Created on April 9, 2025 | Updated on April 9, 2025

Search Visibility: How to Get Your Site Noticed with SEO?

SEO Articles
Search Visibility: How to Get Your Site Noticed With SEO?

Everyone, both businesses and non-commercial websites, wants to be at the top of search results. But not everyone knows how to get that SEO visibility.

After all, this is almost like a “VIP spot” where the real action happens. So, there are tons of pages competing for the same keywords.

On the other hand, if your website is not even anywhere near the first page of SERPs, let alone the top 3, how are people going to find you? Clearly, there is a good reason why visibility is a true currency nowadays.

Still, this might seem like quite a complicated topic, so here’s what we are going to do.

We’ll break down the most burning question, “What is the visibility of a website?” And then, we’ll proceed to show how you can improve your situation and make your website noticed.

Contents

What is SEO visibility, and how does it work?

SEO visibility is basically how popular and likable you are on the internet based on your keywords. So, how is this judged? Well, it is decided based on the number of your keywords that are ranking in top positions.

But it is also a little more nuanced than that. Your visibility will also depend on their positions (1-10), search volume, and estimated clicks.

So, let’s say you are ranking #1 for a keyword that has a search volume of 80. In this case, your search visibility score for that keyword would be around 30-40%.

We’ll explain how we got there in the next section, but for now, let’s see how this plays out using a real-life brand.

One of the most popular ranking keywords for the Nike brand is “Nike shoes.”

Source: Google

The keyword has a search volume of 550k in the US alone. And the company ranks #1 in the Google search results for this keyword.

Source: Semrush

When you google this keyword, you see its website doesn’t only appear as the top one in the organic results but also as the top two. That’s how they get even more visibility.

Source: Google

But, of course, it isn’t just one keyword that can lead to great visibility. If we look into Nike’s example, we’ll see that they rank at the top for the “sneakers for women” keyword.

Source: Google

The same goes for “sneakers for men”:

Source: Google

And “running shoes” among thousands of other queries:

Source: Google

You get the idea — all this adds up to improve the brand’s visibility in search engines. But there is more to SEO visibility than just ranking high in SERPs. What plays an even bigger role is the click-through rate (CTR). You’ll see why below.

Now, if you are scratching your head, wondering why the idea is familiar but the term is not. It could be because you know this concept by a different name.

Different tools and sources may refer to this using various terms, such as:

  • Search visibility
  • Search engine visibility
  • Google visibility score
  • Organic search visibility
  • SEO domain visibility
  • Website visibility

So, no matter what name you call it, it’s all the same. The key idea is how visible your website is in search results. Still, the score you get will depend on the formula your SEO tool (Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, etc.) uses.

How is search visibility calculated?

Recall that little math we did earlier? Now, we’re going to show you how to check the search visibility of a website in detail. As we’ve mentioned, depending on the software you use, the formula is going to look different, but the basic logic is as follows:

  • This formula will definitely focus on your top-ranking keywords (typically all that rank in positions 1-10 or 1-20).
  • To find visibility for each particular keyword, you need to consider search volume (i.e., how many people google that exact query) and the CTR (i.e., click-through rate — how many users click on your site).
  • To determine the visibility of your entire website, any tool will consider all the top-ranking keywords. Plus, they will also look at their CTRs and search volume and then combine them in their own unique way.

This might sound extremely confusing, so let’s check an example.

Imagine your target keyword is "buy collagen," and you are in the #2 ranking position for this keyword. This keyword gets searched 170 times (your search volume), while you get 40 clicks for this query.

Source: Semrush

How do you calculate the visibility now? Let’s see a couple of options.

Option 1: Formula for calculating the SEO visibility score of a keyword

The formula for calculating the visibility of a particular keyword typically looks like this:

seo visibility formula

Now, if we go back to our example with “buy collagen,” the search volume is 170, while you got 40 clicks. So, in this case, we get the following visibility for the keyword:

40 (clicks you got) ÷ 170 (search volume) * 100 = 23,52%

So, we get around 23,5% search visibility for this keyword.

But what if you don’t know the exact number of clicks you get and simply want to estimate your chances or your competitors’ visibility? That’s what the second option is for.

