads faster, your pages will rank significantly higher on SERPs.
Key SEO Stat #28: Image and text compression contribute to better bounce rates and page ranking on Google
This stat comes directly from Google. Your pages will rank higher and get better bounce rates when you compress images and text. This is primarily because compression means less data to load, which means faster loading time. It’s a trend to stick by.
Pro Tip: Image SEO is an important aspect of search engine optimization. Have a solid image optimization strategy.
Key SEO Stat #29: Top 5 results on Google get 67.6% of all clicks
If you’re wondering how high is best to rank on Google in 2023, here’s your answer: top five. It gets you 67% of all clicks. As they say, shoot for the moon (number one position). Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars (top five).
Key SEO Stat #30: Refreshing old posts with new information can increase traffic by up to 146%
Old posts can become new again when you update them with the latest information and visuals. And doing so could drive as much as 146% more traffic. This is a long-existing trend and one that’ll endure in 2023 and beyond.
Pro Tip: Audit your published articles with Surfer SEO to find room for improvement. Also, consider upgrading the content with updated information.
Key SEO Stat #31: Posts ranking number #1 on Google has 1400-1500 words on average
Pages with 2,500 to 3,000 words get the most traffic, as stat #14 showed. However, landing the number one position on SERPs doesn’t mandate such a high word count. You could achieve that with 1,400 to 1,5000 words.
Pro Tip: Focus on creating quality posts, not just long ones. Surfer SEO will help.
Key SEO Stat #32: Up to 60% on page one of Google are at least 3 years old
More than half of the pages on Google’s first page are up to three years old. This again stresses Google’s prioritization of quality posts over anything else.
Pro Tip: Create evergreen posts that’ll stay valid for many years.
Key SEO Stat #33: Semrush and Ahrefs are the most popular SEO tools worldwide
Choosing an SEO tool to support your efforts can be difficult. But if you want to go with the crowd, Semrush and Ahrefs rank at the top. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean they are the best.
Pro Tip: Consider SEO tools with features akin to Semrush and Ahrefs.
Key SEO Stat #34: Images appear in 34% of search results
Nowadays, you can’t skip images in your content. By including photos, your web pages get at least a 34% higher chance of appearing on SERPs.
Pro Tip: Include high-quality and copyright-free images in your posts. You can consider infographics.
Key SEO Stat #35: Google Lens is used over 8 billion times per month
Google Lens makes it easy for people to perform image searches. Currently, people use it more than eight billion times every month. This shows image search is gaining traction.
Pro Tip: Optimize your images for Google Lens by including Alt Tags and other Photo Metadata.
Key SEO Stat #36: 25% of small business websites lack the H1 tag
The H1 tag is super important as it tells search engines what your page is about. Unfortunately, this heading tag is absent in 25% of small business web pages.
Pro Tip: if you’re a startup, add H1 tags to your pages to get ahead of 25% of the competition.
Key SEO Stat #37: Yelp pages appear in the top 5 results for 92% of search queries in city and business categories
Does your business have a Yelp page? If it doesn’t, you’re missing out. Yelp appears in the top five results for over 90% of business-related search queries.
Pro Tip: Create a Yelp page if you don’t have one. If you do, edit it to include all the necessary details.
Key SEO Stat #38: US web visitors search Google 6x more than other countries
Google is extremely popular in the US. Stats show residents in the country use the search engine six times more than any other country in the world.
Pro Tip: if your target audience is in the United States, focus more on Google and less on other search engines.
Key SEO Stat #39: Over 94% of Google’s traffic is direct
Google doesn’t rely on any third party to get traffic. Up to 94% of visitors directly enter the website address into browsers.
Pro Tip: when optimizing content for Google, your focus should be organic traffic.
Key SEO Stat #40: “Google” is the most searched word on Bing worldwide
Bing is the second most popular search engine. However, most website visitors use it as a middleman to get to Google.
Pro Tip: Optimizing for Bing is good, but more effort should be on Google.
Key SEO Stat #41: Bing records more than 1 billion users per month
More than 12% of the world’s population search Bing every month. If you’re a website owner, don’t sleep on the search engine.
Pro Tip: submit your pages to Bing Webmaster Tools. No matter how small, you’ll still get traffic from the search engine.
Key SEO Stat #42: More than half of Bing searches use the platform for product research
Bing stands out as a search engine for product research. Such research consists of over 50% of activities on the platform.
Pro Tip: consider paying more for Bing if you’re an eCommerce.
Key SEO Stat #43: “Facebook” is the most searched word on Bing in the United States
Most web users in the US don’t use Bing to get to Google. Instead, they use the second most popular search engine to reach the most popular social media platform — Facebook.
Key SEO Stat #44: Bing gets 35.25% traffic from China
Most Bing visitors are from China. The Asian country has over 35% of the search engine’s traffic. In second place is the United States, with about 26%.
