176 SEO Statistics for 2026
Search results now mix blue links with AI answers, videos and maps. Here are the latest numbers on search, clicks, rankings and search engine optimization (SEO).
01 · 8 stats
Search Engine Market Share
These figures show how much each search engine is used, by referrals, searches or users. Two trackers measure it in different ways. In StatCounter’s data, a “search engine referral” is a click from a results page to a site with StatCounter’s code.
89.94% of global search engine referrals came from Google. That was September 2026, across all platforms.
5.29% of global search engine referrals came from Bing. That was September 2026, across all platforms.
78.12% of global desktop search engine referrals came from Google. That was September 2026.
95.68% of global mobile search engine referrals came from Google. That was September 2026.
85.19% of US search engine referrals came from Google. That was September 2026, across all platforms.
Between 92.4% and 94.0% of US desktop searches went to Google. This is each month’s share in Q2 2026, among five traditional search engines in Datos’ desktop panel.
16.0% of US desktop search users in Datos’ panel used Bing. That was June 2026, up from 14.4% a year earlier.
At least 94.0% of EU/UK desktop searches went to Google. This held every month of Q2 2026, among five traditional search engines in Datos’ desktop panel.
02 · 7 stats
Search Engine Market Share by Country
Google’s position changes from country to country. In some markets, a local search engine competes with it.
96.63% of search engine referrals in India came from Google. That was September 2026, across all platforms.
31.41% of search engine referrals in Japan came from Bing. That compares with 59.27% for Google, in September 2026.
43.06% of South Korean search engine referrals came from Naver. That compares with 47.97% for Google, in September 2026.
46.65% of search engine referrals in China came from Baidu. That compares with 1.46% for Google, in September 2026.
70.33% of search engine referrals in Russia came from Yandex. That compares with 28.12% for Google, in September 2026.
25.19% of search engine referrals in Turkey came from Yandex. That compares with 73.42% for Google, in September 2026.
15.05% of Czech search engine referrals came from Seznam. That compares with 78.71% for Google, in September 2026.
03 · 7 stats
How Big Is Google Search?
These figures come from Google’s blog posts, company filings, regulatory reports and a desktop search panel. In Alphabet’s 10-K, “paid clicks” are ad clicks on Google Search and other Google-owned properties.
More than 5 trillion searches are made on Google annually. The figure is based on Google internal data from January 2025.
98.26 Google searches were made per US desktop searcher. This counts June 2026, among Datos panel users who searched Google at least once.
368.9 million signed-in accounts used Google Search monthly in the EU. Average for January–June 2026; one person may be counted more than once.
Google, DSA Monthly Active Recipients report, January–June 2026
$224.5 billion was Google Search & other revenue in 2025. The line also includes Gmail, Google Maps and Google Play. ▲ from $198.1 billion in 2024
17% was Google Search & other revenue growth in Q2 2026. Growth is measured against Q2 2025.
13% more paid clicks came from Google Search & other properties. This compares Q2 2026 with Q2 2025.
40 billion spammy pages are found by Google’s systems every day.
| Year | Revenue ($B) |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 69.8 |
| 2018 | 85.3 |
| 2019 | 98.1 |
| 2020 | 104.1 |
| 2021 | 149.0 |
| 2022 | 162.5 |
| 2023 | 175.0 |
| 2024 | 198.1 |
| 2025 | 224.5 |
04 · 5 stats
How Much Website Traffic Comes From Search?
These figures show how much of a site’s traffic arrives from search engines. Organic traffic means visits from unpaid search results. In Ahrefs’ traffic benchmark, “Search” means traffic referred by search engines like Google and Bing, and it can overlap with “Paid”.
26.82% of tracked sites’ traffic came from search engines. This was September 2026, for sites using Ahrefs Web Analytics, counted by referrer.
32.44% of traffic to sites with 1K–10K monthly visitors was organic. This averages each site’s channel mix across Ahrefs Web Analytics sites, September 2026.