Option 2: Formula for calculating visibility using CTR estimations

If you don’t know the exact click amount, you can use the estimated click-through rate (CTR) for each ranking position.

All keywords will have different CTRs, as there are many things that can influence that. They will always depend on the number of sponsored results and elements like “Popular products” or “Google Maps.”

Yet, overall, this is the CTR you can expect for non-branded searches:

Note: Branded searches typically have a higher CTR. Why? Simply because people search for a particular business.

The formula will look as follows in this case:

seo visibility formula by ctr

If we do the calculations for our collagen example (assuming that it ranks #2), this is what we could get:

170 (search volume) * 0.20 (CTR for position #2) ÷ 170 (search volume) = 20%

In case you want to calculate the visibility for multiple keywords in your campaign or cluster, for example, the logic will be the same:

seo visibility formula by multiple keywords

Option 3: Visibility weight formula

Now, this might seem like the simplest option of all. Yet, it is also one of the most informative formulas out there. Why so? It’s quite representative because it doesn’t only consider rankings but also search volume. Basically, it follows two important rules:

  • The higher the rankings, the better the visibility.
  • The higher the search volume, the better the visibility.

And this is the system that most SEO tools use (in one form or another). Of course, their ratios will differ, but this formula can still give you a much better understanding of how good your SEO visibility is.

Besides, this formula is quite useful for understanding how your visibility compares to the one your competitors have. We’ll see how this works in just a moment.

Note: For this “simplified” formula, instead of the exact CTR, we’ll use the “visibility weight.” The idea is that we assign a particular “weight” to each position in SERPs — from 1.0 (first position) to 0.1 (position #10).

As a result, we get 1.0 for the first position, 0.9 for the second, 0.8 for the third, and so on. Everything beyond #10 will be assigned the weight 0. Normally, CTR isn’t this linear, but it’s helpful to understand a general trend.

In this case, our formula will be more straightforward as well:

so visibility formula by weight

If we go back to our “buy collagen” example once again, this is what we get:

0.9 (visibility weight for position #2) * 170 (search volume) = 153 visibility points

You can repeat this calculation for all your target keywords.

Now, let’s imagine you want to see how you’re doing compared to your main competitor when it comes to your commercial keywords. For the sake of the example, let’s use the data below:

Based on this data, let’s calculate whose SEO visibility score is better for the selected keywords.

Your visibility based on these keywords is:

(0.9 * 170) + (0.9 * 120) + 1.0 * 110 = 371 visibility points

Your competitors’ visibility based on the same queries is:

(0.8 * 170) + (1.0 * 120) + (0.8 *110) = 344 visibility points

Now, you see that your visibility score is higher, even though your competitor has better rankings for some keywords.

What does the search visibility of an entire website depend on?

Up until now, we’ve been talking about the visibility of a particular keyword. Yet, normally, when you open any SEO tool, it will estimate your entire website’s SEO visibility. How do they calculate it?

This is a very good question. Yet, unfortunately, there isn’t one single answer for this. Yeah, we know…

The thing is that every SEO tool uses its own approach. They mix and match all your scores and come up with a particular percentage that makes sense in their system.

This is how Ahrefs does this:

Source: Ahrefs

And this is how it works for Moz:

Source: Moz

No matter what tool you use and how they tweak the formula, your goal is simple (not easy) — to rank higher for as many keywords as possible while working on your CTR.

After all, when you appear high in SERPs, it means more visibility, which will translate into more sales volume and revenue for you.

What is a good search visibility score?

So, now you may be asking yourself — what is a good SEO visibility score? This question isn’t as straightforward as it might seem, though. Why? Because every tool has its own scoring system, and the results also differ.

Yet, this is the overall standard you can use as the benchmark:

what is good search visibility score

How to properly use tools that track search visibility

In SEO, there is a tool for everything. Well, almost. When hunting for software that can show you your website visibility score, the options are almost unlimited. Some of the popular names you are familiar with include Ahrefs, Semrush, and Serpstat.

Source: Ahrefs

These ones calculate visibility by tracking keyword rankings and the number of clicks your page gets.

You also have other options like NightWatch, SE Ranking, BrightLocal, and many more.

Source: NightWatch

You can test multiple options to see how your visibility is doing.

