In marketing, where effectively measuring the success of any strategic initiative in the crowded space has become complex, experts tend to rely on the Share of Voice metric. The Share of Voice metric showcases how much of the total conversation in the market is dominated by your brand.
Be it for paid, social media, or organic content, Share of Voice has long been a standard metric to benchmark the quantity and quality of marketing campaigns. It essentially measures the brand's visibility across various channels against competitors.
However, seasoned SEO experts who understand the target market deeply have realized that metrics like SoV are subject to flawed data and faulty conclusions.
Unless the data you input in the available SoV tools is comprehensive enough to define the entire market standing. The results shown would be an inaccurate representation of the competitive landscape. Same is the case with analyzing Share of Voice for SEO. Let us take a closer look at SEO Share of Voice and how it is calculated.
SEO Share of Voice(SoV) measures a brand's visibility in organic search results as compared to its competitors for a specified set of keywords.
Share of Voice in SEO measures how often and prominently a brand appears in search engine results pages (SERPs), serving as an indicator of its dominance in search performance.
Mentioned below is a quick overview of the entire process of calculating Share of Voice.
1. Define Your Competitors: You start by identifying your main competitors in the market.
2. Select Keywords: Conducting thorough keyword research to compile a comprehensive list is the next crucial step.
3. Track Keyword Rankings: Use a keyword ranking tool or an SEO tool to gather data on how your site and your competitors' sites rank for the selected keywords.
4. Collect CTR Data: To accurately estimate your share compared to competitors, you need to consider not just where each site ranks, but how likely users are to click on those ranks.
To estimate CTR based on keyword ranking, tools like AWB are used.
5. Calculate Estimated Traffic: Multiply the CTR by the search volume for each keyword to estimate the traffic for each rank position.
6. Sum Up the Traffic: Sum up the estimated traffic for all keywords for your website and competitors.
7. Calculate Share of Voice (SOV): use the below formula to calculate SoV
The above method surely gives you a deeper understanding of your competitive traffic as it considers CTR data and a thorough keyword analysis. However, parsing through the large amount of data sets and manually calculating the SoV is a lengthy and labour intensive task.
The not-so-laborious way of calculating SEO Share of Voice is using traditional SoV tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush. Even though these tools provide valuable insights, they fail to paint the entire picture.
First, the number of keywords you track with these tools is based on the subscription plan you are on; the more you pay, the more you are able to track. To add to the incompleteness, the number of competitors you can select is also dictated by the plan. Now, if you can not know the entire competitive landscape, how do you render your content strategy as complete?
In addition to this these traditional SoV tools are not connected to brand's specific traffic metrics such as clicks and impressions, making it difficult to correlate SoV data with actual website performance.
All of the above-mentioned issues are only the tip of the iceberg. For this blog, let’s take a closer look at how the outcomes of SEO SoV tools are faulty.
The fundamental challenge with SEO SoV tools is their inability to provide accurate, timely and comprehensive insights due to a combination of high operational costs, lack of integration with traffic metrics, and rigid competitor tracking systems. The partial visibility of SoV comes from the inherent shortcoming of these tools.
- For any given website, the Google Search Console data showcases all the queries that the website is gaining clicks and impressions from. These queries are often in millions. When trying to track keywords with SEO SoV tools, you can only select a few because of the subscription plan restrictions. This not only makes it financially inviable to cover the extensive keyword lists(all the search console queries) but also showcases incomplete analysis.
- Another challenge is that the traditional SoV tools have high latency associated with weekly or monthly data updates, which means the data is often outdated and renders less actionable insights.
- In addition to this, the tools operate in isolation with the actual traffic metrics such as clicks and impressions. They also represent the generalised search engine view of the keywords selected and different tools may prioritise different data set such search volume or search visibility; which makes it all the more difficult to draw conclusions.
- Ultimately, the lack of integration with traffic metrics, the high operational costs, and the static nature of competitor tracking culminate in an environment where drawing meaningful, actionable conclusions is exceedingly difficult. For these reasons, relying on SEO Sov tools can undermine the strategic edge crucial for dominating in competitive digital landscapes.
To fully understand the complexities involved in calculating SEO Share of Voice, let’s delve deeper into the specific limitations that make SEO SoV approach less effective.
Calculating SEO Share of Voice (SoV) is like navigating a dense data jungle. It begins with identifying competitors and selecting relevant keywords—a process complicated by tools like Google Search Console (GSC), which presents millions of keyword impressions, making it nearly impossible to choose the most impactful ones.
The real challenge lies in piecing together fragmented data from multiple tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and GSC, each offering different metrics—search volume, keyword difficulty, or organic visibility. This lack of standardization forces SEO professionals to manually cross-reference and adjust data, turning the process into a labor-intensive task that often leads to outdated or conflicting insights.
When you aggregate data from these different platforms, timeframes, and geographies, you end up generating an inconsistent insight. It’s like trying to complete a puzzle with mismatched pieces—never quite capturing the full picture needed to make strategic decisions in a competitive landscape.
Analyzing SEO Share of Voice (SoV) using traditional tools is like trying to see the entire market through a keyhole. The main problem is for you to group accurate representative keywords from millions of queries, and unless you know the semantics of keywords, you wouldn't know how to properly group them. This means missing out on some potential opportunities. As a result, businesses are left navigating the market with a map that shows only broad landmarks, missing the finer details that could define their competitive strategy.
These also overlook other critical factors such as the split between branded and non-branded searches, device-specific behaviors, or geographic variations.
