The HubSpot Blog’s 2024 Web Traffic & Analytics Report [New Data]

Your website is finally live, and everything looks good, but… how does it stack up against the competition? Tracking website benchmarks is vital to understanding your site’s performance and identifying growth opportunities.

To give you an edge, I surveyed over 400 U.S. web analysts and marketers to uncover how they measure site performance and the strategies they use to rank higher on SERPs. Lastly, it wouldn’t be a trends report without a mention of AI. So, I also asked about their early predictions about how this tech will shift SERPs in the future.

Table of Contents

• 2024 Website & SEO Benchmarks
• 2024 Website & SEO Trends to Know
• Other HubSpot Research + Website Benchmarks

2024 Website & SEO Benchmarks

• The median website gets 20,000 unique visitors per month, while the average is over 300K. (However, 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 of 37%.
• The average site has an SEO click-through rate of 13%, while the median comes in at 8%.

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

When it comes to ranking on search results, just 40% of websites rank on the first page, and only 23% rank in the top 1-3 results of the first page.

According to our latest survey, 33% of respondents said that their highest-performing pages rank in positions 6-10 on SERPs, while 16% rank in positions 1-5. Moreover, 24% of respondents' pages rank in positions 11-15, 11% in positions 16-20, and 7% in positions 21-25.

With 60% ranking on pages 2 and beyond, SEO is definitely a challenge for less established websites or brands that are building their web presence. While the data above demonstrates that ranking highly on SERPs is an attainable goal, this likely didn‘t happen for our high-ranking participants overnight — and it won’t happen that quickly for you either.

You’ll need to establish your blog or website as a credible and helpful source in the eyes of a search engine, for it to rank you highly. That means consistently publishing quality content that is relevant to those who choose to click on your website after searching up a question or phrase.

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 difficulty, 8% focus on the easiest keywords, and only 3% target the hardest ones.

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2024 Website & SEO Trends to Know

1. AI will shake things up in search, but respondents are optimistic.

AI is coming to search results, and while it will definitely shake things up, bloggers predict it could give users a better experience on search platforms, offering more relevant results faster than before. This, in turn, could result in more people using search.

Our 2024 survey found that 46% believe using generative AI helps their pages rank higher on SERPs and 36% think it has no effect on ranking. Around 10% feel it actually lowers their ranking and are worried that their website will get overlooked.

One concern is that AI in search could negatively impact your traffic if content focuses on answering straightforward queries like “How to Enable Macros in Excel,“ or “How to Scrape Website Data to Excel.”

AI can answer those questions without users having to visit your website. As people get their questions answered by AI, they might not need to go to these site pages, so monitoring your traffic during this period of change is key.

I recently came across a great post by Margo Mulvihill, Founder of WhereDigitalGoes who says:

“Most businesses are panicking. They're building one strategy for Google, another for AI search, and spreading themselves thin. But here's what they're missing: Both systems speak the same language → semantics. AI search vs Google search???! Wrong question. They're converging at the semantic level.”

She points out that both Google and AI search care about how ideas connect, but they do it in different ways:

• Google analyzes context to understand meaning.
• AI models process relationships between concepts.

She advises creating semantically rich content by using related terms, building clear context, and connecting relevant concepts. For example, instead of just repeating “digital marketing,” include topics like customer journey, conversion optimization, analytics, and campaign attribution.

Why does this work?

Because Google recognizes comprehensive content, AI detects semantic patterns, and readers get complete information.

“Stop trying to game two systems. Start speaking their shared language. Your content will rank higher, your AI visibility will soar, and your readers will thank you.” says Mulvihill.

Another way Google is shifting is by changing the way it prioritizes standard link-based search results and rankings with its new E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) framework.

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”).

Students, professionals, and even consumers in the research stages of the buyer's journey may want to get data or expert insights from direct sources beyond the search page so they can vet legitimacy and trustworthiness.

Free resource: Need to know how your website is performing? 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. 50% of writers use AI tools to boost content performance.

Not only do half of bloggers use AI to make content, but 74% of web analysts whose writers use AI for content creation say it makes their content perform better. Actually, 41% saw an increase in website traffic since generative or LLM AI features were added to search engines. Meanwhile, 58% of web analysts/SEOs are also incorporating AI tools into their workflow.

Some are gradually testing it and comparing results to performance without AI, while others use AI for specific things, like keyword research, automating tedious tasks, optimizing their website, and idea generation. Some are also building brand-new teams to leverage AI.

As AI and LLMs integrate with search engines, these content types are expected to perform best:

• 45% say “how to” guides.
• 37% prefer reviews/comparisons.
• 27% favor opinion pieces, 24% choose personal stories.
• 19% expect trendy content.

3. Blogging for SEO is still highly effective, but social search shouldn't be ignored.

43% of web analysts saw an increase in year-over-year (YoY) web traffic for their primary website, 44% reported traffic stayed the same, and only 14% experienced a decrease.

Still, 79% of Gen Z and Millennials say they use the search function on social apps. On top of that, 29% of Gen Z and Millennials actually prefer using social media to search for answers to questions online over search engines, though a majority (58%) still favor search.

Search engines are actively being disrupted by both social search and AI, meaning it's more important than ever to monitor your web performance and adapt your strategy accordingly.

Want to see how your brand stacks up in AI-powered search? HubSpot’s AI Search Grader digs into your visibility on tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, highlighting what’s working and where you can improve your brand’s awareness and sentiment.

