SEO: “Visibility” vs. “Ranking”

Visibility is an SEO key figure for the historically comparable ranking of a website in search engines – based on neutral, regularly recorded search queries.

How is visibility measured?

Specially developed SEO tools regularly search the web using millions of real and representative keywords from a proprietary database. This records how often and how prominently a particular website appears in the search results. The more keywords a page achieves on the top search results pages, the higher its visibility.

Measuring principle & weighting

The results are evaluated according to two criteria:

• Position in the search results (e.g. position 1 counts significantly more than position 41)
• Search volume of the keyword (frequently searched terms are more valuable)

This creates an objective key figure that allows comparisons to be made over time or with competitors – regardless of whether you have access to their statistics.

What needs to be considered in the interpretation?

• Not comparable across tools: Each SEO tool uses its own calculation formulas – visibility values differ depending on the provider.
• Keyword database is crucial: The size and quality of the underlying database influence the significance of visibility.
• Limited statement for niche keywords: For rarely searched terms (e.g. new brands or special topics), the visibility can be low due to the principle – although the page ranks well in practice.
• Strong jumps in visibility are valuable: Significant changes can indicate relevant SEO events (e.g. new content, Google updates or competitor behavior).

Practical benefits

• Enabled – even retroactively.
• Comparison with competitors possible, even without access to their analytics.
• Basis for keyword research: Visibility shows for which keywords you are already being found.
• Recognition of trends and potential through “unexpected” search queries.

For more in-depth analyses, individual keywords are selected and monitored in a separate ranking check.