Beyond this limitation, these tools often restrict the number of competitors you can analyze. This narrow focus on big, direct competitors neglects the emerging and niche players who can disrupt market dynamics. For example, a headphone brand analyzing only the giants in their space might overlook smaller or multi-audio device brands rapidly gaining ground. Without understanding the full competitive spectrum—including the market share held by emerging players and their cumulative influence—businesses risk making decisions based on incomplete and potentially misleading data.
In 2022, Google launched 4,725 changes to search algorithms, including its ranking system. This means that, on average, it changes 13 times a day. This represents the dire need for brands to keep up with the changes in their search performance on a daily basis.
If you rely on manual methods, you'll typically export your data for a specific time period. Given that a manual analysis can take weeks to complete, by the time you've finished your calculations, devised a strategy, and begun to optimize, there's a high likelihood that the rankings will have already changed. This time-consuming process often relegates businesses to performing the analysis as a one-time effort, simply because regularly dedicating weeks at a time for this task isn't viable. Consequently, they end up with data that's perpetually out-of-date.
And if you are using a tool, you have another challenge of data latency up your sleeve. As a result, marketers end up with missed opportunities and outdated reaction times.
Most manual calculations and even some sophisticated tools often overlook the nuances of local SEO and mobile search performance. Local SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) differ significantly from global SERPs in keyword rankings, CTR, etc.
Plus with the increasing use of mobile devices, search performance and results can vary greatly. Ignoring these factors can result in a skewed understanding of your true market share and visibility. For businesses that rely heavily on localized traffic, overlooking these variations can be particularly damaging.
Search volumes and user behavior fluctuate based on seasonal trends, holidays, or special events. Manual calculations and traditional tools may not account for these fluctuations.
For instance, a retail website might see massive spikes in search volume during the holiday season, which won't be accurately reflected if your data aggregation spans the entire year without accounting for these peaks. This can result in an overestimation or underestimation of your actual Share of Voice, distorting strategic decisions.
The keyword data used in SoV (Share of Voice) calculations often diverges significantly from the actual search queries that drive substantial website traffic. For instance, a brand in the health and wellness sector might prioritize high-level, competitive keywords such as "weight loss tips" or "best diet plans," overlooking the plethora of long-tail keywords that potential customers are actually using—queries like "affordable weight loss programs for new mothers" or "scientifically proven diet plans for diabetes."
To achieve an accurate representation of market presence and make informed strategic decisions, it is imperative for brands to ensure their SoV measurements are closely aligned with the nuanced, real-world search queries their audience employs.
The calculation of SoV requires a significant investment of time and human resources. Even with automated tools, the costs can quickly escalate, especially when dealing with large datasets and multiple competitors.
Small to mid-sized businesses may find it financially impractical to invest in the necessary tools or manpower required for ongoing, accurate SoV tracking. This lack of resources forces brands to prioritize tasks, often at the expense of a comprehensive SoV analysis. A compromise can lead to a partial understanding of market dynamics and an incomplete competitive strategy.
Simple mistakes like typos, miscalculations, and overlooked data points can distort findings. The repetitive nature of manual data entry increases the likelihood of errors. It consumes valuable time and resources that could be better spent on analysis and strategy development.
By recognizing these limitations, it's clear that while understanding Share of Voice is crucial for SEO strategy, current methodologies—whether manual or tool-based—come with significant challenges. Businesses need to be aware of these pitfalls and look for more advanced, reliable solutions to gain accurate insights.
Calculating your true share of voice can be translated into actionable insights and robust growth strategies. However, basing your strategies on skewed metrics with incorrect calculations does not yield the desired results.
So, how do you find your Share of Voice for SEO in a true sense?
Don’t let fragmented data and outdated methods hold your brand back. Quattr’s Market Share Metric goes beyond traditional SEO Share of Voice (SoV) calculations, providing a complete and accurate view of your market presence.
Unlock the full potential of your SEO strategy with Quattr's Market Share Metric. This advanced tool utilizes AI algorithms to model your website's entire keyword data from essential sources, capturing every query your site has ranked for. By measuring market share against real performance indicators like CTR and impressions, Quattr's self-learning metric ensures that you are capitalizing on both branded and non-branded search opportunities.
With Quattr, you are no longer confined to broad-level keyword insights. It helps you delve deeper into keyword clusters and identify precise competitive standing. Quattr helps you stay ahead by identifying emerging trends and seasonal variations that are critical for specific markets, while also uncovering untapped markets with growth potential that are often overlooked due to generalized data.
Curious to learn more about Quattr and how it accurately measures and equips your team with a true sense of market standing? Talk to our experts today.
Organic share of voice (SOV) is important because it measures a brand's visibility and presence in search engine results compared to competitors. A higher organic SOV indicates better brand awareness and potential for increased traffic, leading to higher conversion rates and market dominance.
To increase your organic share of voice, focus on optimizing your website's content for relevant keywords, improving on-page SEO elements, and building high-quality backlinks. Additionally, regularly update your content and invest in technical SEO to ensure a smooth user experience and better search engine rankings.
Yes, tools are available to calculate the organic share of voice, such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz. But these tools cannot help compute the share of voice data for every query you see in your Google Search Console. Instead, use Quattr's Market Share Metric that provides deeper insights into a brand's keyword positioning and its competitor's market share in a true sense.
Quattr is an innovative and fast-growing venture-backed company based in Palo Alto, California USA. We are a Delaware corporation that has raised over $7M in venture capital. Quattr's AI-first platform evaluates like search engines to find opportunities across content, experience, and discoverability. A team of growth concierge analyze your data and recommends the top improvements to make for faster organic traffic growth. Growth-driven brands trust Quattr and are seeing sustained traffic growth.
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