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To represent the visibility of a website in Google’s search engine rankings as a measurable value, the “visibility index” is used as an indicator. Visibility is based on the ranking of individual keywords used on the page. There are different bases for calculating the visibility index. For this reason, the values may differ depending on the tool that is used.
The graph shows the development of the Sistrix visibility index of the website eology.de visually. It can be clearly seen that the SI was only just above the value 0 until 2016. In the period between 2016 and 2021, however, there is a clear increase to a visibility index of approx. 0.5.
The calculation of the visibility index is based on several factors that together provide a meaningful indicator of the organic visibility of a website. First, the keywords for which a page ranks in the search results are determined. These keywords are weighted according to their search volume and their relevance, i.e. the search intention. Then the position of the keywords in the search results is analysed, with higher-ranked keywords having more influence on the index. Another important aspect is the probability of a click (click-through rate, CTR), which shows how often a search result is actually being clicked. The combination of these factors results in the final visibility index, which may vary depending on the SEO tool. Tools such as Sistrix, XOVI or SEMrush use different data sets and methods to calculate the index and use it as an indicator for the performance of a website.
In summary, the visibility index is made up of these three basic factors.
One crucial factor in calculating the visibility index is the difference between desktop and mobile visibility. As more and more users perform searches on mobile devices, website rankings often differ between desktop and mobile. This is mainly because mobile optimisation plays a greater role: websites that are not sufficiently optimised for mobile devices perform worse in mobile search. Tools such as Sistrix and XOVI take these differences into account and offer separate indices for both platforms. One example of this is that mobile rankings are more heavily influenced by loading speed and usability on small screens. Therefore, when optimising a website, both the desktop and mobile versions should be considered to ensure the best possible visibility.
This distinction allows for more precise analysis and shows where there may still be room for improvement for mobile users.
The visibility index only takes into account the previously defined keyword pool and puts this in relation to a traffic probability. For this reason, you should not expect a clear statement, but consider the visibility index as a guideline or approximate value. The actual traffic generated by a website may well deviate from these values. Especially when viewed in isolation, the visibility index hardly offers any informative added value at first glance. In combination with other factors, however, it can become a very powerful weapon for SEO. One of these factors would be time, so dips or fluctuations can be easily read over a longer period of time and thus enable timely intervention. Another factor would be, for example, the comparison with competitors. In addition, conclusions about events or measures can be drawn from the course of the visibility index, which can be very helpful for optimization processes.
Especially with more specific pages that use less common keywords, it can prove difficult to determine a reasonable visibility index. The reason for this is easy to explain if you are familiar with how visibility is determined. The principle is simple: the top 100 rankings are determined for all keywords in the pool. However, if the keywords used are not common but niche keywords and most of them are not included in the pool, no index can be determined. As a result, the affected pages would inevitably have a low visibility index and only limited possibilities to increase it.
The clear go-to is Sistrix. It is the most common tool when it comes to determining how visible a website is. Nevertheless, there are alternatives. Other well-known tools are therefore:
Here are some helpful tips for sustainably improving the visibility index:
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