HubSpot's web trends report + website traffic by industry

Reports like the average website traffic statistics are essential for benchmarking a website’s performance against industry peers. Without reliable website traffic benchmarks by industry, marketing teams risk setting targets that are either unrealistically high or dangerously complacent, in turn leading to wasted budget.

This blog compiles the latest post-2025 statistics from HubSpot’s survey of over 300 web professionals and industry analyses to give marketing managers, growth marketers, and web/SEO leads the multi-metric picture they actually need.

Table of Contents

• 2025 Website & SEO Benchmarks, According to 300+ Web Professionals
• 2025 Website & SEO Trends to Know
• Website Traffic & KPI Benchmarks
• Other HubSpot Research and Website Benchmarks
• Frequently Asked Questions About Website Traffic

2025 Website & SEO Benchmarks, According to 300+ Web Professionals

To give you an edge, HubSpot surveyed 336 U.S. SEOs and marketers to uncover how they measure site performance and their strategies to rank higher on SERPs. This section shows some data gotten from our Web Strategy Survey.

How much traffic does an average website get?

• The average website gets 375,773 unique views per month. (Keep in mind that the average is easily skewed by a handful of extremely high-traffic sites.)
• The average website gets seven page views per visit.
• The average website has a bounce rate between 35% and 60%.
• The average site has an SEO click-through rate of 13%, while the median comes in at 8%.
• The median website gets 20,000 unique visitors per month.

Remember, these numbers are self-reported, and many factors play into a website’s performance, including the size and age of the website, how big the team managing it is, and how often content is published on it.

HubSpot’s polls show the following:

• 33% of respondents claimed their best-performing sites rank 6 through 10 on search engine results pages (SERPs)
• 16% rank 1 through 5
• 24% of respondents’ pages rank 11 through 15
• 11% rank 16 through 20
• 7.7% rank 21 through 25

These statistics indicate 51% of websites rank on pages two and beyond, assuming 10 Google results per page. SEO is definitely a challenge for less-established websites or brands that are building their web presence. The data above shows that ranking highly on SERPs is possible, but it won’t happen overnight.

To rank high, search engines must view a blog or website as reliable and useful. That involves regularly publishing high-quality, relevant content for searchers who land on your website. Another crucial component is doing your keyword research:

• 43% of our respondents target keywords with low difficulty.
• 26% go for a mix of high and moderate difficulty.
• 21% aim for medium to moderate difficulty.
• 8% focus on the easiest keywords.
• Only 3% target the hardest ones.

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Average Website Traffic by Industry

Monthly visits (sessions) are industry benchmarks, but vertical, company size, and content maturity greatly affect them. Comparisons of traffic volume, conversion rate, and engagement data are needed to benchmark website performance.

According to the HubSpot web survey, here is the breakdown of the number of monthly visitors seen by each percentage of the website.

The traffic statistics show that nearly half of websites have fewer than 15,000 monthly visits. This means a website with more than 15,000 monthly visitors outperforms nearly half the web.

Another consideration is how the traffic statistics compare to specialty websites (near competitors). Traffic is tricky to talk about, as it fluctuates wildly depending on age, industry, and goals, and it’s not the only metric to measure success.

Here is some data on average website monthly unique sessions for some popular industries from an SEO company, First Page Sage.

Traffic benchmarks vary greatly by corporate size. SimilarWeb’s 2024–25 Marketing Benchmark Report divides websites into Giants (top 10 in their field), Challengers (11–100), and Up-and-Comers (101–500+), with huge gaps:

Giants get 47% to 77% of their traffic via direct, whereas smaller competitors use organic search and referrals.

AgencyAnalytics’ 2025 benchmarks break down mid-market and SMB websites’ average monthly sessions, bounce rates, and time on page across 12 industries:

It’s fascinating how vastly different website traffic is by industry. Again, take it with a grain of salt, as it’s not the only measure of success.

Now, based on HubSpot’s 2025 Web Strategy Survey, what trends are we seeing in the website world? Let’s go over six of those next.

2025 Website & SEO Trends to Know

The above-mentioned metrics accurately reflect the current state of website performance. What constitutes “good traffic” will be defined differently by the end of the year due to changes in the underlying terrain. Now, we’ll examine key tendencies that everyone needs to know about.

