A new year brings new purpose and renewed ambitions for marketers. 

It’s time to take their marketing efforts to new levels and build on their progress from the year before. 

After all, it is the most crucial period that sets the stage for the year to come. 

Normally, a post like this one would be released at the beginning of the year when marketers and SEO’s roll out their plans and strategies for the year ahead. 

But we promise that we’re not trying to withhold important information from you! 

We did create a blog with our predictions of SEO Trends in 2022 that you can’t afford to miss but waited until the end of the first quarter to reflect on the most significant statistics that we think will continue to shape trends within the SEO industry. 

To help you stay up-to-date with your SEO efforts, we’ve compiled a list of valuable statistics that showcase the importance of some of the most important ranking factors for SEO in 2022. 

If you’re ready to revamp your SEO strategy, you’ll want to keep reading! 

Take a shortcut and jump straight to the findings and conclusions:

• Emerging Trends in SEO 
• SEO Statistics in 2022 
• Backlink Statistics 
• Local SEO Statistics 
• Mobile Search Statistics 

How SEO will continue to evolve in the future

Like the year before it, 2022 will be another unusual year. 

We won’t see the end of lockdowns just yet, and organizations will continue to deploy their operations from home. 

With the average marketer and consumer still stuck inside, the way marketers create and promote their content must continue to evolve. 

In 2022, search engine marketing statistics indicate to look beyond simple optimization techniques in favor of more innovative strategies. 

And even though we’re only three months into 2022, there have already been developments that will set the stage for what’s to follow and have a lasting impact on the marketing industry. 

Emerging Trends in SEO

1. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (Search Engine Journal) 
2. Google processes 40,000 inquiries every second on average, which equates to over 3.5 billion searches on Google each day. (Internet Live Stats)
3. 94% of all clicks go to organic results in the SERPs (search engine results pages), with only 6% going to paid search. (Search Engine Watch)

4. Pages that rank on spots #1 to #3 on the SERPs generate a clickthrough rate of 36%. (Searchmetrics)
5. 12.3% of search queries contain a featured snippet (Ahrefs)
6. 39% of purchasers were influenced by a relevant search. (Google).
7. 57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative. (Hubspot)
8. 27% of the global online population is using voice search on mobile. (Google) 
9. 55% of American households will be using a voice-enabled smart speaker by 2022. (TechCrunch) 

10. Mobile search now accounts for 54.46% of searches, with desktop searches falling to 42.77%. (Statcounter)

Tabtimize Tip?: Featured snippets and voice-enabled searches will play a significant role in SEO in 2022. Make sure to optimize for voice search and create stellar content that answers customer questions better than your competitors.  

SEO Statistics in 2022

1. The #1 result in Google gets approximately 32% of all clicks (Backlinko)
2. 53% of US consumers say that they research products using a search engine before deciding whether or not to buy (Google)

3. 47% of consumers review at least 3 to 5 forms of content prior to engaging with sales associates. (Breezy Hill Marketing)

4. Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google, said links, content, and RankBrain as the top 3 factors for Google’s search results. (Search Engine Watch)
5. 75% of people never scroll past the first page of search engines. (Hubspot)
6. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages than those that don’t. (Hubspot) 
7. 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from organic search. (BrightEdge)
8. 92.96% of global traffic comes from Google search, Google Images, and Google Maps. (SparkToro)
9. 60% of marketers say that inbound marketing (SEO, blog content, etc) is their highest quality source of leads. (HubSpot)
10. 49% of marketers report that organic search has the best ROI of any marketing channel. (Search Engine Journal)

The next time someone tries to tell you that SEO is dead, or if your company is considering whether or not SEO is right for their business model, show them these statistics that prove it! 

Backlink Statistics 

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again.

Backlinks are one of the most fundamental aspects of SEO, and they are definitely here to stay.

In a previous article, we also predicted that relevance in link building will come into the spotlight in 2022.

Now, let’s look at some statistics that support our prediction. 

