Google Search Statistics – 2024

Written by: Branka

Updated: February, 17, 2024

Posted in:
Home Insights

What started as a research project back in 1996 has since become the biggest and most powerful search engine and a place where billions of people go for information. Be it the location of the nearest post office, or how nuclear reactors work, Google has it all. While there are numerous Google search statistics out there, we’ve compiled the most essential to give a broader perspective and help you craft your marketing strategy to benefit from the most powerful search engine in the world. So, read on and learn all about it. 

Google Search Statistics (Editor’s Choice)

  • 96.84% of the global mobile search traffic belongs to Google. (Statcounter)
  • The number of searches grows by 10% every year. (InternetLiveStats)
  • With 94.19%, India is the top Google-using country. (Statista)
  • 77% of people use Google 3 times a day. (Moz)
  • 20% of all Google searches are done by voice commands. (Google)
  • Every business that will spend $1 on Google ads will earn roughly $8. (Google)
  • Only 0.78% of people click something on Google’s page 2. (Backlinko)
  • Having a question in the meta title will raise the CTR for 14.1%. (Backlinko)
  • When it went public, Google was worth about $23 billion. (CNN, CNBC)

General Google Search Stats 

1. There are 3.5 billion Google searches every day.

A person is doing a Google search almost every second. Breaking the number down, this means that the Google search volume is 145 million searches per hour, 2.4 million per minute, or over 40.000 every second. 

(InternetLiveStats)

2. 96.84% of the global mobile search traffic belongs to Google. 

Nine out of ten mobile internet users across the globe prefer the search engine for their daily mobile queries, according to Google search engine statistics. Chinese Baidu currently holds the second position with 1.09% of market share while the Russian search engine Yandex is used by 1% of mobile searchers. Yahoo (0.86%), Bing (0.51%), and DuckDuckGo (0.39%) make up the rest of the top five. 

(Statcounter)

3. The Google market share of desktop search traffic stands at 85.44%.

Google’s share of searches originating from desktops and laptops has been mostly steady. Search engine statistics reveal it currently stands at 85.44%. Bing comes in second with 8.32% market share, followed by Yahoo (2.47%), Yandex (1.26%), DuckDuckGo (0.9%), and Baidu (0.63%).

(Statcounter)

Global Desktop Search Engine Market Share

4. The number of searches grows by 10% every year.

Google search popularity is growing by the day, and stats show that the number of searches rises by 10% every year. When Google was in its start-up phase back in 1998-1999, the year-on-year search volume increase had, at one point, reached an astonishing 17,000%. 

(Internet Live Stats)

5. Google search engine stats confirm that the engine has around 15 exabytes of storage.

You don’t even know how big this number is, right? One exabyte is a number with 20 zeros behind it. To give some perspective, scientists think that the entire humankind has around 295 exabytes of information in total.

(XKCD)

6. With 94.19%, India is the top country in terms of Google usage.

Google search stats pinpoint India at the top of the list of countries where the majority of people use this search engine. India’s Google search traffic is not only high but is skyrocketing. A vast majority of the search queries are done on Google. The second place belongs to Brazil, where 92.5% of people use this search engine.

(Statista)

7. In the US, Google accounts for 92% of overall searches.

As you can see, the USA is not far behind India and Brazil in the list of countries where Google reigns supreme. Google search engine facts and stats by country say that this engine accounts for 92% of all searches stateside, and 96% of all mobile searches.

(Statista)

Distribution of Organic Search Visits in the US by Engine

8. The Google search frequency per year is at least 2 trillion.

As unbelievable as that might sound, according to Google search data, this figure is projected to increase constantly. It’s important to highlight that Google confirmed to Search Engine Land that it handles “trillions” of searches every year. Therefore, it’s difficult to assume how much the number of searches will increase.

(Search Engine Land)

9. One of the little known facts about Google is that it’s forbidden in China. 

Since 2014, there has been no Google service in mainland China. A market of around 800 million users is Google-free or Google-deprived, depending on the point of view. The country’s main search engine is Baidu with about 71.5% of the entire country’s market. Shenma comes in second with around 15.4%, and the rest are also local platforms. 

(DragonSocial)

10. In the US, 63% of the searches on Google come from mobile.

Mobile Google search statistics reveal that there are nearly two-thirds of searches in the US. While the number seems large, it is a normal outcome, given the rise of smartphone usage. Most of the searches done on mobile are aimed at generating less complex results such as fast facts, as opposed to learning complex subjects.

(Oberlo)

11. 77% of people use Google three times a day.

It seems the question we should be asking is not how many people use Google, but how many times a day they use it. It seems that we can barely survive without the internet. According to a recent study, the vast majority of users (77%) use Google more than three times on any given day to search for things online. Google search numbers further indicate 14% of people use it between one and three times.

(Moz)

12. 20% of all Google searches are done by voice commands.

