SEO is one of the most significant parts of digital marketing, and with the explosive growth of the digital marketing market, the SEO market is also growing rapidly. The SEO market is predicted to reach $170 billion in 2028 by growing at a CAGR of 17.6% between 2024 and 2028.
Besides, SEO drives over 1000% more traffic than organic social media, and nearly half of the brands worldwide have adopted SEO to upscale their businesses.
Let’s explore further details about the SEO industry, market size, and the latest facts and figures about all the sectors of SEO.
Top SEO Statistics For 2024
- The search engine optimization market worldwide is estimated to reach $88.91 billion in 2024.
- Just 0.07% of the pages on Google receive over 1001 visits.
- The top three organic search results receive around two-thirds of all clicks on the search engine.
- 94% of the link builders stated that the quality of backlinks is more crucial than the number of backlinks.
- Local businesses and services account for 46% of the Google searches.
- Businesses that invest in SEO witness an ROI of 200%.
- Organic searches that rank on Google receive 19 times more clicks than paid searches.
- 57% of the local searches are made with a mobile or a tablet.
SEO Market Size
- The search engine optimization market is estimated to reach $88.91 billion in 2024.
Comparatively, the SEO services market was recorded to be valued at $75.13 billion in 2023 and is estimated to grow by a CAGR of 18.3% and reach $88.91 billion in 2024.
Further, after growing at a CAGR of 17.6%, the Search engine optimization market is estimated to reach $170 billion in 2028.
The rapid growth in the SEO services market between 2024 and 2028 is estimated to be driven by the rise in digital advertising revenue, affordable internet, an increase in the digital population, and a rapid increase in social media usage, etc.
This growth in the SEO services market is due to the increased emphasis on visual content, mobile optimization, page experience, voice optimization, utilization of featured snippets, and keyword research.
Source: Research And Markets
SEO Industry Statistics
- 78.2% of the SEOs charge monthly retainers for their services.
- On average, the majority of SEOs charge $75-$100.
- 54.5% of the SEOs only offer one pricing model, which is hourly, retainer, or per-project.
- Less than 1 in 10 SEOs charge $150/hour.
- The most popular per-project rate in the United States is $2,501 to $5,000.
- The median annual salary for SEOs is $49,211.
- On average, self-employed SEOs earn $60,232. At the same time, the in-house SEO earns a median annual salary of $56,789. On the other hand, agency SEOs earn an average salary of $44,169.
- On average, the SEO directors have an experience of 10.4 years, and the SEO heads have an experience of 10.6 years.
Ranking Statistics
- 96.55% of the Google pages receive zero traffic from Google. Meanwhile, just 0.07% of the Google pages receive over 1001 visits.
The following table displays the number of visits received by pages listed on Google.
| Number of Visits | Percentage of Pages on Google |
|---|---|
| 0 | 96.55% |
| 1 to 10 | 1.94% |
| 11 to 100 | 1.08% |
| 101 to 1000 | 0.36% |
| Over 1001 | 0.07% |
- Nearly half of the time, the top-ranking pages on Google receive the most traffic.
- Just 5.7% of the pages are able to rank within the top 10 search results within a year of publication.
- On average, the pages ranked in Google’s top 10 search results are over 2 years. At the same time, the pages that rank #1 on Google are around 3 years old.
- On average, it requires 3.1 months to witness the impact of a link on a search ranking.
- 50% to 65% of all number-one spots on Google are dominated by feature snippets.
- Over 90% of the searches worldwide are done on Google.
- Google’s search engine considers over 200 factors when determining the search engine rankings.
- Google has made 36 major algorithm updates in the past five years.
Source: Ahref, Ahref, Ahref, Authority Hacker, Forbes,
Backlink Statistics
- 73.6% of the top-ranking pages have reciprocal links. That means the websites they link to also link them back.
- 66.5% of the backlinks on the sites in the last nine years are dead.
- On average, 10.6% of all backlinks in the top 110,000 sites are nofollow.
- 74.3% of the link builders pay for the backlinks.
- On average, the cost of a paid link is $83.
- Link builders who use social media can build 22% more links than those who don’t.
- Pages that have at least one anchor text variation from the internal links receive high Google traffic.
- Usually, SEOs require 1 to 2 hours to build a single link.
- Nearly 11% of all the backlinks that are directed to the top 110,000 sites are no-follow links.
- Brands and businesses that are involved in blogging are 97% more likely to get backlinks compared to companies that aren’t.
Source: Ahref, Ahref, Authority Hacker, Zyppy.
Keyword Statistics
- 94.74% of the keywords get around ten monthly searches or fewer.
- On average, 100,000 monthly searches are received by just 0.0008% of the keywords.
- Nearly 19 in 20 keywords receive 10 monthly searches or less.
- Hideent terms receive over 46% of the clicks on Google search console.
- On average, the keywords that are around 10 to 15 words long receive 1.76 times more clicks than the single-word terms.
- On average, the keywords usually get 10 monthly or fewer searches.
- The posts that include target keywords and keyword variations have 45% higher click-through rates compared to other posts.
- Only 1 in 3 keywords with more than 10K monthly searches have over 3 words.
Source: Backlinko, Ahref, Ahref, Semrush,Statista, Moz.
Technical SEO Statistics
- Just one-third of the websites manage to cross the Core Web Vitals threshold.
- Over two-thirds of the domains that use Hreflang face issues.
- 11.9% of the pages at least have one Core Web Vital metric. Meanwhile, 93% of the pages had all the metrics.
- 88% of the sites were found to have HTTP to HTTPS redirect issues.