Pro Tip: You must use Bing Webmasters tools if your target audience is in China.
Key SEO Stat #45: About 50% of the US population uses voice search
More and more people in the US choose speaking over typing when searching the web. Up to 50% of the people in the country now use voice search.
Pro Tip: use conversational language and add more questions to optimize your content for voice search.
Key SEO Stat #46: 27% of the world’s internet population use voice search on their mobile devices
Voice search appears to be more pervasive among mobile web searches. Statistics show at least 1.3 billion people access voice search using their mobile phones.
Pro Tip: if you aim to rank for voice searches, make your content mobile friendly.
Key SEO Stat #47: Featured snippets get 40.7% of all voice search replies
If you create posts that appear as featured snippets on Google, your potential voice search visibility is over 50%. This is logical, considering voice search replies read out direct answers.
Pro Tip: Add more FAQ structured data with Rank Math to your pages to land more featured snippets.
Key SEO Stat #48: People between 25 to 49 years use voice search the most
The age market for voice searches is between 25 to 49 years. Suppose this age range is your target audience. In that case, voice search optimization should be a part of your SEO strategy.
Key SEO Stat #49: 90% of people agree voice search is easier than typing text
The number of voice searchers is predicted to increase over time. Just 10% short of 100 people agree it’s more convenient to ask a question vocally than typing.
Pro Tip: if you’re not taking voice searches seriously, start now.
Key SEO Stat #50: Content with videos get more backlinks with up to 157% boost in traffic
The benefits of adding visuals to your content are endless. Stats show it’s one of the best ways to earn backlinks. Also, you could see up to 157% traffic increase over time.
Pro Tip: Consider Pro Tip for SEO Stat #6.
Key SEO Stat #51: Videos show up in 62% of Google’s global search results
Pages with videos on Google have a 62% higher probability of appearing on SERPs than those that don’t. This stat further stresses the importance of visual content.
Key SEO Stat #52: Average CTR for video results is 41% more than for text-based results
Adding video content to your web pages will improve your CTR. If you rely on text alone, data shows you’ll lose out on a potential 41% CTR boost.
Pro Tip: Run A/B tests on your videos to identify those with the most potential to boost CTR.
Key SEO Stat #53: About 8% of web searches are phrased as questions
Nowadays, some content creators tend to add many questions to their posts. However, only about 8% of searches are phrased as questions, which is a significantly low number.
Pro Tip: Don’t overfill your content with FAQs. A dedicated section for it is more than enough.
Key SEO Stat #54: Average bounce rate for websites at the top of Google is 49%
Interestingly, top-ranking pages on Google have a high bounce rate of over 50%. This suggests most of these pages don’t satisfy visitors.
Pro Tip: Use HotJar to understand your web visitors and why they leave. Then, leverage the info to reduce your site’s bounce rate.
Key SEO Stat #55: Count for “near me” searches has increased by 500% recently
Many web searches are now seeking products and services close to their location. These “near me” searches on search engines are over 500% higher than a few years ago.
Pro Tip: Use Rank Math to add local business schema markup to your company web pages.
Key SEO Stat #56: Top organic listing on mobile get 27.7% of clicks
Mobile search receives the most traffic. This is particularly true for number-one ranking pages, which receive over 27% of clicks. In contrast, top-ranking pages on desktop SERPs get just about 19%.
Pro Tip: Use Pro Tip for SEO Stat #3.
Key SEO Stat #57: 57% of users will not recommend a brand with a poor mobile website
If your website loads poorly on mobile, know that more than half of visitors will not recommend your business. Meanwhile, a mobile responsive website can help you increase revenue.
Pro Tip: Use HotJar to collect visitors’ feedback and know how they rate your site’s mobile performance.
Key SEO Stat #58: 43.7% of Google’s high-ranking pages have reciprocal links
Reciprocal links are one SEO aspect not talked about enough. These are simply link exchanges between two sites. And over 43% of top-ranking pages on Google have them.
Pro Tip: Use Adsy to find possible guest posting services for link exchange.
Key SEO Stat #59: Top-ranking pages on SERP receives 5% to 15% more do-follow backlinks from new domains every month
Pages that top Google and search engines get the most visibility. Therefore, many new domains link to them every month. In particular, such top pages expand their backlink profile by 5 to 15%.
Key SEO Stat #60: Average cost of a backlink from a low DA site is $150
Doing SEO is expensive, and stats back it up. You’ll pay about $150 for a backlink from a low DA website. For higher DA ones, the cost gets up to $1,000.
Pro Tip: Use Adsy to access more affordable backlinking opportunities.
Key SEO Trends For 2023: Final Thought
Your chances of bettering your SEO efforts in 2023 are higher when you follow the SEO trends explained above. You can trust them, of course. The statistics back them up.
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