0.43% of tracked sites’ traffic came from AI assistants. This was September 2026, for sites using Ahrefs Web Analytics.
Below 25% of site traffic came from organic search. This was in a 2026 benchmark, the first time organic search fell below that share.
2.54 billion English Wikipedia article requests came from search engines. This was September 2026, and rarely seen referrer–article pairs are left out.
05 · 8 stats
How Many Google Searches End Without a Click?
Many searches end on the results page itself. This section covers how often that happens and where the other clicks go. In SparkToro’s 2026 study, “zero-click searches” are searches where the session ends or the user searches again in Google’s search bar.
68.01% of US Google searches ended without a click. This covers January–April 2026 and excludes searches in the Google app.
66.61% of clicks from US Google searches went to organic results. The base is searches that ended in a click, January–April 2026.
27.38% of US Google search clicks went to Alphabet-owned properties. These include AI Mode, YouTube and Maps, January–April 2026.
6.01% of US Google search clicks went to a paid ad. This covers January–April 2026. Estimate
69.5% of Google searches in the UK ended without a click. This was the highest among the countries in the study, January–April 2026.
287 clicks reached the open web per 1,000 searches in Germany. This covers Google searches, January–April 2026, with organic and paid clicks grouped. The count is likely slightly low because some searchers click more than one result.
40.0% of US desktop Google searches led to an organic click. This was June 2026, counting clicks on non-Google-owned results, down from 44.9% in March.
69% of news-related searches ended without a click. This was May 2025, up from 56% in May 2024.
| Country | Jan–Apr 2026 |
|---|---|
| Germany | 62.1 |
| Italy | 63.4 |
| Canada | 63.8 |
| France | 65.3 |
| US | 68.0 |
| UK | 69.5 |
06 · 7 stats
What Is the Click-Through Rate by Ranking Position?
These figures cover the top unpaid, or organic, positions. In Advanced Web Ranking’s study, “organic CTR” is the share of searchers who click an unpaid result after seeing it.
22.46% was the average position-1 CTR on Google US. This covers all devices in September 2026, down from 25.24% in September 2025.
11.91% was the average position-2 CTR on Google US. This covers all devices in September 2026, up from 10.96% in September 2025.
7.03% was the average position-3 CTR on Google US. This covers all devices in September 2026, up from 6.03% in September 2025.
25.77% was the average position-1 CTR on Google US in 2025. This is an annual average across all devices. ▼ from 29.3% in 2015
26.06% was the position-1 CTR for branded Google US searches. That compares with 19.35% for unbranded searches, all devices, September 2026.
26.66% was the position-1 CTR for one-word Google US searches. This covers all devices in September 2026.
8.12% was the position-3 CTR for three-word Google US searches. That compares with 4.8% for one-word searches, all devices, September 2026.
| Year | Position 1 | Position 2 | Position 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 29.3 | 17.37 | 10.9 |
| 2016 | 28.6 | 17.18 | 10.77 |
| 2017 | 28.33 | 15.66 | 10.48 |
| 2018 | 26.83 | 15.31 | 10.49 |
| 2019 | 28.4 | 15.8 | 10.85 |
| 2020 | 30.33 | 16.37 | 11.11 |
| 2021 | 29.17 | 15.29 | 9.3 |
| 2022 | 28.75 | 14.75 | 8.83 |
| 2023 | 28.55 | 14.46 | 8.61 |
| 2024 | 27.78 | 12.21 | 7.24 |
| 2025 | 25.77 | 10.5 | 6.1 |
07 · 4 stats
Keyword and Search Intent Statistics
These figures show how search demand splits between big and small keywords, and what people want when they search. In Ahrefs’ guide, “long-tail keywords” are queries with few monthly searches, defined by volume rather than length.
Almost 93% of Ahrefs’ US keywords get under 10 monthly searches.
65.12% of US Google searches sought information about a topic. These were desktop searches in Q2 2026, up from 59.69% in Q2 2025.
