Reference library
Study
Original research: correlation studies, clickstream analysis, click-through benchmarks and industry surveys. Check the methodology before you quote the headline.
22 references · 2 canonical · 22 free · Intermediate / Beginner / Advanced
| Title | Author / publisher | Year | Level | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Zero-Click Search Study ↗Canon Clickstream-based analysis finding that for every 1,000 Google searches only about 360 clicks reach the open web in the US and about 374 in the EU, with the remainder ending in no click or a click to a Google-owned property. sparktoro.com | Rand Fishkin | 2024 | Intermediate | Free |
| We Analyzed 4 Million Google Search Results: Organic CTR ↗Canon Widely cited organic click-through-rate study by search position, including the effect of title length, question titles and power words on CTR. backlinko.com | Brian Dean | , | Intermediate | Free |
| 63% of Websites Receive AI Traffic (Study of 3,000 Sites) ↗ Analysis of referral traffic from AI assistants and answer engines across thousands of sites, quantifying how much measurable traffic AI surfaces currently send. ahrefs.com | Ahrefs | , | Intermediate | Free |
| 96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic from Google ↗ Large-scale study of pages in the Ahrefs index showing the extreme skew of organic traffic distribution and the correlation between referring domains and any traffic at all. ahrefs.com | Ahrefs | 2023 | Intermediate | Free |
| Advanced Web Ranking Google Organic CTR Study ↗ Regularly refreshed CTR curves segmented by position, device, country, query length and SERP feature presence, drawn from a large Search Console sample. advancedwebranking.com | Advanced Web Ranking | , | Intermediate | Free |
| Ahrefs SEO Statistics ↗ Continuously updated compilation of sourced SEO statistics drawn from Ahrefs' own studies and third-party research, useful as a citation index rather than as primary research. ahrefs.com | Ahrefs | , | Beginner | Free |
| AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 34.5% ↗ Ahrefs study comparing average CTR for top-ranking pages on queries with and without an AI Overview, one of the most-cited quantifications of AI Overview click loss. ahrefs.com | Ahrefs | , | Intermediate | Free |
| BrightEdge Research Reports ↗ Enterprise-panel research on channel share, SERP feature prevalence and AI Overview behaviour, drawn from BrightEdge's Data Cube of customer sites. brightedge.com | BrightEdge | , | Intermediate | Free |
| BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey ↗ The longest-running annual consumer survey on how people use online reviews when choosing local businesses, covering review volume, recency, star-rating thresholds and response expectations. brightlocal.com | BrightLocal | , | Beginner | Free |
| Content Marketing Institute Research ↗ Annual B2B and B2C content marketing benchmarks, budgets and trends surveys, the long-standing reference for content team staffing and investment norms. contentmarketinginstitute.com | Content Marketing Institute | , | Beginner | Free |
| Do People Click on Links in Google AI Summaries? ↗ Independent behavioural study of a representative US panel finding users are less likely to click any result when an AI summary is present. Valuable as non-vendor evidence on AI Overview click behaviour. pewresearch.org | Pew Research Center | 2025 | Intermediate | Free |
| Moz Search Ranking Factors ↗ Moz's long-running ranking factors resource, historically built from practitioner surveys and correlation analysis. The reference point for how the industry has framed ranking factors since 2005. moz.com | Moz | , | Intermediate | Free |
| Moz: Local Search Ranking Factors ↗ Moz's explainer and survey-derived summary of the signals that influence local pack and localised organic rankings. moz.com | Moz | , | Intermediate | Free |
| New Research: Google Search Grew 20%+ in 2024; Receives ~373X More Searches Than ChatGPT ↗ Clickstream analysis quantifying Google search volume growth against ChatGPT usage, widely cited as a counterweight to predictions of rapid search volume decline. sparktoro.com | Rand Fishkin | , | Intermediate | Free |
| Search Engine Journal State of SEO Report ↗ Annual practitioner survey covering budgets, team structures, tooling, priorities and the perceived impact of algorithm and AI-search changes. searchenginejournal.com | Search Engine Journal | , | Beginner | Free |
| The 2024 Web Almanac ↗ The full 2024 edition of HTTP Archive's annual state of the web report, spanning performance, markup, media, security, CMS, accessibility and SEO chapters. almanac.httparchive.org | HTTP Archive | 2024 | Advanced | Free |
| The Web Almanac: SEO Chapter ↗ Annual, peer-reviewed analysis of SEO implementation across millions of real websites, measuring adoption of canonical tags, structured data, hreflang, robots directives and rendering patterns. almanac.httparchive.org | HTTP Archive | , | Advanced | Free |
| We Analyzed 11.8 Million Google Search Results ↗ Correlation study across millions of results examining backlinks, content length, page speed, HTTPS, schema and other factors against ranking position. Correlational, not causal. backlinko.com | Brian Dean | , | Intermediate | Free |
| We Studied 200,000 AI Overviews ↗ Large-sample analysis of AI Overview appearance by query type, length, intent and citation source, one of the primary datasets on which AI Overview optimisation advice is based. semrush.com | Semrush | , | Intermediate | Free |
| We Studied the Impact of AI Search on SEO Traffic ↗ Semrush research quantifying how AI search surfaces change organic traffic patterns and the relative value of visits arriving from AI assistants. semrush.com | Semrush | , | Intermediate | Free |
| Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors Report ↗ Annual expert survey ranking the relative importance of local pack and local organic ranking factors, including Google Business Profile signals, reviews, citations and links. whitespark.ca | Whitespark | , | Intermediate | Free |
| Why (Almost) Everything You Knew About Google CTR Is No Longer Valid ↗ SISTRIX's large-scale CTR analysis showing how SERP features, query intent and result layout distort the classic position-to-CTR curve. sistrix.com | SISTRIX | , | Intermediate | Free |