1. AI Overviews are reshaping click-through rates.

When Google’s AI Overviews started rolling out in the U.S. in May 2024, many feared the new feature would demolish website traffic. Has that happened? Well, AI Overviews has greatly impacted click-through rate (CTR):

• Organic CTR drops from 1.76% to 0.61% when an AI Overview is present. That’s a 61% decline.
• The #1 organic result sees CTR fall from 0.073% to just 0.016% on AI Overview queries. That’s a 58% reduction.
• Sixty percent of all searches now end without a click, with mobile zero-click behavior reaching 77%.
• Global Google traffic to publishers declined by a third in the 12 months ending November 2025.

However, the impact is not uniformly negative. Brands cited within AI Overviews earn 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than non-cited brands. Additionally, 76% of URLs cited in AI Overviews already rank in the traditional top 10. That means strong SEO fundamentals remain the entry ticket to AI-era visibility.

An important positional shift is also emerging: while position #1 organic CTR dropped 32% year-over-year, positions 6 through 10 are receiving 30% more clicks than before. AI Overviews appear to be compressing the top results while pushing some searchers deeper into the page.

The net effect: The reward for ranking well and being cited is growing, while the long tail of mediocre content is being squeezed out entirely.

Free resource: Need to know how your website is performing? HubSpot’s Website Grader gives you a quick score that covers speed, security, SEO, and mobile-friendliness. It helps you pinpoint areas for improvement and offers clear suggestions to make your site better, without the guesswork.

2. AI-assisted content still delivers value.

The relationship between AI-generated content and search performance is growing more nuanced. In HubSpot’s survey, only 46% of respondents said AI-assisted content helps pages rank higher, a sharp drop from 65% just one year earlier. Skepticism is rising across multiple dimensions:

• 36% said AI content has no ranking impact (up from 24% in 2023).
• 10% said it actively lowers rankings (up from 7% in 2023).
• Google’s December 2025 core update hit mass-produced AI content particularly hard; sites relying on AI-generated content without expert editorial oversight saw significant negative ranking impact.

The winning approach layers AI efficiency on top of human authority. Google’s E-E-A-T framework now explicitly rewards first-hand experience, which is something AI cannot fabricate. Original data, expert perspectives, and professional anecdotes are the differentiators that separate content that ranks from content that gets filtered out.

Key Focus Areas of E-E-A-T:

• One notable “E” in the framework rewards experience — something that AI is incapable of having. It measures whether content “was produced with some degree of experience, such as with actual use of a product, having actually visited a place or communicating what a person experienced.”
• AI also can’t leverage expertise to express a unique point of view or opinion, nor does it have an engaging personality. Content that leverages these will continue to perform well, as it incentivizes searchers to go beyond the AI result and click on your site.

For example, content featuring original data and perspectives from experts could do well in the evolving Google landscape, as it can be difficult to determine when generative AI is giving you wrong information about data or expert quotes (a.k.a “hallucinating”).

For teams looking to strike this balance, Breeze AI Assistant — part of HubSpot’s Breeze AI suite — can help generate initial content drafts while keeping humans in the editorial loop for the expertise layer that search engines reward.

3. Organic search traffic declines but still leads.

Organic search traffic is falling for the first time in years. By January 2026, U.S. organic search traffic declined 2.5% year-over-year; however, the decline was uneven:

• The top 10 sites in most categories saw a ~1.6% increase in organic traffic, indicating accelerated consolidation.
• Mid-sized publishers (100–10,000) suffered the most from AI Overviews and increased competition.
• Seventy-three percent of B2B websites saw significant traffic losses between 2024 and 2025, with an average 34% year-over-year decline.

Organic search isn’t disappearing. The threshold for earning it is rising. Domain authority, original research, and comprehensive topical coverage are helping sites get ahead, while generic material is falling behind AI Overviews and better-credentialed competitors.

Want to see how your brand stacks up in AI-powered search? HubSpot’s AEO Grader gives you a free, one-time snapshot of how tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity represent your brand — scoring sentiment, recognition, and share of voice so you know where perception gaps exist.