85,890,000 monthly US Google searches go to “youtube”. That is Ahrefs’ September 2026 figure; “youtube” is the most searched term in the US.
811,195,000 monthly Google searches worldwide go to “chatgpt”. That is Ahrefs’ September 2026 figure; “chatgpt” is the top search globally.
| Intent | Q2 2025 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Seeking information about a topic | 59.69 | 65.12 |
| Seeking information about a commercial product or service | 16.42 | 17.65 |
| Navigating to a particular website | 22.77 | 16.43 |
| Intending to purchase a particular product or service | 1.12 | 0.79 |
08 · 5 stats
SERP Feature Statistics
Search engine results pages (SERPs) now carry boxes, carousels and AI answers above and between the blue links. In STAT’s study, a “SERP feature” is any result that isn’t a blue link, attached to one, or paid or partly paid.
84% of tracked Google results pages showed People Also Ask. That covers 10,000 MozCast head terms, US and UK, desktop and smartphone, January 2026. It was 76% in July 2025.
44% of tracked Google results pages had an organic result first. That covers 10,000 MozCast head terms, US and UK, January 2026, down from 57% in January 2025.
21% of tracked Google results pages led with an AI Overview. That covers 10,000 MozCast head terms, a fairly commercial keyword set, US and UK, January 2026.
1% of tracked Google results pages led with a featured snippet. That covers 10,000 MozCast head terms, US and UK, January 2026, down from 5% in January 2024.
34.64% of tracked US desktop keywords showed a local pack. Keywords tracked by Advanced Web Ranking, weekly snapshot of October 14, 2026.
| Feature | Jan 2024 | Jul 2024 | Jan 2025 | Jul 2025 | Jan 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People Also Ask | 74 | 73 | 71 | 76 | 84 |
| Videos | 28 | 27 | 30 | 22 | 46 |
| Images | 30 | 28 | 39 | 31 | 39 |
| Knowledge graph | 25 | 26 | 44 | 35 | 29 |
| Popular products | 15 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 27 |
| AI Overviews | 0 | 0 | 7 | 18 | 23 |
| Local packs | 16 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 20 |
09 · 15 stats
AI Search Statistics
AI answers now sit inside Google and in separate chatbots. These numbers cover how many people use them and what happens to clicks. In Mango Thrive’s survey, “AI-powered search” means finding answers through AI assistants or AI-enhanced search, such as chatbots or AI-generated summaries. In Cloudflare’s data, the “crawl-to-refer ratio” is how many pages a platform’s bots crawl for each visit it refers back.
Over 2.5 billion monthly active users use AI Overviews. Google gave the figure in May 2026.
73.89% of Americans surveyed used AI search at least weekly. This covers the past 30 days, in a 2026 survey of 1,007 people. Results were not weighted.
60% of US adults say they read AI search summaries (2026).
42% of US adults say they use chatbots for information searching. The figure is for 2026.
8% of AI-summary visits led to a traditional search result click. Without a summary, users clicked in 15% of visits. The data tracked Google searches by 900 US adults in March 2025.
Only 1% of AI-summary visits saw a click on summary links. The data tracked Google searches by 900 US adults in March 2025.
18% of Google searches in March 2025 produced an AI summary. This covers searches by 900 US adults who shared browsing data.
58% lower average CTR for top-ranking pages correlates with AI Overviews. It compares 150,000 keywords with AI Overviews against 150,000 informational keywords without them, in desktop data from December 2023 and December 2025.
2.36% was the organic CTR when AI Overviews showed (February 2026). Queries without an AI Overview had 3.82%, across 53 brands’ tracked queries.
95% of ChatGPT users also used Google in May 2026. The worldwide share was the same in September 2025.
About 53% of global generative AI website visits went to ChatGPT. This was by May 2026, down from about 76% in June 2025.
10.52% of US desktop activity was traditional search in Q2 2026. This is in Datos’ US desktop panel.
1,709% was the growth in AI-driven visit share since October 2024. This covers US retail sites, as of August 2026.
