What is ‘Share of Search’?
Today’s businesses can sacrifice having a brick-and-mortar but not an online presence. Online visibility is of utmost importance as it gets your brand in front of your target audience.
With such competitiveness and several marketplaces on multiple platforms, Share of Search provides the answer. Put simply, Share of Search is a measure of the percentage of total search volume that your brand receives compared to your competitors.
This metric can be of extreme significance in understanding your online performance and ways to optimize it.
Before we answer the question of ‘How to calculate share of search’, let’s look at a few practical tips on how to use it effectively –
Understanding Share of Search
Share of Search can be defined as the portion of search queries within your industry or niche that your brand captures. It helps you gauge your brand’s visibility and market share within search results.
By monitoring trends and fluctuations in Share of Search, you can gain valuable insights into your brand’s performance, track your campaigns’ effectiveness, and identify areas for improvement.
How to Calculate Share of Search?
Calculating Share of Search requires access to relevant search volume data and a comparative analysis with your competitors. While there are several tools like 42Signals that do the job for you, let’s look at alternate methods first.
- Keyword research tools
Keyword research tools help you estimate your share of searches on engines (like Google and Bing) by analyzing organic traffic. Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs are good tools to get you started in this endeavor.
Image Source: Forbes Baxter Associates
By providing data on search volumes for specific keywords or phrases, you can compare your brand’s performance with respect to your competitors. This analysis helps you calculate data for relevant keywords and estimate your share of search.
- Survey and customer insights
Another approach to measuring the share of search is by conducting surveys or gathering customer insights. By asking your target audience about their search behavior and brand preferences, you can estimate the proportion of searches conducted with your brand in mind. While this method may not provide precise numerical data, it can offer valuable qualitative insights into your brand’s performance.
- Web analytics and search engine data
Google Analytics can provide valuable data on the organic search traffic your website receives. By analyzing the percentage of search traffic your brand receives compared to your competitors, you can estimate your Share of Search.
Additionally, search engine data, such as impressions and click-through rates, can provide further insights into your brand’s visibility in search results.
- Industry reports and market research
Industry reports and market research studies often provide insights into search behavior and market share within specific industries or niches. By utilizing these reports, you can gain a broader understanding of the competitive landscape and estimate your brand’s
share of search.
The Importance of Share of Search
Share of Search is a powerful metric that can provide several benefits for your brand. Here are some reasons why Share of Search is important:
- Measure brand awareness and visibility
By calculating your Share of Search, you can assess your brand’s level of awareness and visibility in the online marketplace. A higher Share of Search percentages indicates that your brand is more visible, attracting a larger share of search queries compared to your competitors.
Image Source: MetricsCart
- Identify market trends and opportunities
Monitoring changes in your Share of Search over time allows you to identify market trends and opportunities. Significant increases or decreases in share of search can indicate shifts in consumer behavior or emerging competitors. This knowledge helps you adapt your marketing strategies and capitalize on potential growth areas.
- Evaluate marketing effectiveness
Another positive outcome of this metric can be to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. By comparing your Share of Search before, during, and after a campaign, you can determine its impact on your brand’s visibility and market share.
This data helps to refine your campaigns and optimize future strategies.
- Benchmark against competitors
Calculating your share of search enables you to benchmark your brand’s performance against your competitors. It provides insights into how well you are capturing the attention of online searchers within your industry.
With this information, you can identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
Conclusion
Share of search is an important metric to track so that your brand consistently performs well despite the immense competition.
With this metric and a better idea of ‘how to calculate share of search’ you can gain valuable insights into your brand’s online presence, market share, and competitive performance.
42Signals provides e-commerce businesses with this data to understand how frequently a brand’s keywords or related terms are being searched by users and how well the brand is performing in capturing that search demand.
To learn more about our platform, visit our pricing page.
