Competitor Search Visibility

[jasongmcmahon]

In the Moz Search Visibility graph, how are a clients competitor companies calculated? Where is this information gathered from? We add the clients GA account to the campaign, not the competitors.

[jocameron]

Hi there,

Jo from the Moz Help Team here.

Our Search Visibility score represents the overall ranking performance for your tracked keywords. This isn't based on GA data, but rather ranking data we have collected based on the keywords and competitors you added to your Campaign.

Search Visibility is calculated by:

• Taking all of your keywords and the associated URL’s position and applying a CTR (click-through rate) for each position.

• The CTRs are then summed

• This number is then divided by the total number of keywords.

You may be interested to know that we have a lot of great guides and videos on our Help Hub, including this one on Search Visibility.

I hope this helps!

Jo

[effectdigital]

Jo obviously wrote a great answer, but I'm just chiming in to say - yes, this is actually how it works for most tools which predict SEO (organic) visibility. It's a relative comparison and it's not to be confused with a traffic estimate, unless (as in some tools, like SEMRush or Ahrefs) that is explicitly stated to be the case

Usually the formula is something like: 1% of a keyword's search volume multiplied by the average (or specific, if the data is available) CTR (click-through rate) of the keyword's attained ranking position on Google

So for example, let's say you wanted to calculate your SEO visibility for the hypothetical keyword of "big red car"

In this example, "big red car" has 100 average monthly searches (on Google)within your specified search area (let's say the USA)

You are at position 1, which you know nets roughly 33% of clicks from active searchers

It therefore follows that you take 1% of the search volume (1% of 100 = 1) and multiply it by the % of people who usually click-through (33%). So you get 1x33%=33 - so you would expect to see (extremely roughly) 33 searchers a month through that keyword

That being said all SEO tools include slightly different mixes of data (some will be using actual CTR figures vs average ones, or CTR figures based on data-modeling combined with machine learning). Ahrefs actually uses click-stream data in formation of its search-volume figures. In any-case, since all search volume figures from Google are sampled - you have to take all of these stats with a pinch of salt. Relatively speaking (when comparing one site to another, using the same balanced equation(s) - such metrics are strong and useful. In 'absolute' terms (when predicting actual traffic figures) these metrics are less than helpful

When looking at entire websites and comparing them, usually the sum-visibility for most sites is constructed by adding together... all the SEO vis for all of the site's (known / indexed) keyword rankings on Google

SEO visibility is a comparative decision-making metric which guides you at a strategic level. It's not a metric that you should 'bank' on in terms of input/output spend (EVER!)

[jasongmcmahon]

Great help, thanks