71 Validated Online Reputation Stats Impacting Business in 2023

Online Reputation Management is the process of assessing how customers perceive your company and taking appropriate strategic actions to improve it. Reputation management is now about protecting and monitoring your brand's online reputation through reviews, social media, and Google.

The reason you should assume charge of your search engine results pages is simple: when people want to learn more about something, the first thing they do is a search on Google. Online Reputation Management (ORM), is the act of managing your digital content in order to offer them the best chance of ranking on the first page of Google.

The realm of online reputation management is rife with tragedies, falls from glory, and slanderous rumors that can damage careers and whole organizations. A little knowledge of managing your internet reputation may go a long way with any danger. These facts and stats should be useful.

This information is not meant to intimidate anyone. Instead, it is a rational approach to understanding online reputation management (ORM), what works, what doesn't, and what to do about it.

With the right processes in place, you can create an online presence that promotes integrity, leadership, and credibility. Allow this tutorial to act as a refresher on the present state of internet users and how to take advantage of these statistics. Here is a list of 71 online reputation management stats that impact your business.

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How many people use the internet?

5 Billion people use the internet today, which is equivalent to 63 percent of the global population. The number of internet users continues to rise, as the most recent data shows that the world's connected population has increased by nearly 200 million in the twelve months up to April 2022.

• As of April 2022, the internet was used by more than 5 billion people or more than 63% of the global population total. (Source: Statista)

• There are now more than 1.8 billion Gmail users worldwide. (Source: TechJury)

• 78% of adults have internet access in their homes. (Source: Pew Research)

• The average worldwide user spends 3h 14 mins looking at their computer screens, and 3h 43 mins looking at their mobile phones. Americans consume just over average amounts of desktop screens (3 hours 34 minutes), but less than average mobile screen consumption (3 hours 30 minutes). (Source: Orberlo)

• Nigeria is the country that spends the most time on social media sites. The average user logs in for just 4 hours and 7 mins. The aging population spends the least time on social media sites. On average, a Japanese user logs in for 51 minutes. (Data Reportal)

• The average social media use of internet users worldwide in 2022 was 147 minutes, an increase from 145 minutes in 2021. (Source: Statista)

• Only 7% of Americans don’t use the internet (Source: Pew Research)

What Are People Searching for?

Online reputation management includes mastering SEO. Search engine optimization begins with understanding who is looking, what customers are searching for, and what they want to discover.

Google is used by billions of people every day to perform their daily searches. Google is not only a search engine but also offers a variety of services. Google also offers Gmail, their most popular email service, Google News, Google Shopping, and a video and image platform.

• Around 93% of all web traffic is via a search engine.  (Source: 99Firms) 

• Google is the most used and the largest search engine as of January 2022, with a world market share of 92.48 percent.  (Source: Stat Counter)

• YouTube is the most (appropriate) search topic in 2022 with 1,225,900,000 (Source: Ahrefs)

• Organic search accounts for almost 55% of all website traffic. (Source: Brightedge) 

• Google was visited 89.3 billion times in the past month alone. (Source: Similar Web)

•  16.3 percent of Google's organic traffic in the US comes from people Googling the term “Google.” (Source: Ahrefs)

• Gmail gets 40.7k queries per second

Search engine market share 2022

How many people use Google? 

Google currently owns more than 92% market share in the global search engine marketplace as of 2022.

Bing is Google's closest competitor and holds a 3.08% market share. Yahoo has 1.3%. Over the last few years, distribution has remained fairly stable with Google continually claiming competitive victory due to detailed search results and in-depth analytics.

Customer reviews statistics

Managing reviews online is an important part of controlling customer sentiment about your brand. Reviews on Yelp, TripAdvisor, the Better Business Bureau, and other sites offer customers honest opinions. 

Reputation management alleviates the consequences of public opinion storms on brands. It is as important for companies and institutions as it is for people. Most organizations are unaware of the dangers of a bad review on Google, as well as the extent to which their online reputation forecasts their success or failure.

Mishandled reputation crisis management may send a corporation into a financial tailspin. Damage control by public relations pros can sometimes exacerbate the situation.

What is trending in reviews?

• 93% of people who use mobile to research go on to complete a purchase of a product or service. (Source: Think with Google)

• A single review on a product page can improve conversions by 354% (Source: BazaarVoice)

• 60% of shoppers turn to Google for reviews (Source: Bizrate Insights)

• 57% of eCommerce customers turn to Amazon for online reviews (Source: Bizrate Insights)

• Yelp has more than 224 million reviews (Source: Yelp)

• 90% monitor their online ratings and reviews at least once every quarter either by using social media (66%) or via in-house employees and PR agencies (44%). (Source: Clutch)

• 69% of millennials that own a small business rely on digital resources to manage their online company reviews. (Source: Clutch)

• Only  16% of consumers trust what is written on your website (Source: Bizrate Insights)

• 91% of consumers 18-34 years-old trust businesses with positive reviews (Source: 99Firms)

• Positive ratings increase consumer trust by nearly 75%. (Source: BrightLocal) 

• If asked, about 72% of consumers will leave reviews for businesses. (Source: BrightLocal) 

• 89% of consumers read business review responses (Source: BrightLocal)

• Before trusting a company, consumers read an average of 7 reviews. (Source: Capterra)

• 21 percent of consumers used the internet to find a local business on a daily basis. (Source: Statista)

• Local businesses that are proactive about their online reputation are 140% more likely to have a star rating of at least 4.5. (Source: SurveyNow)

• Every extra one-star Yelp review results in a 9% increase in profit for the business. (Source: Harvard Business School)

• A negative reputation can cost a company 10% more per hire. (Source: Harvard Business Review)

• People spend 5x more time iterating with negative reviews on a product page ( Search Engine Journal) 

• 54% of consumers would not buy a product if they suspected it to have fake reviews (Source: Statista)

• 95% of consumers suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see bad scores. (Source: Local Circles)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Statistics

Individuals are searching online for information and forming opinions about people and businesses more than ever before. 

