SEO is so important for improving your brand’s online visibility and getting more quality traffic to your website and online content. This, in turn, can lead to an increase in conversions and sales for your business. That said, building and implementing a strong SEO strategy can be a time-consuming process and one which takes a few months to see real results. This can make it feel very intimidating in the early stages.

As a result, you might find yourself wondering, is it worth all the time or investment?

The short answer is, yes, it is.

But you don’t have to just take our word for it. We’ve pulled together 20 statistics that will convince even the most sceptical people of the value of SEO for their business.

The global SEO industry is worth over $50 billion

The global SEO industry is estimated to be worth over $50 billion in 2021, and this figure is only increasing.

Why are we telling you this?

Well, if people across the globe are willing to invest such huge sums of money into the SEO industry, this is alone should be proof enough that it offers real value to businesses.

Otherwise, that’s $50 billion being invested in an empty strategy – which, let’s face it, is extremely unlikely.

Google receives 3.5 billion searches per day

Did you know that Google receives 3.5 billion searches per day worldwide? That’s a staggering 1.2 trillion searches per year.

And if you want to take advantage of even one of these searches, you need to be visible and rank well in the SERPs.

93% of online experiences begin with a search engine

Getting more eyes on your website is the key to increasing conversion rates, and this is something that strong SEO can help with.

And with a whopping 93% of online experiences beginning with a search engine, it’s clear that this is the go-to system for internet users and online consumers. As such, you want your web pages to appear as high as possible in relevant searches.

Globally, 2.14 billion people shop online

As well as starting most online experiences with a quick internet search, a huge number of consumers then choose to shop online as a result. In fact, there are currently 2.14 billion digital buyers across the globe.

That’s almost 28% of the population!

So if you run an e-commerce store or sell your services online, SEO is crucial for beating the competition and getting your goods in front of the right consumers.

62% of consumers turn to search engines first

When it comes to shopping online, 62% of consumers will turn to search engines first if they want to learn more about a new business, product or service.

After this, 41% will continue to use search engines when they’re ready to make a purchase.

It stands to reason then that you want your business, goods or services to rank highly in relevant search terms, as this increases the likelihood of making a sale.

The first five organic results account for 68% of clickthroughs

The first five organic results to appear on page one of Google will receive 68% of the total clickthroughs.

In fact, the first result will win a 29% clickthrough rate, and by the time you reach the final result on page one, this has dropped to 2.5%.

So in a nutshell, if you’re not on page one, you’re unlikely to win the clickthrough. This is why SEO is so important.

Less than 1% of Google searchers click on results from the second page

Following on from this, data from Backlinko has revealed that only 0.78% of Google searchers click on results from the second page.

That means anything after that page will receive less than 1% of clickthroughs. Again this makes it crucial that you rank well and ultimately that you are on page one of SERPs.

53% of website traffic comes from organic search

Organic search is often the biggest driver of traffic to a website and therefore has a big impact on a website’s performance.

Over half (53%) of web traffic comes from organic search, but this is only possible if your web pages are optimised to rank well on SERPs.

21% of users visit more than one search result

Even if your website doesn’t quite rank in the top three, you’re still in with a chance as long as you’re on the first page.

How do we know this?

Well, data from Moz revealed that 21% of users access more than one of the search results that are shown to them.

This means if someone cannot find what they’re looking for on one site, they are likely to check at least one other, if not more.

That being said, you obviously want to rank as high as possible on the first page.

Almost a third (32%) of consumers search for local businesses on a daily basis

Local SEO can be hugely important for companies, particularly smaller businesses. This is because almost a third of consumers search for local businesses on a daily basis.

Not only this, but data from Google found that ‘where to buy’ + ‘near me’ mobile queries have grown by over 200% since 2019.

So if your business relies on local traffic or has a limited service area, then local SEO is crucial for securing customers.

80% of local searches on mobile phones convert

Following on from our last statistic about the importance of local SEO, Search Engine Watch has revealed that four out of every five local searches via mobile devices convert within a few hours, whether that’s an online sale or a sign-up.

What’s more, nearly three out of four of those mobile phone searches actually brought the customer into the brick-and-mortar store.