84% of AI citations come from earned media. This covers ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini answers in a May 2026 study.
38,000 pages were crawled by Anthropic for each referred visit. This was July 2025, counting traffic to sites on Cloudflare.
10 · 8 stats
Content and Ranking Statistics
These numbers cover how old ranking pages are, how Google rewrites titles and descriptions, and how much content is AI-written.
72.9% of Google top-10 pages are more than three years old. Ahrefs checked the top 10 for 1.3 million random US keywords in a 2025 study. ▲ from 59% in 2017
13.7% of Google top-10 pages are under one year old. This is for 1.3 million random US keywords, in a 2025 study. Part of the drop from 22% in 2017 may be due to sampling. ▼ from 22% in 2017
1,069 words was the median top-10 page length in Semrush’s study. It covered 16,298 English keywords on US mobile results, in the 2024 study.
76.04% of title tags were changed by Google in search results. This is from a 2025 study of 24,886 tracked titles.
70% of queries Seer tracked showed Google-written meta descriptions. This is from April 2025 data.
86.5% of Google top-20 pages contained some AI-generated content. Ahrefs ran 600,000 pages for 100,000 random keywords through its own AI detector in 2025.
74.2% of new English web pages contained AI-generated content. Ahrefs checked 900,000 pages first seen in April 2025, one per domain, with its own detector.
Only 7% of articles ranking #1 on Google were AI-generated. This is from Graphite’s June 2025 sample of 31,493 keywords.
| Position | Days |
|---|---|
| Position 1 | 1883 |
| Position 2 | 1738 |
| Position 3 | 1672 |
| Position 4 | 1614 |
| Position 5 | 1579 |
| Position 6 | 1553 |
| Position 7 | 1532 |
| Position 8 | 1511 |
| Position 9 | 1496 |
| Position 10 | 1483 |
11 · 9 stats
Google Core Update Statistics
These figures cover how long core and spam updates take and how much they move rankings. In Google’s documentation, “core updates” are significant, broad changes to its search algorithms and systems, made several times a year (Google Search Central, Core updates). In SE Ranking’s core update studies, a URL “changed position” if it moved even one place for the same keyword.
11 days and 21 hours: Google’s May 2026 core update rollout.
13 days and 16 hours: Google’s September 2026 spam update rollout.
2 core updates were listed for 2026 as of October 17. This counts Google Search core updates, not the February 2026 Discover update.
45% less low-quality, unoriginal content shows in Google results. Google reported this after the March 2024 core update; it had expected 40%.
19.87% of top-10 pages dropped out after Google’s May 2026 update. They left the top 100 for 100,000 keywords tracked in New York; it was 24.10% after March’s updates.
88.39% of Google top-10 URLs changed position after May’s core update. This is the May 2026 update, for 100,000 keywords tracked in New York.
82% of domains dropped by March 2026’s spam update stayed out. The domains left Google’s top 100 for New York-tracked keywords and had not returned after the core update.
10.24% of Google top-3 organic spots went to Reddit after May. That is of about 294,000 top-3 slots for New York-tracked keywords after the May 2026 update, up from 8.56% after March.
39 of 134 confirmed German core update losers were online shops. These are domains with a verified visibility drop from Google’s March 2026 core update.
| Core update | Days |
|---|---|
| March 2023 | 13.3 |
| August 2023 | 16.1 |
| October 2023 | 14.0 |
| November 2023 | 25.9 |
| March 2024 | 45.0 |
| August 2024 | 19.2 |
| November 2024 | 23.5 |
| December 2024 | 6.2 |
| March 2025 | 13.9 |
| June 2025 | 16.8 |
| December 2025 | 18.1 |
| March 2026 | 12.2 |
| May 2026 | 11.9 |
12 · 11 stats
Backlink and Link Building Statistics
Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. These figures cover how SEO experts rate them, what they cost, and how SEOs build them.
54.8% of SEO experts name backlinks a top-three Google ranking factor. They answered an open-ended question in a 2026 survey.
