Are you looking into investing in SEO? Then let these 10 SEO statistics convince you of the importance of utilizing SEO to reach your business goals. After reading this blog, you will not ask yourself why you need to invest in SEO, but how you can start with SEO.
1. More than half of the world’s web traffic comes from search engines
2. Online experiences start with a search in search engines
Knowing the buyer’s journey is very important for marketing. You need to know where and when you can find your potential customers on the internet. Well, when people are going online to do research on a product, company or service, by far most will start with a search in a search engine. Research shows us that online experiences start with a search engine like Google 93% of the time. No matter how good your product or service is, if you’re not there when they are looking for your product or service, you don’t exist from their perspective. And if you want to become an option, then SEO should be your priority.
3. Most of the people ignore paid search
Search engines give us two main ways to get traffic to websites. This is through organic and paid. These two actually make a perfect combination in your marketing strategy. But how many people click on ads, and how many organic results? HubSpot did the research and they found out that between 70-80% of the people ignore paid search results. This shows exactly how important SEO is for reaching business goals. Being on the first page of Google will give you an opportunity to tap into 70-80% of the clicks of 65,8% of the total world’s web traffic.
4. First page is what it’s about
When you’re going to invest in SEO, there’s one important stat that we have to go into. You might’ve even already heard about this, but most SEO specialists will tell you that no one looks past the first page. Sure, we also know that’s an exaggeration, but also at the same time know it is practically true. Backlinko put it to the test and did the research on Google organic traffic results. In their research they found out that only 0,78% of the Google searchers clicked on something from the second page. Your main battle will take place over elements on the first page.
SEO is a top priority for inbound marketing
HobSpots research shows us that for 61% of the marketers SEO is a top priority for their inbound marketing. From this statistic we can see that for many marketers SEO is still the go to channel for this reason. In this same research they found that 75% of the marketers that invested in SEO found that their tactics were “very” or “extremely” effective in helping them in achieving their business goals. SEO is not just a ‘nice to have’, it is definitely a channel that you should be investing in if you’re looking for inbound marketing.
6. SEO leads among best in closing rate
Something often not taken into consideration when looking at SEO is how the traffic converts. SEO is often used simply as a channel to get as much traffic in as possible. But HubSpot was curious and in their research asked themselves this question. In the research they found out that SEO is actually way more effective that outbound-sources leads. In their research the closing rate for SEO leads was about 15%. This makes it as good as Direct Traffic and a lot better than a source for leads like outbound marketing such as direct mail or cold-calling with a closing rate of 1,7%.
7. Almost half of marketeers report that SEO has the best ROI
In marketing ROI (return on investment) is one of the most important metrics there is. If you’re going to invest money in a channel like SEO, you will want to know what you can get out of it. Search Engine Journal did research among marketers to find out what the best channel for their website’s ROI is. According to the respondents, SEO was the digital marketing channel that brought in the highest ROI in 49% of the cases. In perspective Paid was the best in 19% of the responses, social media 18% and email 14%.
8. Having your location in Google is a must
SEO is more than ranking on just keywords, it also means making sure your locations are easily findable for people. The reason this is so important is that up to 86% of the people will look for your location in Google. As you can see, it has actually become sort of a habit to look for a location in Google. Of course Google offers some great service when it comes to looking up locations, like the option to immediately go to Google Maps to set a route and the opening hours of the business that can immediately be seen. With this many people using Google as a source to find their way to your location, you simply can’t miss out on being fully visible here.
9. Investing in mobile optimization for local SEO pays off
Google has been pushing for mobile for years, because they believe that smartphones will become a bigger part of our buyer journey every year. This is also why they do a lot of research on the behaviour of mobile users. In this research they looked at mobile users and location based results. They found out that 76% of the people who search on their smartphone for something nearby (like: barber Amsterdam) will visit a business within 1 day. Out of those people, 28% will result in a purchase. This shows that it will definitely pay off to make sure you are very well findable for local searches on mobile.
10. Mobile users find new companies or products through search engines
Another finding from Google shows us a stat on how searches on search engines help with getting your business known to new customers. When searching on mobile 51% of the users found either a new product or company. They might not even be consciously looking for a new product or service, but this stat shows that search engines can definitely help you get into the view of those that are looking for your product or service.
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