‘Best’ + ‘right now’ mobile queries have grown by over 125% 

As well as local searches being on the rise, the same data from Google also revealed that ‘best’ + ‘right now’ mobile search queries are on the rise too. In fact, these have increased by over 125% since 2019.

If you hope that your goods or services will appear in the list of ‘best {your item or service} right now’, then a carefully tailored SEO strategy is crucial to make this happen.

SEO has 20X more traffic opportunities than PPC

If you believe that mobile has killed SEO or that pay per click (PPC) is the better route, then think again. Research from Moz has found that organic search results are 20 times more likely to be clicked on than PPC results.

And this is true for both mobile and desktop devices:

For mobile devices, 41% of Google searches result in an organic click and only 2% in a paid click.

Similarly, 62% of Google searches through desktop result in an organic click and just 3% in a paid click.

70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC

Like we said earlier, there are millions across the globe investing billions of dollars in SEO. But not only this, a staggering 70% of marketers say that they have found SEO to be more effective than PPC as a marking technique.

Using ROI as a benchmark, as well as looking at results like traffic, leads and sales, marketers said SEO is a more long-term strategy and one which yields better results.

And let’s face it, seven out of 10 professional marketers are unlikely to be wrong.

SEO leads convert 8.5X more than outbound leads

According to Hubspot, SEO leads have an average close rate of 14.6%, while outbound leads (such as direct mail, cold calls or traditional advertising) have a 1.7% average close rate.

This means that for every lead you get from outbound marketing, an effective SEO strategy could get you as much as you 8.5 more.

So as you can see, SEO can be a more effective and, therefore, budget-friendly way to generate leads and increase conversions over other traditional marketing techniques.

SEO costs an average of nine times less than PPC

Although the exact ROI of SEO will differ depending on the company and how much they’ve invested, one thing is for sure, SEO is definitely the more cost-effective solution.

Don’t believe us?

Data from SEMPO has estimated that typically, 11% of marketing funds are spent on organic search whereas, 87% is spent on PPC.

And when you consider the results we looked at above (that organic search offers 20X more traffic opportunities and SEO leads are more likely to convert), it’s clear that the ROI for SEO strategies is going to be much higher than that of PPC.

In fact, SEO can work out nine times cheaper than PPC and other advertising techniques.

Google’s algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites

Google works in mysterious ways, and its algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites.

Why are we telling you this when surely this is likely to put you off SEO even more?

Well, in a nutshell, with Google ranking for so many factors, if you don’t bother to target any of them, your web pages will get lost in the internet, never to be found by your target audience.

However, if you work on important factors such as creating high-quality content and building links that will generate naturally converting traffic then your website is much more likely to actually be seen by your audience online.

Updating and republishing old blog posts can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%

Above, we mentioned that great content is important for ranking well on Google. But the great news is, this doesn’t mean you have to go about creating hundreds of new articles.

In fact, a study from Hubspot found that updating and republishing old, existing blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic to your site by as much as 106%.

So if you have content already sitting on your site that you know could do with a little update, this is the perfect chance to optimise and make your content even better.

This is not only beneficial for your visitors, but it can also help you to become more visible without having to put in hours of extra work.

91% of all pages never get any organic traffic from Google 

A study from Ahrefs, which looked at over two million websites, found that 91% of all pages never get any organic traffic from Google, and this is mostly due to the fact that they don’t have any backlinks.

Word count also plays a big role in this, but primarily backlinks are one of the key factors.

And link building is an important part of any successful SEO strategy, so you can see how this part of SEO can make a huge difference in driving traffic to your website.

On a related note…

55% of pages don’t have a single backlink

That same study found that over half of web pages (55%) don’t have even one backlink, and another 30% have three or less.

And put simply, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic search traffic it gets from Google.

Therefore, if you can get an effective SEO strategy in place and build links, you’ll find it much easier to outrank your competition.

Now do you believe in the power of SEO?

If you were feeling sceptical at the start, we hope you are no longer on the fence about the importance of SEO in 2021.

Although search engine algorithms are continuously evolving and so is SEO industry along with it, these statistics show without a shadow of a doubt why an effective SEO strategy is so important for your business.

This is one of the most cost-effective and generally effective marketing strategies there is, and it can yield great results for your business if done well.

So if you haven’t begun working on SEO for your business yet, or even if your current strategy needs some shaking up, it’s best to get started right away!