- Over 7 in 10 sites have a high page loading time.
- Around two-thirds of the sites have a page that only has one incoming internal link.
- Nearly 6 in 10 sites have missing H1 tags.
- 51.3% of the sites on the internet were found to have multiple H1 Tags.
- The Alt attribute is missing in over 8 in 10 websites.
Source: Ahref.
Local SEO Statistics
- 63.6% of consumers are likely to check reviews on Google before visiting a store or a business location.
- 58% of the businesses do not optimize their pages for local search.
- 7 in 10 consumers are more likely to visit, while 5 in 10 consumers are more likely to purchase from a business that has a complete Business profile.
- 36% of the SEOs have a view that on-page SEO is the most important ranking factor for local organic results.
- On average, 76% of the consumers who search for something nearby on their smartphones are more likely to visit a business within a day.
- Nearly 3 in 10 searches conducted for something nearby results in purchase.
- If a business has a complete Business profile on Google Search and Maps, consumers are 2.7% more likely to visit a business.
- In 2022, 87% of the consumers reached local businesses with the help of Google search.
- Around 60% of consumers contact businesses directly from local search results.
Source: Ahref, WebFX, LinkedIn, Fit Small Business, Synup, Daily blogging, Ahref, Finance Online, Think with Google, Forbes.
Mobile SEO Statistics
- 57% of the local searches are made using a mobile phone or a tablet.
- 51% of the mobile users stated that they were able to discover a new product when searching for a product on their smartphones.
- 53% of mobile users search for directions to a local shop, while 54% of the consumers search for business hours.
- 18% of the local searches on a smartphone result in a purchase within a day compared to 7% of the non-local searches.
- 56% of the in-store shoppers have used their mobile to research for items while they were in-store.
- Around 60% of the mobile searches are location-related.
- The organic click-through rate was recorded on the mobile devices.
Source: Backlinko, Think with Google, Statista, Webjuice, Google, Spark Toro, SEO Clarity.
eCommerce SEO Statistics
- 43% of the traffic from e-commerce sites is from Google’s organic search.
- Over 8 in 10 online shoppers research in detail online before making a purchase.
- 23.6% of ecommerce orders are made through organic traffic.
- 79% of the consumers headed to the search bar after entering an online retailer’s shop.
- Compared to the paid traffic, ecommerce SEO had an ROI of 1600% compared to that of the paid traffic.
Source: Wolfgang Digital, Entrepreneur, FOX2, Growth Minded Marketing, Hubspot, Nosto, Reboot Online SEO.
Affiliate SEO Statistics
- On average, the affiliate marketers earn $8,038 per month.
- Affiliate marketers with over 3 years of experience earn 9.45 times more than beginners.
- Just 4% of the websites ranking for product review search queries were independent brands.
- 45.3% of affiliate marketers stated that getting traffic is one of their biggest challenges.
- 82% of the websites that earn over 6-plus figures annually monetize with display ads and affiliate products.
- 69% of the affiliate marketers made use of SEO to drive organic traffic.
- The latest Google algorithm update affected 25.1% of the affiliate marketers. Of those, 47.4% of marketers changed their content strategy and have adopted new SEO strategies.
Source: Authority Hacker, AffiliateWP, Authority Hacker.
AI and SEO Statistics
- 75.7% of marketers are currently using AI tools for work.
- 65% of the brands and businesses stated that they are able to generate better SEO results with the help of AI.
- Over three-fourths of marketers are using AI to create their SEO-driven content strategy.
- Over half of the SEOs said AI automation has not impacted their SEO strategy.
- 84% of the SEOs and content marketers have been affected by AI automation.
- Over 1 in 3 e-commerce marketers have used AI to generate SEO-optimized product strategies.
- 44% of the SEOs think that AI is more likely to have a positive impact on their SEO strategies.
- 46% of the SEOs believe they would have used AI content more often if it had been original and creative.
- 8 in 10 SEOs used AI to improve the user experience on their sites, while 87% of SEOs said that they preferred using AI to align their content with the keyword’s search intent.
- A large share of SEOs use AI tools to research topics and content ideas.
Voice Search SEO Statistics
- 7 in 10 voice search results are from HTTPS websites.
- 16% of the voice searches are near-me searches.
- 67% of the consumers stated that they are more likely to use voice search when looking for some information.
- Nearly 6 in 10 internet users between the ages of 25 and 34 used voice search daily.
- The average reading level of the voice search result is of a 9th grader student.
- Consumers are three times more likely to use a mobile voice search than a local search.
- On average, a voice search includes 29 words, and the average number of words on the voice search pages is 2,132.
- 9 in 10 consumers use English for voice search.
- Approximately 17% of the voice search queries are for whether, and 16% are for local ‘near me’ searches.
Source: Search Engine Land, UpCity, Backlinko, Ahref, Edison Research.
More Statistics
Conclusion: The SEO Industry Is Set To Prosper In the Upcoming Decade
With a heavy reliance on search engines and digital information, ranking well on search engines increases your reach, generates high-quality leads, and boosts brand awareness.
Here, SEO played a major role in bringing local businesses to the top of Google’s first page.
87% of the consumers reached local businesses with the help of Google Search in 2022
Further adoption of AI in the SEO industry has led to new opportunities, tactics, and strategies for organic ranking. Over 8 in 10 SEOs Believe AI will positively impact the SEO industry in the upcoming decade.
As a result, the SEO industry is more likely to prosper in the upcoming decade with the adoption of AI and the innovative strategies of SEO.
