The other day a prospect was looking at their website’s visibility score in Semrush. It was zero. :-0
Say what?!!?!
They have been posting on their site and promoting it for nearly 15 years. How could their visibility score be zero?
What does visibility score mean and how could they improve it?
What is a website visibility score?
According to Semrush, “Visibility can be defined as a metric showing how often your website is found on the Internet.” It is used to estimate a website’s trend for the set of target keywords currently being tracked in a campaign.
The percentage shows how often people click on your website when it shows up in Google’s top 100 search results for the keywords you’re tracking.
Knowing that caused them to breathe a sigh of relief…somewhat. Why? Because the website visibility score is not a website ranking score. They are both important but represent different things.
Visibility score reflects the overall percentage of clicks your website receives from search engine results pages (SERPs) for a specific set of keywords. A higher visibility score indicates your website is more easily found and receives more clicks for those targeted keywords. [Advanced Web Ranking] It considers both the number of keywords you’re ranking for and how high those rankings are (usually in the top 100 results).
A higher score = more visibility = more chances to get clicks.
Website ranking, on the other hand, refers to the specific position of your website on a SERP for a particular keyword. For example, a site ranking 1st for a keyword means it’s at the top of the search results for that keyword. [GeeksforGeeks] For example, if someone searches “tax accountant near me” and your site appears in position #4, that’s your ranking for that keyword.
In other words:
- Website ranking = Where your site appears for one search term.
- Visibility score = Overall score showing how visible you are for all your tracked search terms.
Why is visibility score important?
Have you ever checked your visibility score? If not, put that on your to-do list, especially if search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategic driver for your business.
Visibility score reflects your ability to attract traffic organically. It also identifies how well the site ranks for relevant keywords. Also, as AI search results continue to dominate search engines, it can have a big impact on where your content displays.
Other reasons your website visibility score is important includes:
- Increase organic traffic
- Enhanced brand awareness
- Improved customer acquisition
- Competitive advantage
- Cost-effective marketing
- Measurable return on investment
- Strategic insights
- Predictive indicator for future success
5 Ways to Improve Visibility Score
Before tackling any of these steps, create a baseline report so you can monitor progress over a period of months. If you use a site monitoring tool, you may be able to track progress within it. If not, create a spreadsheet to monitor progress. Download the Visibility Score Template (Excel).
- Start by identifying high-search-volume keywords for which you want to rank. Keep the list short, say 10 to 15 words/phrases or less. Remember, high search volume is not the only indicator of a great keyword. Read “Build a Smarter SEO Strategy—Starting With The right Keywords” to discover the best ways to find the keywords for which you should rank .
- Create new content or optimize existing content that targets those keywords. Read “Why Archive/Delete Old Website Content” to assist in determining what content you should keep or discard. Or, watch the ten-minute, step-by-step tutorial to identify under-performing pages on your site.
- Develop and execute a backlink strategy to earn backlinks from reputable sites.
- Check your website’s mobile speed performance. If it’s slow, that could impact your visibility. If your site is built on WordPress, there are many plugins you can use to speed up the site’s performance, especially when it comes to image sizes. Plugins such as Smush, WPtouch, Image Optimizer, and Lazy Loader reduce the image file sizes and helps to increase image load times on mobile.
- Fix technical errors, such as broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors. There are WordPress plugins, Google’s Search Console, or Semrush for an SEO audit that will identify technical errors like these.
Now that you have the steps, create and execute a plan to address your visibility concerns. Remember, this process takes time—it could be months—to reveal improvement.
8 Visibility Score Tools
Here are eight tools you can use to identify your visibility score. Search Logistics provides how-to details for several of the tools, including the ones noted with **.
Need Help?
Tackling an SEO upgrade on your own could be overwhelming. There are many steps involved and a dedicated effort is needed to update your site. If you are a marketing team of one, or a small business owner, reach out to a consultant that specializes in SEO audits, planning, and execution.
Penheel Marketing has conducted dozens of SEO audits for clients. Read our “SEO Audit Case Study” for one client’s experience. Give us a call if you’d like to take your visibility score from zero to hero.