Another year has flown by and we have ridden the SEO waves of Mobilegeddon, Facebook Live, Penguin 4.0, long-form content, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), social sharing, video content growth and numerous other changes and evolutions in the digital landscape.
Now is a good time to review some current SEO statistics and leverage them in planning for the future.
To help in the process we have compiled a focused list of SEO statistics to know in 2017. These stats will help you plan and prepare for even more exciting (crazy?) changes in the upcoming year.
Dozens of lists like the search engine optimization stats included here will be published, but our list is a bit different than most. As we stressed in last year’s Statistics post, our team is committed to only sharing factual SEO stats that can be supported by relevant and recent studies.You won’t find any outdated statistics from 2012 on our list.
Plus all our SEO statistics include links to the source of each statistic. Through these links you can verify the data, view the information in context and learn more. Here’s our list.
25 SEO Statistics 2017
1. Google has decreased the number of organic blue links displayed as the result of a search from 10 to 8.5, on average. (Source: Searchmetrics, 2016)
2. Businesses that have a strong keyword in the business name rank 1.5 spots higher than if there is no keyword in the name. (Source: Local SEO Guide, 2016)
3. According to Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, high quality content and link building are the two most important signals used by Google to rank your website for search. (Source: Search Engine Watch, 2016)
4. A Backlinko report revealed that longer content tends to rank higher. The average first page result on Google contains 1,890 words. (Source: Backlinko, 2016)
5. A July 2015 study by Moz and BuzzSumo analyzed the shares and links of over 1 million articles and found that long form content of over 1,000 words consistently receives more shares and links than shorter form content (Source: Moz, 2015)
6. The Backlinko study also reported that using a single image within content will increase search engine rankings. (Source: Backlinko, 2016)
7. Marketers see SEO as becoming more effective, with 82% reporting effectiveness is on the rise and 42% of this group stating effectiveness is increasing significantly. (Source: MarketDive, 2016)
8. Total Organic search visits fell 7% Y/Y in Q2, down from 11% Y/Y growth a year earlier, as organic listings face increased competition from paid search ads, particularly on mobile. (Search Engine Watch/Merkle 2016)
9. 72% of consumers who did a local search visited a store within five miles. (Source: WordStream, 2016)
10. 47% of all websites worldwide use a Content Management System (CMS) as their development platform as of December 2016 (Source: W3Techs, 2016)
11. 58.5% of all websites globally that use a Content Management Systems (CMS) use WordPress as their development platform as of December 2016. The second most popular CMS platform is Joomla at 7.2% marketshare, followed by Drupal at 4.8%. (Source: W3Techs, 2016)
12. 62% of B2B marketers and 51% of B2C marketers have optimized their blogs for mobile in order to improve SEO. (Source: Social Media Examiner, 2016)
13. Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 111%. (Source: Backlinko, 2016)
14. Social media sites accounted for 2.8% of website visits in Q2 2016. (Source: Search Engine Watch, 2016)
15. Facebook produced 61% of all website visits generated on social media sites in Q3 2016. (Source: Merkle, 2016)
16. Google accounts for over 76% of all global desktop search traffic, followed by Bing at 8%, Baidu at 7.5% and Yahoo at 7%. (Source: NetMarketShare, 2016)
17. Google accounts for over 94% of all mobile/tablet search traffic globally, followed by Yahoo at 3% and Bing at 1%. (Source: NetMarketShare, 2016)
18. Voice searches have increased to 10% of all search volume according to The Internet Trends report, released in June 2016 (Source: Search Engine Land, 2016)
19. 27% of all websites globally use WordPress as their development platform as of December 2016 (Source: W3Techs, 2016)
20. Nearly 40% of people search only on a smartphone in an average day.
21. 75% percent of internet use will be mobile in 2017, up slightly from 2016, as a growing number of consumers around the world access the web on smartphones and tablets, media buying agency Zenith forecasts. (Source: Reuters, 2016)
22. Google receives over 57,000 searches per second on any given day. (Source: Internet Live Stats, 2016)
23. Google now handles at least 2 trillion searches per year (Source: SearchEngineLand, 2016)
24. By 2019, 85% of US internet traffic will be video. (Source: Cisco, 2016)
25. 75% percent of internet use will be mobile in 2017, up from 71% this year. (Source: Reuters, 2016)
26. Google “near me” searches have increased by two times over the past year. (Source: Search Engine Watch, 2016)
27. 55% of searchers don’t know which links in the Search Engine Results pages are PPC ads, according to a new survey. And up to 50% of users shown a Search engine Results page screenshot could not identify paid ads. (Source: Search Engine Watch, 2016)
28. 81% of surveyed marketers have integrated social media marketing with traditional marketing to increase discoverability of their website. (Source: Social Media Examiner, 2016)
29. In 2016 Google generated $63.11 billion in net digital ad revenues worldwide, an increase of 19.0% over 2015. That represents 32.4% of the worldwide digital ad market, which in 2016 is worth $229.25 billion. (Source: eMarketer, 2016)
Conclusion:
With the continuous updates and changes to Google’s ranking optimization factors, it is important to review these 25 SEO Statistics for 2017 success. Understanding how the data can shape your website into a discoverable site that engages and converts visitors is key to a sound SEO marketing strategy.
Remember to keep your SEO agile and flexible in 2017, as Google is continuously updating and re-ranking its algorithm based on what users value.
Start with a few of the SEO statistics and dig in for a deeper understanding by clicking on the source links. One you have mastered a few of the SEO stats for 2017, continue with a few more.
As you proceed you will develop a broader understanding of where we came from in 2016 and where SEO is likely headed in 2017. If you have used an SEO method that has worked for your business, please leave a comment and let us know what worked for you.
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