But here’s the thing — you can’t always use several tools at the same time. Why is that? Well, doing that can cause confusion since:

Each tool detects slightly different keywords

Try checking the SERP overview for the keyword “Nike shoes” using each of the tools we mentioned just now. With Ahrefs, you get this:

Source: Ahrefs

You have already seen how Semrush ranks it:

Source: Semrush

The same keyword may have different metrics in each tool

Yep, sometimes, even when you find the exact same keyword using both tools, the SEO metrics might not be the same.

For example, if you look up the keyword “buy collagen” using Ahrefs, you get this:

Source: Ahrefs

But when you check Semrush, you’ll see that every metric differs (even though it’s the same keyword).

For example, take a look at the Keyword Difficulty (18 vs. 47) and Search Volume (150 vs. 17). And it isn’t just this keyword. The situation will be similar for pretty much any query out there.

Source: Semrush

That’s why you can’t randomly mix and match different tools to understand and monitor your search engine visibility score. This is especially true if you want to see how you’re doing compared to your competitors, which brings us to the next point.

Each tool has its own formula for calculating visibility scores

Using different tools to check website visibility can cause other issues, too.

If you track your performance in Ahrefs, for example, and your competitor’s in Semrush, your results won’t be representative. What’s more, they’ll barely make any sense.

This is because they use different formulas to determine your visibility. So, if you want to compare your performance to that of your competitors, use the same software for this to make it informative.

5 best practices to improve your SEO visibility

You can know the answer to the question, “What is search visibility?” without being entirely sure about how to improve your scores. So, if you are in that boat, here are some of our best tips:

#1 Make sure your website is mobile-friendly

So, how responsive is your site? Are there too many popups on your web page? Does it take long to load? Do people have to slide from one side to the other before they can read a paragraph on your page? If you answered “yes” to any of this, it’s a bad sign.

Source: Butler Branding

This is a huge deal if your goal is to up your visibility score SEO metrics. Over 98% of people who used the internet last year did so through a mobile device. That’s clearly a lot of users (Hey, Captain Obvious!).

That means it’s likely that most of the traffic on your site comes from mobile, too.

Plus, Google will give preferential treatment to a page that is mobile-friendly over the ones that aren’t. So, take the time to improve your site by compressing your images and code. Of course, your design must also be responsive.

Your font and buttons also have to be easy to click on. Plus, please stay away from those pesky pop ups — no one likes those.

#2 Upgrade your keyword game

In the Google visibility index game, you already know that you need relevant keywords. It’s how your target customers get to discover your site, after all. But you also need to know how to use these keywords well to maximize your visibility.

You have to add these queries to your website and content strategically. This means your headers, content body, image alt text, meta descriptions, etc.

Make sure you are not just focused on one type of keyword. Ideally, you want a healthy mix of primary and long-tail keywords to improve your visibility for SEO. There are also different search intents you have to consider when working with any query.

Source: Semrush

So, it helps if your keywords are not just specific but also intentional and locally relevant (if that applies to your business). This way, your content will be more aligned with each search intent.

As a result, people will find exactly what they need on your site, increasing the average time spent on your page.

#3 Great content means more search engine visibility

All that keyword strategy won’t mean much when you don’t have quality content. So, prioritize your blog posts, guides, case studies, and whatever else you publish.

Take your time to craft well-researched, quality content that aligns with what your visitors want. This will lead to more visibility and more clicks. If they are good enough, you might just attract backlinks from other sites, which means better page authority.

You can also encourage your readers or customers to contribute their own content. This could be in the form of product reviews, comments in the online community, videos, guest posts, etc.

Besides, if you’ve noticed how the visibility formula works, you’ve seen that it pays lots of attention to CTR. And this depends a lot on your content. How relevant are your titles? Is your meta description interesting enough?

All these things are crucial because even the best content can lose clicks if the meta title and description aren’t good.

#4 Backlinks are your friends

Did you know that backlinks usually equal higher search metrics for SEO visibility? The truth is, there is hardly anything else as good as quality backlinks for improving your page authority.

You know how people can get influenced by others saying, “Hey, this brand is great.”? That’s exactly how backlinks from relevant sites can get search engines to believe you are cool. So, if you haven’t already, try to get some of those.

Besides quality content, you can also create linkable assets like infographics, free tools, etc.