Google voice search statistics show that 20% of all the searches on the engine are not performed via keyboards. They are done by voice command instead. The stats also show that with time, voice commands and searching will take over the market, and more searches will be done this way.

(Google)

Every month there’s a different trend on the world’s biggest engine. For example, Google search term trends mention rapper Juice Wrld as the most googled item in the USA for December 2019. However, in November 2019, the most Googled thing was Black Friday. Before that, it was the World Series, which took place from October 22 to October 30. And then, COVID-19 happened, and Coronavirus was the most searched topic from February through April 2020. ‘Duterte Russian Vaccine’ subsequently became the most searched term, with the highest number of searches naturally originating from the Philippines. 

(Google)

14. Around 1 billion people use Google Images daily.

Google search stats show that 10.1% of Google traffic is for images.google.com. People are searching for some image and click on it around 1 billion times a day. That equals around 11.5k every second. This vital part of Google search so far has indexed around 10 billion images. 

(Neil Patel, TheCrunch)

15. 46% of product searches start on Google first. 

When someone is trying to find something they need online, they are not going to the specific brands’ sites, but turn to Google instead. Nearly half of all the searches on the internet start on this platform and then lead to the actual product pages of retailers.

(PPC Protect)

16. More than 50% of shoppers use Google to discover or find a new brand.

Consumer insights and recent Google search word statistics say over half of the shoppers surveyed by the platform use it to find a new brand. Similarly, 51% turn to Google when they intend to research a product and purchase online, while nearly 60% say they do not only use it to research a product they intend to buy but also to make a plan about an in-store purchase. 

(Think With Google)

17. The first search result has a 43.32% CTR.

The click-through rate of the first page on a SERP, as Google search results statistics based on a survey show, stands at an average of 43.32%. Being ranked as one of the top Google searches can get some significant benefits. The data from the same source further reveals that 62.9% of respondents stated that the meta description had the biggest impact on the decision to click on a result regardless of its position.

(Ignite Visibility)

18. Google search statistics on CTR mention the second position gets 37.36% clicks.

As positions drop, so does the CTR. The second position gets clicked at least 37.36% of the time and the third one goes down to 29.90%. As the links go lower, the percentage falls significantly. The last position on the first page gets just 3.11% of all clicks.

(Ignite Visibility)

Google is the best option to pay for your business’ marketing plans. Google search statistics further suggest that AdWords will deliver the most customers who search for related terms, as they get you 3.17% of CTR. To give you some perspective, display ads have only 0.46% CTR.

(HigherVisibility)

It seems that dating websites’ marketing managers find it worthy to pay to attract users, Google’s PPC data show. The dating industry sees the most benefit from showing paid links on Google searches with almost twice more clicks than the average. Google search stats further indicate that the dating industry ads enjoy 6.05% CTR while the technology industry sees the lowest CTR at 2.09%.

(HigherVisibility)

21. AdWords are among the three most influential generators of web page conversions. 

Google’s paid ads that appear when people search for a certain keyword or a term are one of the three most certain ways to get customers on your website. Of course, this is one of the facts about Google search engine that only applies to marketers who know what they’re doing and where their campaign is headed. And in case you wish to know how much marketers need to pay for this — Google says their average cost-per-click is $2.69. 

(HigherVisibility)

22. Google My Business has been claimed by only 44% of businesses. 

Even though Google has put in a lot of effort to assist small businesses in their marketing endeavors, Google search statistics mention fewer than half of small business owners show minimal inclination to learn about digital marketing. Small business statistics indicate that although the GMB feature is free of charge and available to businesses of all sizes, 56% of small retailers lag in claiming their listings. 

(Local Market Institute)

23. Every business that spends $1 on Google ads will earn roughly $8. 

While the initial assumption is that businesses generally make an average of $2 in revenue for every $1 they spend on Google Ads, in reality, this is outdated data from 2009. Nowadays, the rule is that every business will earn eight times more for every dollar invested in Google ads. The return of investment in ads on this search engine is the biggest of all on the internet. 

(Google)

Google Keyword Search Statistics

24. Words that trigger emotions can increase CTR by 7%.

Titles with emotional value are more likely to be clicked. According to the latest Google search data, the rate of conversion can rise by 7% if the title is made to provoke some emotion. It doesn’t matter if it’s positive or negative, the result is the same.

(Backlinko)

25. The first million keywords make only a quarter of all searches.

People on the internet have so many interests. Google search result stats indicate that the first million on the ladder of most searched keywords account for 25% of the total. The top 10 million searches make around half of everything that is being typed in the engine. This makes it very difficult for marketers to find the best keywords for their clients.

(Moz)

26. Just over a third of searches, including ‘near me’, end with a store visit.

Google is good for local businesses, and according to Google keywords search statistics, 34% of people that searched for something near them eventually visit the place. Everyone involved in sales knows that getting a customer to visit the store is the first step toward making a sale.