0.255 is the correlation between referring domains and Google rankings. The 2025 study covered top-20 results for the 1 million highest-volume US keywords.
64.9% of SEOs say sites can rank high without backlinks. They answered about Google search in a survey of 518 SEO professionals for a 2026 report.
55.21% of SEOs see link building as SEO’s most challenging part. The 518 SEO professionals were surveyed for a 2026 report.
48.6% of SEOs rate digital PR the most effective link tactic. The SEO professionals were surveyed for a 2026 report.
91.89% of SEOs believe their competitors buy backlinks. The 518 SEO professionals were surveyed for a 2026 report.
$508.95 is the average acceptable price for one high-quality backlink. That is based on 412 answers from SEO professionals surveyed for a 2026 report.
$8,406 is SEOs’ average minimum link budget needed for competitive niches. That is per month; 75% of the SEOs surveyed for the 2026 report answered.
$461 is the average vendor price for a guest post. This covers over 257,000 sites listed in link vendor databases, in 2026.
$179 is the average price of a link insertion. Prices come from a 421,259-site link vendor database, in 2026.
32.3% of mobile pages used the rel=”nofollow” link attribute in 2025.
| Factor | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Relevance | 57.1 |
| Backlinks | 54.8 |
| Content Quality | 47.6 |
| Authority & Trust | 36.5 |
| Behavior / Click Signals | 29.4 |
| Brand Signals | 27.0 |
| User Satisfaction | 19.8 |
| Technical SEO Health | 17.5 |
| Topical Authority | 14.3 |
| Internal Links | 11.1 |
13 · 10 stats
Technical SEO Statistics
HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac reports each year on how websites are built. These figures cover technical SEO basics, from title tags to structured data.
98.5% of mobile pages had a title tag in 2025. ▲ from 98.2% in 2024
91.5% of mobile pages used HTTPS in 2025.
50% of mobile home pages used structured data in 2025. ▲ from 49% in 2024
84.9% of sites returned a 200 status for robots.txt in 2025. This held for both desktop and mobile sites.
2.4% of mobile sites used a noindex robots directive in 2025.
79 characters was the median mobile title tag length in 2025.
10.3% of mobile pages had invalid <head> elements in 2025. ▼ from 10.9% in 2024
92 out of 100 was the median mobile Lighthouse SEO score. This was across origins HTTP Archive tested in September 2026.
11.47% of mobile pages had an llms.txt file in September 2026.
6 structured data types on Google’s June 2025 list left Search. They were confirmed as phased out in September 2025.
Google Search Central Blog, Simplifying the search results page
| Element | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Title tag | 98.5 |
| Meta description | 67.2 |
| H1 | 70 |
| H2 | 71 |
| H3 | 60 |
| H4 | 36 |
| Canonical tag | 67 |
| Meta robots tag | 47.9 |
14 · 7 stats
Search Engine Crawler Statistics
Search engines send bots to read pages before they can rank them. AI companies now send their own crawlers too.
39% of AI and search crawler traffic came from Googlebot. This was July 2025, on Cloudflare’s network. ▲ from 37.5% in 2024
Fewer than 1% of sites on Cloudflare block search crawlers. The figure was published in September 2026.
17% of sites on Cloudflare block AI training crawlers. The figure was published in September 2026.
52% of crawler requests were for AI training in June 2026. This uses each crawler’s stated purpose, across Cloudflare’s network.
6.7% of mobile sites named Googlebot in robots.txt in 2025. ▲ from 6.4% in 2024
4.2% of mobile sites named GPTBot in robots.txt in 2025. ▲ from 2.7% in 2024
Over 3.5 billion URLs were submitted through IndexNow each day. The figure dates from December 2024.
Bing Webmaster Blog, IndexNow Expands Adoption Across Industries
15 · 7 stats
Website Platform and CMS Statistics
A content management system (CMS) is the software a website is built and edited with. These figures cover which ones websites use and how the biggest platforms are doing. In W3Techs data, “market share” counts only websites whose CMS W3Techs knows; “usage” counts all websites (W3Techs, WordPress usage).