4. Google’s 2025 algorithm updates rewarded quality and punished shortcuts.

Google produced three major core updates in 2025, all of which improved quality and reduced shortcuts. The December 2025 update produced the most dramatic impact. Based on analysis of 847 affected websites:

• E-commerce sites: 52% saw ranking impact
• Health/Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) content: 67% saw ranking impact
• Affiliate sites: 71% saw ranking impact; thin affiliate content lacking original testing saw traffic drops of the same magnitude

Generic “SEO content” optimized for keywords rather than user intent saw 63% ranking losses. Technical performance carried more weight than in any previous update cycle.

Pro tip: The message from Google’s 2025 updates is pretty clear: create content for users first, optimize for search second, and do not neglect Core Web Vitals. Teams that deprioritized page speed to focus on content volume paid a measurable price.

Featured Resource: How Search AI Will Revolutionize the Future of SEO

5. The top SEO strategies are all about intent, authority, and brand.

From our surveys here at HubSpot, we have seen that the most effective SEO strategies cluster around fundamentals and not shortcuts:

• 21% say optimizing for search intent is the single most effective strategy.
• 20% prioritize optimizing on-page content with target and LSI keywords.
• 20% focus on thorough keyword research.
• 19% emphasize mobile optimization.
• 19% leverage AI to improve SEO performance.

The emphasis on intent matching over keyword stuffing reflects a broader shift. For 2026, brand authority deserves a place alongside these tactics. Branded web mentions now show a stronger correlation with AI Overview appearances than backlinks alone. As AI-driven search grows, brand recognition is no longer just a marketing exercise; it is an SEO strategy with direct ranking implications.

6. Performance tracking has shifted toward revenue.

HubSpot’s survey asked web professionals which metrics matter most, and the answer was definitive: “Sales, leads, and conversion rates” ranked #1 for the second consecutive year, followed by total monthly visitors and search traffic.

This shift toward business outcomes is accelerating as AI search features make traffic volume less predictable. That distinction reframes how marketing teams should read the benchmarks in this report. A site converting at 4% needs half the traffic to hit the same revenue target as a site converting at 2%. When organic traffic growth is harder to achieve, improving conversion rate is often the higher-ROI investment.

Additionally, 60%+ of marketers say inbound strategies like SEO and content generate their highest-quality leads. This means, in spite of a smaller quantity, organic visitors are still far more valuable per session than paid traffic. Protecting and optimizing the organic channel remains critical even as total volume contracts.

Pro tip: To get a detailed view of your website performance, try HubSpot’s Traffic Analytics tool.

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Website Traffic & KPI Benchmarks

The benchmarks earlier in this report cover traffic volume, conversion rates, and engagement by industry. This section shows you five KPIs for measuring website traffic and how to interpret each one in the context of 2026’s shifting search landscape.

Sales, Leads, and Conversion Rates

This metric ranked as the #1 most important KPI for two years running in HubSpot’s survey. And the reasoning is straightforward. Traffic volume means nothing if visitors don’t convert into leads, customers, or revenue.

This metric becomes even more important as AI search features grow and many speculate about the future of SEO. Even if search engines no longer favor your site, boosting conversion rates keeps your business resilient in the face of unexpected traffic dips.

Search Traffic

Search traffic refers to any traffic (paid or organic) that comes from a search engine, namely Google, but it could also include others, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo. As we saw in HubSpot’s 2025 survey, Google Search is still the number one traffic driver for websites.

Traffic From Social Media

Social media traffic includes Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and X visitors. Social media accounts for only 4% of website traffic, yet it boosts brand exposure and audience diversification.

Social media traffic diversification is smart as Google ranking becomes less predictable, especially for queries provided by AI Overviews. Concentration risk exists for organic search-dependent marketing teams.

Unique Monthly Visitors

This metric refers to each unique individual who visited a website during that month. So, if 100 people visit a website in August, but one of those people (let’s call her Amelia) visits the website 20 times that month, Amelia would account for one unique monthly visitor and 20 monthly visits.

Unique monthly visitors are important because they tell marketers how many potential customers they can capture and don’t inflate the numbers with repeat visitors.

Click-through Rate

Whether it’s an organic search result, a sponsored ad, or a call-to-action button on a website, CTR quantifies how frequently consumers click on the link after seeing it. One of the best ways to tell if content is relevant to user intent is by looking at this metric.

