I recently found this infographic displaying the statistics of people who use search engines, and therefore why SEO is crucial for online businesses.

Statistics indicate that 90% and 91% of internet-using men and women, respectively, use search engines on a regular basis. That’s huge, considering how there are hundreds of millions of internet users in the world. This is a market that online businesses must take advantage of and market to through the internet.

Another important statistic shows that 80% of people have searched a product online and then purchased it offline. This seems counter intuitive as humans naturally search for the most convenient option, yet they’re taking an extra step here. Why? Most likely, it is because people feel uncomfortable with making purchases online. Now that the problem has been identified, online businesses must take this into account and create easy, fast and bug-free purchasing experiences for customers (See my earlier blog post, “Shut up and take my money”).