Search Visibility
Audio Summary
Listen to the Search Visibility Summary
Hear what your visibility score tells you and how it differs from being named in AI answers.
Read by Kodi, AI co-architect ... Read bio
Kodi works with Krisada to turn SEO and AI ideas into useful website systems.
Search visibility is how often your site shows up in search results, and how high it's ranked.
A search visibility score turns that into one number, from 0 to 100 percent.
Top rankings earn far more clicks than lower ones, so the score gives them more credit.
Then it compares you to a site holding first place for every search you track.
The score is an estimate of what clicks you should expect to get, not an actual count of what clicks you got.
How a Search Visibility Score Works
Three things go into the number.
- The searches you track. You pick a fixed list, and the score looks at only those.
- Where you rank for each one. First place earns full credit. Lower spots earn only the share of clicks they usually get.
- How many people search each one. A busy search counts for more than a quiet one.
Add it up, then divide by what you would earn in first place on every search. That share is your score. What Is Search Visibility? works out the math with a real example.
What Is a Good Search Visibility Score?
On the 0 to 100 percent scale, these are the rough bands people usually quote.
| Score | How people usually describe it |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 percent | Low |
| 5 to 15 percent | Moderate |
| 15 to 20 percent | Between moderate and strong |
| 20 to 45 percent and up | Strong |
| Above 50 percent | Rare, if searches with your brand name are left out |
No one sets these bands. They are rules of thumb, and the score depends on the searches you track. Add easy searches and it climbs. Add hard ones and it falls. Compare your score with your own past, not with a stranger's.
A steadier test is the share of your impressions in the top three positions. What Is a Good Search Visibility Score? runs that test on 14,371 impressions of our own.
Why a Search Visibility Score Goes Up or Down
Four things move the score.
- Your rankings change. Gaining a spot on a search you track raises the score. Losing one lowers it.
- Search demand changes. More people searching a term you rank for raises it. Fewer lowers it.
- Google updates how it ranks pages. An update can reshuffle the spots on many searches at once.
- Your list of searches changes. Add or drop a tracked search and the score moves, even if no ranking did.
Only the first one is yours to win. The last one is yours to hold still: pick your list once and keep it. The worked example shows how far each change moves a score.
Search Visibility vs. AI Search Visibility
Search visibility asks where you rank. AI search visibility asks whether an AI uses your page in the answer it writes. Both start with clear pages that are easy to read, but they are measured differently. AI Search Visibility vs. Search Visibility sets the two side by side.
A search visibility score cannot see inside an AI answer, so a site can score well and still never be named. The bigger idea, AI visibility, covers how often AI tools mention, cite and recommend you, and everything AI has learned about you.
What Search Visibility Leaves Out
The classic calculation covers one surface only: traditional organic rankings. A complete modern reading also has to account for featured snippets, AI overviews, answer engines, and zero-click entity surfaces, which do not move together and are not captured by any single blended score.
How to Check Your Search Visibility
Start free with Google Search Console. It shows your impressions, clicks and average position for the searches that found you.
- Open the Performance report and export the Queries table.
- Add up the impressions where the average position is 3.5 or better.
- Divide that by your total impressions. That is your top-three share.
Watch whether the share grows month to month. A full 0 to 100 percent score also needs a fixed list of searches and their monthly volumes. The Searchmetrics SEO Visibility guide covers what people use now, and the Search Visibility Index shows how we publish ours each month.
Search Visibility Formula and Worked Example
This definition is worked out in full in What Is Search Visibility? That page has the formula, a worked example and a click-through curve measured on our own properties.
Search Visibility Scores and the Searchmetrics Example
The best known version of this score was Searchmetrics SEO Visibility. Conductor acquired Searchmetrics in 2023 and the standalone score is no longer sold, so how Searchmetrics SEO Visibility was calculated, and what to use instead, is documented separately.
No index value is good on its own, because the scale depends on the keyword basket behind it. What counts as a good search visibility score uses the share of impressions in the top three positions instead.
Search Visibility Questions
What does search visibility mean?
Search visibility is how often your site shows up in search results and how high it's ranked. A search visibility score turns that into one number from 0 to 100 percent.
How is a search visibility score calculated?
Pick a fixed list of searches. For each one, take the share of clicks your spot usually earns and multiply it by how many people search it. Add those up and divide by what first place on every search would earn. The result is your score.
What is a good search visibility score?
As a rough guide, under 5 percent is low, 5 to 15 percent is moderate and 20 to 45 percent or more is strong. Above 50 percent on searches without your brand name is rare. These are rules of thumb, because the score depends on the searches you track. A steadier test is the share of your impressions in the top three positions.
Why does my search visibility score go up and down?
Four things move it: your rankings, how many people search each term, Google ranking updates, and changes to the list of searches you track. Keep the list fixed so the other three show up clearly.
How can I check my search visibility for free?
Export the Queries table from Google Search Console. Add up the impressions where the average position is 3.5 or better and divide by your total impressions. That top-three share is a free, steady read on your search visibility.
Is search visibility the same as AI search visibility?
No. Search visibility is about where you rank in a list of results. AI search visibility is about whether an AI uses and names your page in the answer it writes.
Where can I see the search visibility formula?
What Is Search Visibility? has the formula, a worked example and a click-through curve measured on our own properties.