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Search Visibility: Your Key SEO Success Metric

Written by Toni Becker | August 06, 2020

Search Visibility plays a vital role in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and is the key success metric of your strategy, but what exactly is Search Visibility and how do you measure it?

Search Visibility is the measurement of how many users view your website in search engine results related to your business offerings, and it measures how much traffic you are likely to receive from your organic reach.  It also a strong indication of how many times you are present in the search engine index, how high you rank in the results and how much traffic you receive due to the keywords and keyphrases you are listed for online. Your search visibility score refers to the percentage of clicks you are likely to receive based on your organic ranking positions across all your keywords and keyphrases. 

Ranking higher...for the key words and phrases that matter

There are a variety of methods marketers can use to get your website to rank higher in the search engine results such as AdWords and PPC campaigns - all of which are paid for and offer quick results but this isn't a sustainable approach nor do they provide long-term benefits for a business.

This is why Search Engine Optimisation is vital for your Search Visibility as it is a long-term strategy that gets your site ranking and keeps your site ranking. 

How Search Visibility is Calculated:

  • Taking all of your rankings for your chosen keywords and keyphrases.
  • Applying a click through rate (CTR) based on each of the ranking positions.
  • Adding your CTR and dividing the number of keywords and keyphrases you are tracking, providing you with a metric of 0%-100%.
  • A Search Visibility Score of 0% means that you are not getting any traffic and none of your pages are ranking in the top 50 results in the search engines. A score of 100% means you own the search results for all of your keywords and keyphrases. It's important to note that a score of 100% is almost impossible to reach but you should aim for a minimum Search Visibility Score of 35% - 45%  as this is the average click through rate of a URL in the top position of the search results.  This score would indicate that your business ranks well across many important search terms for your business - but with plenty of room for improvement.

By knowing your score, you are able to track your search visibility and watch its progress, compare your results to those of your competitors and develop a strategy based on your findings to boost your score. 

3 Key Factors that Affect your Search Visibility and Website Traffic

There are a variety of factors that will determine your search visibility, and these are just 3 of the primary factors. 

  1. Search Volume: When you choose your keywords, you need to ensure that they are going to be used by people when searching for products or services related to your business. If you have a keyword that is almost never used, your ranking does not matter as you will not gain traffic through this tactic and you can find out if a keyword is viable by checking its click through rate, and this can be done through Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool. 
     
  2. Placement: It is important to get your website ranking higher in the search engine results related to your keywords and keyphrases - this is not simple and takes a lot of strategy, planning and continuous implementation from your SEO team. If your website gains authority through well executed search engine optimisation, you will be noticed by the Google algorithm, and begin ranking higher in the results.This is done through technical SEO and content creation. Learn more about this process, here
     
  3. Keyword Volume: The number of keywords and keyphrases that you choose will improve your search visibility score. Sites with a high visibility score show up more frequently in the results as they have a lot of keywords in their content - however, it is vital to note that you cannot spam your content with keywords. You need to deliver content that is helpful and insightful. If you are simply spamming your blogs or website with words in order to rank, Google will pick up on this immediately and you will be penalised. Whatever keywords you choose, make sure to use them organically in your content and give them substance within your content creation. 

Above, we have stated some technical facts, however it is important that we show you how a search visibility score and professional SEO can build your business to greater heights - and give you a great return on investment. 

Below, we will unpack the Search Visibility of Nexa and how a strong search visibility is of value to any business.

The Nexa Case Study: Search Engine Ownership

Search Visibility

From an extensive and relevant set of 400 keywords and keyphrases based on the Nexa services, our search visibility score (as of June 2020) is at 75.1% for laptop and desktop searches, and 75.9% for mobile searches.

To give this more context, these numbers mean that for any of our 400 keywords, irrespective of volume, Nexa is likely to convert 75% of these searches into traffic to our website. 

Search Visibility in Relation to Competitors

You should always compare your search visibility to those of your closest competitors. Ranking higher than your competitors ensures you receive more leads, make more sales and drive greater brand awareness.

As stated above, Nexa’s search visibility is at 75.1% and based on our 400 keywords, our closest competitors search visibility score is at 33.7%.

It is important to look at these numbers in terms of website traffic to gain even greater insight into the power of search visibility and search engine optimisation. As of June 2020, our search visibility drove 7,469 users to our website, and it is important to note that these visitors came from organic traffic - this means it was not paid for and for the same keywords, our competitor received just 2,453 visitors in the same time frame. Essentially, Nexa received 3x more visits than our closest competitor does. 

What makes this even better is that we can convert this into monetary value to outline how important Search Visibility and SEO is for your business. 

The Value of Strong Search Visibility

At Nexa, we believe in Search Engine Ownership as opposed to Search Engine Optimisation. It is all well and good to optimise your website to rank on the search results, but if you really want to see a return on investment, you need to aim for search engine ownership - meaning you need to rank higher than your competitors. 

As we stated above, Nexa gets 3x more visits than its closest competitor and we need to look at this in monetary terms to truly understand the benefits. If a new competitor had to come into the market, they would need to invest a lot of money into Google Advertising such as Google AdWords and PPC - while Nexa is achieving this traffic for free on an ongoing basis. 

A new company would have to spend US$53,086 every month to achieve the same kind of success as Nexa. This equates to US$637,032 over a year - and this number is the equivalent value of Nexa’s search engine ownership annually. 

In Conclusion

SEO is a measurable business asset, and incredibly valuable, while Search Visibility measures the success of your campaign and your search engine ownership.  

Now, ask yourself, do you want your website to be optimised for search engines? Or do you want to own the searches?

If you are looking to implement SEO for your business,  and you are looking to own the search results, Nexa is here to help.

Contact us today for all your Search Engine Optimisation requirements and get ranking.