58.7% of websites with a known CMS used WordPress. Measured on October 1, 2026. ▼ from 60.7% in 2025
40.2% of all websites used WordPress on October 1, 2026. ▼ from 43.3% in 2025
54% of mobile websites used a CMS in 2025. ▲ from 49% in 2024
66.3% of WordPress websites ran WordPress version 7. Measured on October 17, 2026.
31.6% of WordPress websites used Elementor. Measured on October 17, 2026.
6.1 million premium Wix subscriptions existed on December 31, 2025. ▼ from 6.2 million in 2024
$378.4 billion in gross merchandise volume ran through Shopify in 2025. ▲ from $292.3 billion in 2024
16 · 13 stats
Page Speed and Page Weight Statistics
These figures cover how fast pages load and how heavy they have become. For HTTP Archive, “good Core Web Vitals” means LCP, INP and CLS pass for at least 75% of an origin’s page loads. Origins without INP data are judged on the other two. In the Web Almanac, “Total Blocking Time” is how long a page is too busy to respond after content first appears. It is measured in the lab.
53% of mobile origins passed Core Web Vitals (September 2026).
61% of desktop origins passed Core Web Vitals in September 2026.
66% of mobile origins had a good Largest Contentful Paint. This was in September 2026.
79% of mobile origins had a good Interaction to Next Paint. This was in September 2026.
83% of mobile origins had a good Cumulative Layout Shift. This was in September 2026.
2,564,485 bytes was the median mobile page weight in September 2026.
646 KB of JavaScript was used by the median mobile page. Measured in 2025, versus 708 KB on desktop.
251 KB of uncompressed, unused JavaScript loaded on median mobile pages. Measured in 2025.
1,916 milliseconds was the median Total Blocking Time on mobile. Measured in 2025. ▲ from 1,209 milliseconds in 2024
76% of mobile pages had an image as their LCP element. Measured in 2025.
62% of mobile pages had at least one image without dimensions. Measured in 2025. ▼ from 66% in 2024
202.8% was the growth in median mobile home page weight, 2015–2025.
57% of ≤1 MB mobile home pages passed Core Web Vitals. The 2025 figure compares with 30% for pages 5 MB or larger.
| Month | Mobile | Desktop |
|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | 1.92 | 2.19 |
| Jun 2022 | 1.98 | 2.29 |
| Jul 2022 | 1.95 | 2.24 |
| Aug 2022 | 1.92 | 2.18 |
| Sep 2022 | 1.92 | 2.19 |
| Oct 2022 | 1.92 | 2.19 |
| Nov 2022 | 1.91 | 2.19 |
| Dec 2022 | 1.92 | 2.19 |
| Jan 2023 | 1.93 | 2.20 |
| Feb 2023 | 1.96 | 2.24 |
| Mar 2023 | 1.97 | 2.26 |
| Apr 2023 | 1.99 | 2.28 |
| May 2023 | 2.00 | 2.30 |
| Jun 2023 | 2.03 | 2.33 |
| Jul 2023 | 2.06 | 2.36 |
| Aug 2023 | 2.07 | 2.38 |
| Sep 2023 | 2.07 | 2.38 |
| Oct 2023 | 2.08 | 2.36 |
| Nov 2023 | 2.10 | 2.38 |
| Dec 2023 | 2.12 | 2.42 |
| Jan 2024 | 2.14 | 2.43 |
| Feb 2024 | 2.16 | 2.46 |
| Mar 2024 | 2.19 | 2.51 |
| Apr 2024 | 2.20 | 2.52 |
| May 2024 | 2.24 | 2.56 |
| Jun 2024 | 2.27 | 2.60 |
| Jul 2024 | 2.27 | 2.63 |
| Aug 2024 | 2.27 | 2.62 |
| Sep 2024 | 2.25 | 2.60 |
| Oct 2024 | 2.22 | 2.60 |
| Nov 2024 | 2.26 | 2.62 |
| Dec 2024 | 2.29 | 2.64 |
| Jan 2025 | 2.29 | 2.63 |
| Feb 2025 | 2.32 | 2.64 |
| Mar 2025 | 2.36 | 2.67 |
| Apr 2025 | 2.39 | 2.72 |
| May 2025 | 2.43 | 2.76 |
| Jun 2025 | 2.43 | 2.78 |
| Jul 2025 | 2.46 | 2.85 |
| Aug 2025 | 2.51 | 2.91 |