According to Google data, 70% of mobile searchers who’ve recently made a purchase have clicked to call a business from the search results page. 

Because people are continuously Googling your name, the name of your company, or questions like "best restaurant near me," SEO is a primary emphasis area of many reputation management initiatives. Given the Internet's ability to establish or break your image, the following are among the most important SEO reputation management.

SEO Statistics 2022

• Google processes approximately 63,000 search queries every second, translating to 5.6 billion searches per day and approximately 2 trillion global searches per year. (HubSpot)

• The top result in Search engine result pages has a clickthrough rate (CTR) of 31.7 percent on average. (Source: Smartinsight)

• The top three Google search results receive 75.1 percent of all clicks. In contrast, only 0.78 percent of Google search users engage on listings on page two. (Source: Sistrix) 

• CTR rises at locations 3 and 5 before falling precipitously, with another little increase at position 10. This is most likely because consumers read the top few entries before navigating to the bottom of the page. (Source: Smartinsight)

• 92% of all search queries are long-tailed keywords. (Source: Backlinko)

• Moving up a single place in Google results may enhance relative CTR by 30.8 percent; however, this is not an even allocation, as certain improvements are more valuable than others. (Source: Backlinko)

• 28% of local searches result in a purchase (Source: WebFX)

• 28.5% is the average click rate to get to the first position on Google. (Source: Sistrix)

• The percentage drops quickly beyond position 1. In the second position, the average click rate was 15.7%. In the third position, it was 11%. (Source: Sistrix)

• Only a tenth position has a search result that is clicked on by an average of 2.5%. (Source: Sistrix)

• More than 50% of Google searches end without a click. (Source: Search Engine Land)

• 97% of consumers check a company’s online presence before deciding to visit them (Source: 99Firms)

Voice Search

Voice search devices are becoming more popular. More than 55% of consumers use voice search when searching for a local business. You can't afford to miss this opportunity to bring these leads to your business, as more than half of consumers use voice search to locate local businesses.

Your business will need to adapt as more people use voice search devices. Voice search is different from regular searches. These leads can be reached by optimizing how you rank in search results for verbal queries.

Voice search statistics in 2022

• 58% of consumers use voice search to find a local business (Source: Moment Feed)

• 30% of all searches in 2023 will be done using a device without a screen (Source: Gartner)

• 78% of people search for local businesses more than once a week (Source: Brightlocal)

• 52% of people in the US own a smart speaker (Source: Dialog Tech)

• 27% of smart speaker owners will make a purchase using their device (Source: Search Engine Land)

• Fifty percent of Facebook Messenger's total voice traffic comes from Cambodia. (Source: Make Use Of)

Social Media

From an individual standpoint, most individuals understand how internet reputation works. As brands struggled to offer more services and products online social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp began releasing eCommerce tools that allow businesses to sell more items from their social networks.

It's evident that social media eCommerce is on the rise as more social media platforms offer in-platform shopping options. As with every new marketing trend, it's possible to wonder if consumers are actually purchasing products from social media.

Do Consumers Actually Buy Products on Social Media?

• By 2025 alone, social shopping is set to become a $1.2 trillion channel. (Source: Accenture) 

• 68% of consumers made at least one purchase directly from social media in 2021. (Source: Social Sprout)

• 98% of consumers plan to make at least one purchase through social shopping or influencer commerce in 2022. (Source: Social Sprout)

• Gen Z shoppers (18-24 years old) anticipate using visual-first social networks like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat to make purchases in 2022, while Gen X (41-56 years) and Baby Boomers (57-75 years) plan to increase their purchases on Pinterest and Facebook. (Source: Social Sprout)

• 66% of shoppers today use social media as part of their shopping strategy. (Forbes)

• 71% of consumers are most likely to shop for themselves when buying directly from social. (Source: Social Sprout)

• Social media-based influencer recommendations help 49% of consumers decide what to buy. (Source: Orbelo)

• 80% of consumers have purchased something after seeing it recommended by an influencer. (Source: Orbelo)

• Brand discovery from online sources comes through social media 52% of the time. (Source: Adespresso)

• Among internet users ages 18-34, 95% will follow at least one brand on social media. (Source: Dream Grow)

• 70% of customers expect companies to use social media for customer service. (Source:  Hoot Suite)

• Marketers use social media to reach the important market of college-age students because they work better than traditional print media. (Source: Business News)

• The most popular uses for social media are brand awareness and building brand preference.  (Source: 

Conclusion

Statistics on online reputation management may be frightening, however, they are not deceptive. More businesses than ever before are dealing with crisis management concerns, seeking reputation management services, scurrying for consulting firms, and fearing the expense of reputation risk. The fact is that having a team monitoring these important statistics for you can result in positive brand perception.

94% of local businesses that use reputation management agree at least partially with the fact that it offers enough ROI to cover its cost.

Don't be swept up in the tidal wave of statistics. The truth is clear: the internet is always evolving. It's no longer merely a matter of tracking click-through rates, fine-tuning case studies, and disseminating infographics. All of these strategies might be effective in the short term. For long-term results, we recommend consulting with a reputation management company to monitor your online presence.