4. Most SEOs have seen positive impacts from Google’s 2024 algorithm updates.

65% say the update had a positive impact, including increased web traffic and SERP ranking. 48% saw an increase in traffic since the update, while just 3% saw a drop.

As mentioned, the update added an “E” for experience to Google’s “E-E-A-T” framework for determining search rankings.

Professionals in our survey ranked each of these in order of importance for ranking highly on SERPs, with “trustworthiness” and “expertise” taking the top spots, followed by “experience” and “authoritativeness.”

Trustworthiness is all about showing that your website and the content on it is credible. The expertise and experience metrics focus on whether or not you are a subject matter expert and have personal experience with the topic at hand — these will all be increasingly important as AI enters the mix.

Speaking of Google updates, Mert Erkal, founder of Stradiji, anticipates an interesting change in the search landscape in 2025:

“Gemini 2.0 will require you to focus more on multimodal content in SEO strategies. Optimising your visual and audio content, increasing the speed and performance of your website, and improving the user experience will lead to better rankings in search engines.”

This update, powered by multi-modal AI, promises to handle everything from text to images, video, and audio, making search results faster and more accurate. It’s going to impact SEO, digital marketing, and user experiences big time.

Mert also mentions Google’s launch of the ‘24-Hour View’ in Search Console, a feature that provides real-time content performance tracking with hourly data.

Source

This reduces data latency and helps digital marketers quickly analyze how new content is performing across Google Search, Discover, and News, with insights on queries, countries, and pages.

However, the feature has some limitations — dashed lines for incomplete data and a lack of a UTC option for global businesses, which could lead to confusion. Despite these issues, it will be a valuable tool for faster, data-driven decision-making in 2025.

For a better idea of the changes to come, check out How Search AI Will Revolutionize the Future of SEO.

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5. The top SEO strategies are all about optimization.

We asked web analysts about the most effective strategies they use for ranking on SERPs, and as you can see below, three revolve around optimization:

• 21% say optimizing for search intent is the most effective strategy for ranking higher on SERPs.
• 20% prioritize optimizing on-page content with target or LSI keywords.
• 20% focus on conducting thorough keyword research.
• 19% emphasize optimizing websites for mobile.
• 19% are leveraging AI to improve SEO performance.
• 16% highlight the importance of writing compelling title tags and meta descriptions.

Adding visual content to your blog posts, like videos or infographics, is another strategy that can increase the time users spend on your page, which lets search algorithms know your content is valuable and potentially increases your ranking.

The last tactic we want to call out is using AI tools to SEO-optimize your website. 58% of web analysts/SEO are already looking for ways to incorporate AI into their workflow. This can help save you time and supercharge everything from keyword research to content creation.

6. Mobile optimization is more important than ever.

Our consumer trends survey found that 54% of consumers use their phones most often when looking up a question on a search engine. This jumps to 80% for Gen Z and around 60% for Millennials and Gen X.

Chances are, your site is being visited by mobile more often than by laptop/desktop computers, making prioritizing the mobile experience key to success.

7. When it comes to tracking performance, web analysts focus on the bottom line.

Sales, leads, and conversions are the most important metrics web analysts track, followed by total monthly visitors, click-through rate, search traffic, and bounce rate.

Pro tip: When analyzing your website‘s performance, it’s helpful to compare your data against website traffic benchmarks by industry to see how you stack up.

Why? Because traffic patterns vary significantly across different sectors, so by comparing your site‘s performance to others in your specific industry, you get a clearer picture of what’s normal or exceptional for your niche.

Other HubSpot Research + Website Benchmarks

While SERPs and site performance trends are always evolving, a lot has stayed the same year-over-year. Here are some stats we still think are important to keep in mind from the Web Strategy Survey we ran in 2024:

Web & SEO Performance

• 65% believe people will use search engines more often in 2025 to answer their questions.
• 37% of websites publish new content multiple times a day.
• 21% believe optimizing content for search intent is the most effective SEO strategy.
• 58% consider keyword research their top priority for SEO.
• 32% say local SEO has become more critical for their strategy.
• 54% believe high-quality backlinks significantly improve search rankings.
• 28% of marketers identified featured snippets as their main target for organic visibility.
• 35% of businesses claim their biggest SEO challenge is staying updated with algorithm changes.

Visitor Behavior

• 53% of visitors access websites via mobile while 28% use computers.
• 26% of traffic comes from Google Search.
• 12% of traffic comes from email or newsletters.

Traffic & Performance Metrics

• 33% meet 51-75% of their lead generation goals.
• Paid search and organic social media each contribute 12% to total traffic.
• 28% of websites report an under 0.001% conversion rate, while 7% reach conversion rates between 5%-7.5%.

Analytics & Tools

• 74% rely on Google Analytics, followed by 33% using Salesforce Analytics Tools.
• 15% use SEMRush, 10% use Ahrefs.
• 21% use HubSpot Marketing Hub Analytics, while 15% use Similarweb.

Other High-Traffic Channels

• Mobile devices were responsible for nearly half of all web traffic. Continuous research done by HubSpot and many other publications shows that this trend is only increasing.
• 49% of respondents stated that mobile optimization is their biggest technical SEO focus.
• 67% believe video content drives higher traffic than other formats.

Next Steps for Building a Great Web Experience

Inspired by this data and want to leverage the traffic sources, optimization tips, or other strategies mentioned in this piece, but don‘t know where to start on building or improving your website’s SEO? First, test your site with our Website Grader.

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

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

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