Sectoral SEO Benchmarks
A law firm, a shop, an agency and a local craft business need different SEO priorities. Industry benchmarks help not to evaluate technical and substantive signals with the wrong yardstick.
Industries differ in content depth, local signals, forms, structured data, product data, and internal linking. A general average can therefore generate false priorities.
Dated comparison from the benchmark
Data status of the aggregation: 23.06.2026 (UTC). Historical snapshot from the Seitenreport benchmark, not a current or representative market comparison. Editorial classification: 02.11.2026.
Average of domain shares · sample per key figure in brackets. On small screens, the table can be moved laterally.
| Segment | Canonical is available | Description is available | Just one H1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local services | 55.6 % (n = 145) | 53.9 % (n = 145) | 50.6 % (n = 145) |
| E-commerce | 27.6 % (n = 25) | 57.2 % (n = 25) | 36.4 % (n = 25) |
| Publishers | 92.9 % (n = 7) | 74.3 % (n = 7) | 81.4 % (n = 7) |
| Public sector | 85.7 % (n = 7) | 74.1 % (n = 7) | 82.9 % (n = 7) |
| Total data set | 60.1 % (n = 68,464) | 69.1 % (n = 68,464) | 58.4 % (n = 68,464) |
n denotes domains with an evaluable value for the respective key figure. First, the checked pages of a domain are combined, then these domain values are averaged in an equilibrated manner. The total data set also contains the respective segment; it is not an independent control group. The current collector checks up to ten pages per domain, older records can be based on only one page.
The industry samples are particularly small: e-commerce, publishers and the public sector are each under 30 domains. Even individual domains can greatly change the mean value. The automatic segment assignment and the unequal selection do not allow a reliable ranking of the industries.
The key figures measure presence or number in the recorded HTML. An existing canonical can point to the wrong target, a description may be inappropriate, and a single H1 may contain a weak headline. The table does not evaluate rankings or complete technical quality.
Survey and limits of the benchmark methodology · Deepening individual SEO characteristics
Examples of meaningful industry segments
Location reference, LocalBusiness markup, contact options, internal links and clear service pages are particularly relevant here.
Product structure, structured data, canonicals, performance signals and clean indexing play a larger role.
Content depth, references, internal linking, and clean snippet signals are often crucial.
Trust, clear topic structure, local signals and visible expertise count more than pure technical perfection.
Information architecture, downloads, forms and professional landing pages shape the SEO rating.
Internal linking, structured data, headings, canonicals and snippet quality are particularly benchmarkable.
Which key figures work differently for each industry
A high proportion of links can be normal for a magazine, but unusual for a law firm. Many forms can be useful for B2B landing pages, but irritate editorial pages. This is precisely why a benchmark should not only collect technical values, but also provide segment context.
The table shows the currently documented segment selection and its historical data status. Agencies, law firms and other subgroups are not shown here with their own measured values, as long as there is no separately documented comparison.
Start with the general SEO benchmark and use industry/category as soon as enough segment data is available.
Opening up SEO BenchmarkWhat can be derived from these industry values
Compare only actually matching page types. The small categories of this snapshot are suitable for formulating audit questions, not to prove that an industry is technically better positioned.
For a more robust follow-up evaluation, selection procedures, segment assignment and crawl depth must be traceable. A larger number alone does not eliminate systematic selection errors.
Practical use of industry benchmarks
Select the segment first
A law firm should not be rated with a shop average. The right comparison starts with industry and page type.
Weighting metrics
Product data is more important for shops, LocalBusiness signals for local service providers. The benchmark classifies this weighting.
Checking the data
Small samples vary widely. More data only helps together with comprehensible selection and consistent collection.