Search Engine Statistics Every Business Needs to Know

Search Engine Statistics Every Business Needs to Know

Through the years, the world wide web has accumulated billions of webpages that compelled search engines, not just to search webpages but to display search results according to importance. There are more than 1 billion websites on the world wide web today.
 
In 2014, the number of websites worldwide reached the 1 billion mark, with the inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners-Lee announcing the big milestone. Afterward, the number went back to below 1 billion as a result of inactive websites. The 1 billion mark was reached again in March of 2016.
 
In the advent of the internet, anyone can add a document to the world wide web without telling anyone. A world wide web without search engines is similar to a library with billions of documents but without a librarian.
 
To determine the importance of every webpages, every search engines has its own algorithm which includes a number of criteria. Algorithms’ criteria are safely guarded by companies like Google as they don’t want people to manipulate the search engine results. 

What is Search Engine

Search engine is a software program that search documents on the world wide web for specific keywords and returns a list of links or webpages where the keywords can be found. The search engine term is often associated with the top programs such as Google, Bing, Baidu, Yahoo, Ask and AOL.
 
Here are search engine statistics that every business needs to know:

Search engine is the most trusted source for general news and information.

​The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer revealed that search engine is the go-to place for people when they search for general news and information. Search engine is the number one most trusted media platform with 64% of the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer survey respondents trusting it.
 
In the Edelman 2017 trust survey, traditional media is ranked as the second most trusted media platform, with 57% of the respondents trusting it. Online-only media is ranked third (51%); owned media is ranked fourth (41%), and social media is ranked as the fifth trusted form of media platform (41%).
 
Owned media refers to company-ran media platforms such as the company’s website and blog, while social media refers to social networking websites or mobile applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Google is the undisputed leader of search engines.

​Every second, Google processes an average of over 40,000 search queries according to Internet Live Stats. This translates to more than 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches each year worldwide.
 
Google is a search engine built in 1996 by two Ph.D. students at Stanford University Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google was launched in 1998, the search engine was only serving 10,000 search queries per day.
 
In terms of global desktop search engine market share, Net Market Share reported that for the period of June 2016 to June 2017, Google’s market share was 76.13%, followed by Bing (8.51%), Baidu (7.41%), Yahoo (6.32%), Ask (0.20%), AOL (0.08%) and Excite (0.01%).
 
In terms of global mobile/tablet search engine market share for the period of June 2016 to June 2017, Net Market Share reported that Google’s market share was 95.17%, followed by Yahoo (2.47%), Bing (1.04%), Baidu (0.46%), Ask (0.04%) and AOL (0.01%)

More Mobile Searches than Desktop Searches

​For the period of June 2016 to June 2017, according to StatCounter, 53.18% of searches came from mobile and tablet, while 46.81% searches came from desktops.
 
Google, for its part, announced in 2015 that “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.” Part of the reason that Google controls mobile searches is that it’s the default search engine of major phones such as Apple phones. 

Consumer Search Behaviors

In 2014, Google commissioned research organizations Ipsos MediaCT and
Purchased® to understand consumers’ local search behavior. The Google-sponsored study found the following interesting insights:
1. When using search engines, people search with their location and proximity in mind.

• 4 out of 5 consumers use search engines to find local information.
• Information that consumers look for includes store address, business hours and product availability.

 
2. Search engines influence searchers to take action.

• Half of the consumers who perform a local search on their mobile phone visit a store within 24 hours, while 34% who search using computer and tablet do the same.
• 18% of local searches on mobile phone result in sales within 24 hours compared to 7% sales of non-local searches.

 
In the case of car buyers, they spend up to 15 hours online researching, comparing and studying according to the 2013 Polk Automotive Buyer Influence Study commissioned by AutoTrader.com. Google’s internal data also showed that when people search online using their desktop for automobiles, they want to see visual presentations – pictures of their dream car. Google said nearly half of Google searches for cars contain images.

SEO

SEO can either stand for search engine optimization or search engine optimizer – a person or organization in charge of optimizing a website for search engines. Building a good online reputation requires a good understanding of SEO, especially for Google. While Google doesn’t publicly reveal how it comes up with search results, the search engine giant has provided some guidelines for optimizing a website for search engines.  
 
Google suggests that if you’re looking to hire an SEO to improve your brand reputation, make sure the SEO use “whitehat” techniques, instead of “blackhat” techniques. Google said it’s vital to know the difference between these two techniques as blackhat SEO will essentially ruin your website and reputation.
 
Blackhat SEO is defined by Google as “Illicit techniques that manipulate search engines to try to rank a site higher are considered blackhat techniques that violate our Webmaster Guidelines.” An example of blackhat approach is buying or selling links. Instead of the blackhat approach, Google recommends for the “whitehat” approach – defined as “techniques aim to improve a site by focusing on the visitors instead of on ranking higher.” Examples of whitehat techniques include creating high-quality content.

When choosing an expert SEO provider, always make sure that they don't employ black hat SEO techniques, and only help you achieve desired results and secure more business through high-quality content.

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