(HubSpot)

27. Less than one percent (0.78%) of people click on something on Google’s second page.

There’s a joke on the internet — if you want to hide something, make sure it ends up on Google’s page 2, no one will find it there. Keywords on page 2, according to Google search keyword statistics, are going to be seen by almost no one, with only 0.78 clicks. 

(Backlinko)

28. Most google searches comprise two words.

Even though these trends are changing with time, it seems that most people (23.98%) do two-word searches, for example, ‘books Brooklyn’, or ‘bakery Syracuse’. In 21.71% of the cases, people do one-word searches, while three-word searches account for 19.60%. Only 12% search for whole sentences, according to Google word search statistics.

(RandFish

29. The most searched word on Google is Youtube.

With over 163 million searches in the US, Facebook is the most searched word in Google stateside. Globally, however, the most searched word is YouTube — the network that dominates the world of videos for marketing and entertainment purposes — with over 1.2 billion searches. Facebook comes in second with 1.1 billion searches, followed by Gmail. Google takes the number 4 spot of the most searched terms. 

(Ahrefs)

Most Searched Words in the US

30. Google search term statistics confirm ‘near me’ searches grew by 150% between April 2016 and 2018.

Over the years, Google has worked on making searches better to help those who are trying to find something around them. This resulted in more people including the term ’near me’ in their searches. This trend grew by 150% over just two years, but Google search traffic also noted a growth by a whopping 900% in searches for the term ‘near me today/tonight. Google search term statistics further reveal an additional 200% increase in queries including the terms ‘open’ + ‘now’ + ‘near me’. This means that optimizing for search terms like these will make you available to your audience the moment they are looking to buy from you. 

(Uberall)

31. The most expensive single keyword on the search engine is ‘insurance’ with $54.91 per click.

Not every keyword has the same value on Google. The word insurance is considered the most valuable and is worth around $55 per click, according to Google search statistics by keyword. So, if you see an ad about it and click on it just for fun, you just wasted someone’s 55 bucks for nothing. The same data shows that on top of the list are words like ‘loans’ and ‘mortgage’.

(Word Stream)

32. Having a question in the meta title will raise the CTR by 14.1%.

Google words search statistics indicate that it’s smarter to publish articles with a title that contains a question. These titles are proven to be clicked over 14% more by users than those that are a clear statement. For example, ‘Why coffee is good for you’ will be clicked 14% more than ‘Coffee is good for you’. 

(Backlinko)

33. One of the most asked questions on Google is ‘what to watch’.

People search for data about themselves on the internet most of the time. For example, the most Googled thing is ‘what to watch’, according to Google trends. Some other popular searches include, ‘where’s my refund’, ‘how you like that’, “what is my IP address” etc. 

(Keyword Tool)

Most Asked Questions on Google

34. Disney Plus was the most Googled term in 2019 stateside.

Disney’s streaming service was the most googled item in 2019 in the US. Some of the others were also Baby Yoda, Nipsey Hussle, and Cameron Boyce. Worldwide, the cricket match between India and South Africa was the most googled event in the world. 

(Forbes)

Little Known Facts About Google 

35. When it went public, Google was worth about $23 billion.

One of the interesting facts about the history of Google is that the search engine went public in 2004. They sold 19.6 million shares worth $85 each, giving the company a market capitalization of about $23 billion. In January 2020, the market cap of Google’s parent Alphabet hit $1 trillion. 

(CNN, CNBC)

36. Google search facts reveal every visit lasts 54 seconds on average.

The duration of a person’s average session on the search engine is just under a minute, according to Google search data and facts. Depending on what the person is looking for, this time can be a lot shorter or a lot longer. Playing a Google Doodle takes more than a minute. 

(Visma)

The Google Assistant is the only service the company needs to work on. According to Statista’s Google voice search stats, the feature holds second place in the market. 90% of users mostly use Siri (for Apple users), and only 26% use Alexa (for Android users). Even though Siri is not nearly as capable as Google, iPhone users simply got used to it and are using it as part of their regular mobile device usage.

(Statista

Voice Assistant Use on Mobile Phones in the US by Brand

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Google is one of the most successful brands and inventions in the history of the internet. And yet, it seems like businesses still aren’t taking full advantage of it. These Google search statistics will hopefully help you tweak your marketing strategy to reap all the potential benefits of using the world’s most powerful search engine. 

Sources: InternetLiveStats, Statcounter, Statcounter, XKCD, Statista, Statista, Search Engine Land, DragonSocial, Oberlo, Moz, Google, Google, Neil Patel, TheCrunch, PPC Protect, Think With Google, Ignite Visibility, HigherVisibility, Local Market Institute, Google, Backlinko, Moz, HubSpot, RandFish, Ahrefs, Uberall, Word Stream, Keyword Tool, Forbes, CNN, CNBC, Visma, Statista