All these are just some ways to get backlinks. But hey, even then, it’s only right for us to acknowledge that link-building isn’t always the easiest thing.

So, if you can’t DIY it but really want to gain enough keyword visibility to outrank competitors, consider using a guest post service. Yet, whatever you do, avoid spammy link-building practices, as these will most likely hurt instead of helping.

#5 Don’t forget technical SEO

When it comes to search metrics visibility, everything adds up. Slug SEO, page load speed, links — everything.

You don’t want search engine crawlers to have issues with crawling your web page, do you? If they can't crawl your site, then that means it'll be hard for them to index and rank your pages correctly.

Another thing you want to keep in mind is the security of your site. Make sure you install an SSL certificate. This will improve users' trust. Also, it directly affects your search ranking as Google prioritizes secure pages.

One more thing — make sure you consider using structured data. For example, using schema markup can improve your odds of appearing in rich snippets. This means you get more visibility and clicks.

Source: Ahrefs

Common SEO mistakes that hurt your search visibility

It’s all well and good to learn about the best practices, but sometimes that’s not enough. You will also need to understand what kind of mistakes to avoid. You know what they say about ignorance? It’s costly.

This is usually true when your search rankings are at stake. So, to avoid losing potential revenue, you need to ensure that you don’t do any of the following:

#1 Ignoring search algorithm changes

SEO is hardly static. That’s because things change all the time. People’s search behavior transforms, and even the algorithm gets regular updates.

For example, we have seen Google’s algorithm change identity from Panda to Hummingbird and then Pigeon. Put like that, it looks like it’s having an identity crisis. But really, the changes help make it easier for people to find helpful quality content.

Source: The PHA Group

And it is a work in progress. There were tons of updates in 2024 alone. You can see a complete list of changes here. Still, the most important question is — what does this mean for you?

If you were stuck with the same strategy you used in, say, 2019, chances are that’s not going to work anymore. So, it makes sense that you try to keep up with all recent updates. You can follow SEO experts on social media and sign up for their newsletters so you don’t miss a thing.

Besides, keep an eye on Google Search Central’s blog. They post most of their updates and important information there.

#2 Not watching your web performance like a hawk

Imagine what happens when you go paragliding and decide to fly blind. Yeah, that’s not gonna end well. Hitting rocks would be the least of your worries. Well, when it comes to SEO, you want to regularly check search engine visibility so you are not caught unaware.

Source: Google Search Central Blog

If you don’t, you won’t notice when there’s a sudden drop in your keyword ranking position or traffic. Thankfully, most SEO tools will make it easy for you to monitor your progress easily.

So, you have put a lot of effort into optimizing your website. But now, some things are no longer working as intended for some reason. That reason might be your broken links.

One or two broken links might not really be an issue. But even then, you don’t want to make a habit of ignoring them.

Source: X

As long as you are not grabbing junk links from some shady source, each link passes the value to your site. Plus, they help nudge your visitors to other internal pages that provide contextual information. Don’t forget that search crawlers also rely on links to find other pages on your site.

Knowing all these, you want to regularly fix broken links, whether they are internal or external. This will ensure that link equity and page authority do not drop.

#4 Getting overly passionate about your keywords

Look, everyone gets it. Keywords are important. Sometimes, we feel like Smeagol when talking about “our precious keywords.” But where some people go overboard is when they try to use them everywhere all the time. Sometimes, even in places where they don’t fit.

There is a name for this kind of thing, and it’s called keyword stuffing. This is a practice that can attract a Google penalty. It was working before, but now, it is one of the worst things you can do.

Over anything else, Google prioritizes people-first content. This means that search engines want to see helpful content that’s created for users and not the algorithm.

So, you want to avoid using your keywords in every sentence and paragraph. Instead, sprinkle them in your main heading, one or two subheadings, and occasionally in the body. Use only what fits naturally into a sentence and paragraph.

Your copy has to make sense and look organic.

Conclusion

So far, we have covered the search visibility definition and how it works. Now, you understand how important it is for your website. Overall, the easier your web page is to find, the better it is for your business. So, keep an eye on this metric.

Besides, keep working on your keywords and craft quality content. This way, you will be able to stay in top-ranking positions for a lifetime.

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