Click-through rate (CTR) is crucial because you can’t get conversions without getting clicks. To calculate the click-through rate of a link on a webpage, divide the number of times a link was clicked by the number of times it was viewed (visits to that specific webpage). Then, multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

To calculate the click-through rate of a paid ad, divide the number of times the ad’s link was clicked by the number of impressions the ad got. Then, multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Other HubSpot Research and Website Benchmarks

Web and SEO Performance

• Thirty-seven percent of websites publish new content multiple times a day (the most popular publishing schedule among our respondents). Second place was multiple times a week, with 25% reporting that as their frequency.
• Twenty-one percent believe optimizing content for search intent is the most effective SEO strategy.
• 20% Twenty percent think conducting keyword research is the most effective way to rank highly on SERPs.
• In 2025, 33% of SEOs and marketers met 51% to 75% of their lead generation goals.

Visitor Behavior

• Mobile devices are the preferred way to view websites, with 53% of SEOs and marketers ranking them as the most used device by their visitors.
• Google Search is still king, with 26% of respondents ranking it as the number one driver of traffic to their site. Paid social media and paid search tied for second place at 10%, and YouTube came in third at 9%.

Analytics and Tools

Seventy-four percent rely on Google Analytics, followed by 33% using Salesforce Analytics Tools, 21% using Squarespace Analytics Tools, and 21% using HubSpot Marketing Hub Analytics.

Frequently Asked Questions About Website Traffic

How much traffic does an average website get?

The average website on the internet gets about 375,773 unique visitors every month; however, this figure can be greatly skewed by outliers. The median is 20,000 monthly visitors. This is far more representative, as it considers the distribution of visitors across websites.

Here’s the distribution:

• 46% get 1,001–15,000 visits/month
• 19.3% get 15,001–50,000 visits/month
• 23.2% get 50,001–250,000 visits/month
• 11.5% exceed 250,000 visits/month

What is good traffic for a website?

Good traffic drives outcomes. It generates leads, leads to sales, and in turn increases revenue. It’s not just about clicks, but what follows after the clicks are made.

By business type, a small business or a startup should typically aim for 1,000 to 10,000 monthly visitors. A regional service can aim for 5,000-25,000 monthly visitors, and a mid-market B2B company 10,000-100,000 monthly visitors. Always consider the industry average as a benchmark.

Is 3% a good conversion rate?

Yes, 3% is a solid conversion rate. Considering the overall average conversion rate is 2.7% for B2B services and 1.7% for B2C, a 3% conversion rate is at the benchmark position. However, this percentage changes depending on the industry.

Why Does 96.55% of Content Get No Traffic from Google?

Most content fails due to a mismatch between content and search demand. Zero-traffic pages share one or more of these critical gaps.

• No searchable demand: The topic isn’t what people actually search for.
• No backlinks: Pages that have zero referring domains will have a harder time showing up in search results.
• Poor keyword targeting: Content doesn’t align with user queries.
• Thin content: Pages lack depth and comprehensiveness.

A great fix for this traffic issue is to find keywords with moderate demand and competition, write content that goes deeper into the topic than the top-10 results, link authority pages, and assess core web vitals.

Next Steps for Building a Great Web Experience

This report covered a lot of ground. It covered the average website traffic for each industry, website and SEO benchmarks, and website traffic and KPI benchmarks.

All this information is super important for web marketers to understand the current state of the web and plan effective strategies to outperform competitors. Web professionals can use the industry-specific traffic and conversion standards as a practical point of comparison.

Analyzing SEO trends and traffic sources reveals which acquisition channels are expanding and which are contracting, as well as how changes to algorithms and AI overviews are changing the rules. All of this is connected to the key performance indicator benchmarks that the executive team values most: income, leads, and clicks.

Our recommendation for an easy next step to implement these optimization tips? Test your site with our free Website Grader. It’ll quickly deliver a report of all the areas you’re excelling at — and the places you can grow — along with tactical next steps.

Editor’s note: This post was originally published in March 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

HubSpot's Free Website Builder

Create and customize your own business website with an easy drag-and-drop website builder.

• Build a website without any coding skills.
• Pre-built themes and templates.
• Built-in marketing tools and features.
• And more!

Get Started for Free