| Sep 2025 | 2.51 | 2.88 |
| Oct 2025 | 2.51 | 2.88 |
| Nov 2025 | 2.53 | 2.90 |
| Dec 2025 | 2.53 | 2.94 |
| Jan 2026 | 2.52 | 2.93 |
| Feb 2026 | 2.55 | 2.95 |
| Mar 2026 | 2.57 | 2.98 |
| Apr 2026 | 2.59 | 3.02 |
| May 2026 | 2.61 | 3.03 |
| Jun 2026 | 2.59 | 3.05 |
| Jul 2026 | 2.57 | 3.03 |
| Aug 2026 | 2.56 | 3.01 |
| Sep 2026 | 2.56 | 2.98 |
17 · 11 stats
Mobile, Image, and Video Search Statistics
These figures cover phone traffic, visual search with Google Lens, and video on results pages.
58.99% of global web traffic came from mobile devices. That was September 2026; desktop had 39.26%.
StatCounter, Desktop vs Mobile vs Tablet Market Share Worldwide
49.1% of US web traffic came from mobile devices. That compares with 48.47% from desktop, in September 2026.
StatCounter, Desktop vs Mobile vs Tablet Market Share United States
95.2% of mobile pages used a viewport meta tag in 2025.
More than 1.5 billion people use Google Lens every month. Google said this in May 2025.
More than 25 billion Google Lens queries happen each month. Based on Google internal data from April 2025.
10% of younger Circle to Search users’ searches start with it. This counts younger users who have tried it, as of April 2025.
Over 580 million Android devices had Circle to Search. This was as of February 2026.
62.3% of tracked smartphone SERPs showed videos in January 2026. That compares with 30.4% on desktop, across 10,000 US and UK head terms.
6.40% of desktop pages included a video element in 2025. That compares with 5.68% of mobile pages. ▲ from 5.87% in 2024
60% of images on the median mobile page had alt attributes. Measured in 2025. ▲ from 58% in 2024
More than 140 million users engaged with Ask YouTube, June 2026. This counts use on the YouTube watch page.
18 · 12 stats
Local SEO Statistics
These figures cover where people search for local businesses, and how reviews, maps and AI tools shape their choice. In Whitespark’s survey, “Google Business Profile signals” include proximity, categories and keywords in the business name.
52% of US consumers started local business searches on Google Search. This was their most recent search, among people who searched for a local business in the past three months (2026).
75% of US consumers used more than one search channel. This was during their most recent search for a local business (2026).
73% of US consumers started their latest local search on mobile. The search was for a local business (2026).
71% of US consumers used Google for reviews in 2026. ▼ from 83% in 2025
45% of US consumers used AI tools for local business recommendations. This covers ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, in the 2026 survey.
74% of US consumers seek reviews from the last three months. This is from the 2026 survey.
47% of US consumers won’t use businesses with under 20 reviews. This is from the 2026 survey.
32% of local pack weight goes to Google Business Profile signals. That is what local search experts estimated for local pack and Maps rankings in the 2026 survey. Estimate
#1 local pack factor is the primary Google Business Profile category. This is local search experts’ ranking for local pack and Maps, in 2026.
More than 2 billion users use Google Maps each month (2025).
Over 1 billion reviews were shared on Google Maps in 2025.