1. A single link from a quality site will be counted more than links from many irrelevant sites. (Adlibweb) 

Tabtimize Tip?: Always remember that quality > quantity when it comes to link building, and relevance is key. Google’s John Mueller also says that the number of links pointing to a website is irrelevant to Google. 

2. Only 34% of digital marketers consider rankings as the primary measure of the effectiveness of link building. (Aira) 
3. Companies who blog receive 97% more backlinks to their site. (HubSpot) 
4. Generating a strong backlink profile today is about earning links, through strong content, active social sharing, email promotion, PR, strategic guest posting, and effective influencer marketing. (The Marketing Scope)
5. The average cost of buying a link is $361.44. (Ahrefs) 

6. 66.31% of pages have no backlinks. (Ahrefs) 
7. 92% of marketers believe that links will still be a signal for Google’s ranking algorithm in five years’ time. (Aria) 
8.  75% of digital marketers use content marketing specifically to generate links. (Aria) 
9. Over 63% of marketers choose to outsource their link-building activities. (SemRush) 
10.  High-quality backlinks account for 30% of your overall page score in Google. (QuickSprout)

Tabtimize Tip?:  Building links and searching for prospects can be the hardest part of an SEOs job, making sense that so many marketers choose to outsource their link building. Using software like the Tabtimize platform to find relevant link opportunities, can make the process a breeze.  

Local SEO Statistics 

As we’ve stated before, local SEO can help you stand out on SERPs.

But don’t take our word for it, check out some of these interesting local SEO stats below.

1. 80% of local searches convert. (WebFX) 
2. “Near me” or “close by” type searches grew by more than 900% over two years. (Chat Meter) 
3. 46% of all searches on Google are for a local business or local service. (Search Engine Roundtable)
4. 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day. (Think with Google)
5. 72% of computer or tablet users and 67% of smartphone users want ads that are customized to their city or zip code. (Google)
6. 54% of smartphone users search for business hours and 53% search for directions to a local store. (Think with Google) 
7. 91% of consumers say that positive reviews make them more likely to use a business. (BrightLocal)
8. 76% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends. (BrightLocal)
9. 90% of consumers used the internet to find a local business in the last year. (BrightLocal) 
10. 58% of consumers use voice search to find local business information. (Search Engine Journal) 

Mobile Search Statistics

If you haven’t adopted the mobile-first mindset yet, the time is now! 

It’s a well-known fact that mobile-searches have seen some serious growth over the years, with numbers now surpassing desktop.

Google has even shifted from a “desktop-first” mindset to a “mobile-centered” one. 

Let’s see what the mobile SEO stats say.

1. Mobile accounts for 58% of all Google searches (Hitwise)
2. Google drives 96% of mobile search traffic. (HubSpot) 
3. 87% of smartphone owners use a search engine daily (Go-Globe) 
4. 75% of the world’s population will only use their smartphones to access the internet by 2025. (World Advertising Research Centre)

5. Voice searches now account for 20% of the queries on mobile. (Search Engine Land)
6. Nearly 75% of all mobile searches result in the user taking an online action, generally within an hour. (Brainvire)

7. Mobile searches for “best” have grown over 80% in the past two years. (Think with Google)
8. In the past two years, mobile searches for “product reviews” have grown by over 35%. (Think with Google) 
9. On average, ranking in position #1 on mobile gets you 27.7% of the clicks, while ranking in position #1 on desktop gets you 19.3% of the clicks. (SEOClarity)
10. 57% of consumers claim that they won’t recommend a business that has a poorly designed mobile website. (socPub)

Tabtimize Tip?: Making sure that you’re optimizing for mobile is even more crucial now since Google unveiled Core Web Vitals, which could penalize SEOs for poor web and user experience throughout different devices. 

Bottom Line 

The SEO world has always been competitive, and the landscape is constantly evolving. Understanding the SEO trends and statistics that will have the most impact in 2022 is the first step in forming a future proof strategy. Out of curiosity, which of these statistics do you think will have the most impact? Were you surprised by any on the list? Let me know in the comments below.