There is no shortage of data in the Great Digital Void (AKA what the competition-riddled Internet can seem like for new business owners). With that data come neatly packaged statistics that, when manipulated correctly, can convince us of just about anything. As a small business owner doing research about how to succeed organically in our competitive digital landscape, it’s crucial to be discerning about the digital marketing stats you’re consuming. Statistics and data are powerful tools that digital marketers yield in order to help their clients rise above the competition, but the honest truth is that those results can take time. We’ve scoured the Internet for some of the most useful organic growth-related statistics for small businesses, and we’re breaking them down a little bit further today. Let’s get into it.
53.3% of total website traffic comes from organic search
Organic search is incredibly powerful–but let’s back up and talk a little bit about what it is in the first place. Organic search refers to all of the traffic that comes to a website through unpaid initiatives (AKA, how high your website is able to rank on search engines through its content, not through paid initiatives). The process of making your website more attractive to search engines through unpaid measures is SEO, or search engine optimization. The better your SEO, the more likely your website is to turn up in the first page of search results for terms that are relevant to your goods and services–and that first page is definitely where you want to be. Why? Because more than half of all website traffic on the Internet comes from organic search.
70% of marketers see SEO as more effective than PPC.
SEO is search engine optimization, or the use of website content to turn up higher in search results. PPC, or pay-per-click, refers to all of the paid ads you can run on search engines. When you search for something on Google, chances are that the first 1-3 results say something like “Ad” or “Sponsored.” Companies pay to put those search results there; the more they’re willing to pay for each click, the higher their search result ad will be placed (hence the term pay-per-click).
Here’s where we don’t want to be misleading, so we’ll be super clear: PPC is a critical part of any digital marketing strategy, and any marketer who tries to tell you otherwise is probably not a marketer you should trust. With that said, it’s equally important to focus your time and resources on organic initiatives. SEO takes longer to yield results than PPC, because it takes time to build up enough content on your website to compete with the giants on the first page of Google search results. However, once your SEO is bulked up enough to stand its ground, it can and will bring you an awesome ROI.
Only 0.78% of Google searchers click on results from the 2nd page.
This statistic right here explains why SEO is so competitive–and why it’s a full-time job. The first place of Google search results for any keyword is the most coveted position for a business to obtain. It takes really smart strategy and continuous effort to rank in the top 10 search results for any competitive keyword. It’s difficult, but with a specialized team of professionals, it’s entirely doable.
Adding a video increases the average time an audience spends on a website by 2 minutes
SEO isn’t just about creating landing pages and blog posts with keywords that match the terms audiences are searching for, though that certainly is a part of it. SEO is also about keeping your audiences on your website once they get there. The more your audience clicks through different pages of your website, and the more time they spend on your website overall, the better it is for your SEO. Video is extremely helpful at driving audience engagement. If you haven’t implemented professionally shot videos into your website yet, you absolutely should.
55% of total online traffic came from mobile in 2020
What does this statistic have to do with SEO? It’s simple: websites need to keep users engaged and active, regardless of what device they’re using. If your website is beautifully formatted on a desktop computer but wonky and weird on mobile, its SEO ranking will suffer. Google and other search engines scour your website for readability, image quality, and ease of use. If they flag your website for not being user friendly, no amount of well-written blogs or landing pages will undo that damage. Luckily, mobile formatting is something that a talented developer can do in their sleep. The key is to make sure that there’s cohesion between your website’s mobile and desktop versions, and that audiences are incentivized to navigate between different pages and contact you regardless of what device they’re on.
Affordable SEO services can make all the difference for a small business, because SEO is one of the most important elements of digital marketing. If you’re wondering how you can maximize your SEO initiatives on a budget, we’d love to talk. Click here to set up a free consultation with us.