Over 292 million policy-violating Google Maps reviews were blocked or removed. This was in 2025.
| Channel | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Google Search (typing into google.com or the Google app) | 52 |
| Google Maps | 9 |
| Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or other social media | 9 |
| ChatGPT or another AI chat tool (such as Perplexity or Gemini) | 8 |
| Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Tripadvisor, or a similar review site / business directory | 4 |
| Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Bixby or other voice search | 5 |
| Apple Maps | 3 |
| Other search engine (such as Bing, Yahoo) | 5 |
| Another app or website | 3 |
19 · 8 stats
B2B SEO Statistics
B2B buyers now research vendors in AI chatbots as well as on Google. These figures cover buyer habits and SEO returns. In 6sense’s report, the “Day One shortlist” is the vendors buyers list on the first day of their buying journey.
51% of B2B software buyers start software research with AI chatbots. That is more often than with Google, in 2026.
54% of B2B software buyers say gen AI chatbots influence shortlists. That made AI chatbots the top source shaping which vendors make the shortlist (2026).
94% of B2B buyers report using LLMs during their buying process. The 2025 survey covered nearly 4,000 buyers in North America, APAC and EMEA.
69% of software buyers chose a different vendor than planned. They said an AI chatbot led them to it, in the 2026 survey of B2B software buyers.
95% of the time, B2B buyers buy from Day One shortlists. That was in 2025, up from 85% the year before.
94% of tech buyers using AI fact-checked its answers. That is among buyers who used AI to research a purchase; they fact-checked at least some of the time.
$186 was the average organic cost per lead for B2B SaaS. That compares with $318 for a paid lead, in 2022–2026 data.
702% was the average three-year SEO ROI for B2B SaaS. This is from one agency’s thought leadership SEO campaigns, 2021–2025 data.
| Source | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Gen AI Chatbots | 54 |
| Software Review Sites | 43 |
| Market Research Firms | 36 |
| Vendor Site | 36 |
| Peers & Colleagues | 33 |
| Independent Forums | 30 |
| Thought Leadership | 28 |
| Internal Supplier Portal | 20 |
| Vendor Salesperson | 19 |
| None of the Above | 1 |
20 · 14 stats
SEO Industry, Salary, and Pricing Statistics
These figures cover SEO budgets, what SEOs earn, and what agencies charge.
81% of search pros expect SEO investment to rise or hold. This is for the next year, in a survey published in September 2026.
39% of search pros saw traffic decline or stay flat. For this group, leads and conversions held or improved, in a survey published in September 2026.
43% of search pros plan to invest in or prioritize GEO. This is for the next year, in a survey published in September 2026.
Only 9% of search pros feel very confident measuring AI visibility. That covers both measuring and interpreting AI visibility (2026).
35.4% of marketers plan to raise website, blog and SEO investment. They named it among areas for their biggest investment increases next year.
40.6% of marketers named updating SEO for search changes a trend. It was among the top trends brands are tackling in 2026.
$51,680 is the median SEO specialist salary worldwide in 2025. It is based on a modest sample of 279 survey responses.
$66,000 was the median SEO salary in the US in 2025. The survey drew a modest sample of 279 responses worldwide.
$92,500 was the median advertised pay in US SEO job listings. It covers full-time listings posted April 2025 to March 2026 that disclosed pay.
$133,750 was the median pay in Director+ US SEO listings. This is advertised pay in full-time listings posted April 2025 to March 2026.
41.8% of US SEO job listings were remote roles. The full-time listings were posted between April 2025 and March 2026.
53% of SEO agencies prefer monthly retainers to other pricing models. The 2024 survey skews toward small agencies.
64% of SEO agencies charge monthly retainers below $1,000 (2024). The survey skews toward small agencies serving small or local businesses.
40% of US and Canada SEO agencies bill over $125/hour. That compares with 6% of European agencies in the 2024 survey.
| Seniority | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Entry Level | 62500 |
| Mid-Level | 73000 |
| Senior | 82750 |
| Manager | 108225 |
| Director+ | 133750 |