What is SEO Share of Voice (SoV)? How to Measure and Improve It

Do you need help finding your website in the crowd of search results? SEO Share of Voice (SoV) might be the answer. This key metric measures your brand’s visibility in search results compared to competitors. Understanding SoV helps clarify your position in the market. This way, you can identify opportunities to capture more traffic and enhance your brand’s competitiveness in critical keyword areas.

At tiny lever, we can help boost your Share of Voice by performing in-depth keyword optimization, creating quality content, and building backlinks. We also monitor your performance to spot areas for improvement so you can easily adjust your strategies. We aim to help you increase your organic search visibility and connect with more potential customers.

Leveraging our expertise in getting brands to the top of Google, we’ll explore SEO Share of Voice versus traditional methods. Tracking SEO SOV reveals visibility. However, measuring can be tough due to competitor shifts and inaccurate data. After reading, you'll be able to address all these hurdles and understand how to improve your SEO Share of Voice effectively.

Let’s dive in!

What is SEO Share of Voice (SoV)?

SEO Share of Voice is the estimate of a website's visibility for specific keywords in organic search. It reveals how often a site ranks compared to competitors. This information helps identify opportunities to improve rankings and provides the percentage of total organic search traffic directed to your site.

How SEO SoV Differs from Traditional Share of Voice

Traditional SoV looks at paid media, and SEO SoV focuses on the effectiveness of organic search strategies in driving organic traffic and visibility. Here is a more detailed overview of how they differ:

Share of Voice Measurement Focus: SEO Share of Voice metrics includes impressions, clicks, and organic keywords. Traditional Share of Voice measures how your advertising impacts brand awareness compared to competitors'.
Calculation Method: Traditional Share of Voice divides a brand's advertising metrics by the total market metrics. SEO Share of Voice is calculated by adding the estimated traffic from all ranking keywords and dividing it by the total search volume of all keywords.
Time Frame: Traditional Share of Voice (SoV) looks at short-term campaign results and the immediate effects of advertising. In contrast, an SEO brand’s Share of Voice (SoV) tracks long-term trends in organic visibility, showing how well a brand performs in search results over time.

Key Components of SEO SoV

SEO Share of Voice (SoV) measures how often your brand appears in search results for specific keywords compared to your competitors. This valuable metric gives you insights into your brand's visibility in organic search.

For example, if you're targeting "organic dog food" and your website appears in the top 10 results for 30% of related searches, while a competitor shows up 50% of the time, your SoV is lower. This means your competitor is more visible for that keyword.

Ranking for niche-specific keywords is important for boosting your SEO Share of Voice. These keywords are usually less competitive and more relevant to your audience. It’s a great way to attract more qualified traffic.

While keyword rankings are important, there are alternative ways to measure SEO Share of Voice that can provide additional insights:

Share of Voice and Media: Gauges your brand’s visibility against competitors. By assessing this metric, brands can identify resonate content strategies, revealing strengths and gaps in PR initiatives. AnswerThePublic is a tool that offers insights for a comprehensive media monitoring strategy.
Social Media Platforms and Share of Voice: Brands can gauge engagement levels by measuring organic mentions in different marketing channels. While manual calculations require effort, Share of Voice tools like HootSuite and BrandWatch can enhance sentiment analysis and influencer metrics.
Share of Voice and Pay Per Click: PPC Share of Voice mirrors traditional advertising metrics. You can divide your impressions by the total number of possible impressions. For example, Google Ads helps marketers optimize campaigns effectively and ensure the right audience sees their ads.

Benefits of Tracking SEO Share of Voice

Tracking SEO Share of Voice offers several key benefits for brands. What advantages can these insights provide in shaping a brand's digital marketing strategy?

Competitive Analysis: SEO Share of Voice lets you benchmark against competitors. Identify gaps and opportunities for growth. A sudden drop in your SoV? Investigate potential causes, like competitors producing better content.
Market Position Insights: Provides insight into your brand's visibility in organic search results. It lets you understand how you compare to competitors and where you stand in the market.
Keyword Performance: By analyzing SEO SoV for specific keywords, you can pinpoint what’s working in your strategy. You may uncover a group of keywords for which competitors are ranking.
Campaign Effectiveness: Helps assess the effectiveness of your campaigns. It reflects your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs) relative to competitors. An increase in SoV indicates that your brand is gaining attention for relevant search queries.
Content Strategy Optimization: Understanding your SEO SoV informs you on how to enhance your website's performance. Use this data to create more comprehensive content on low-performing topics or optimize existing pages for improved search visibility.

How to Measure SEO Share of Voice

Measuring SEO Share of Voice (SoV) can help you understand your brand’s visibility in search results. This section covers methods to identify impactful keywords, track rankings, and calculate SoV to enhance your overall SEO strategy.

Step 1: Identify High-Impact Keywords for Your Industry

To measure SEO Share of Voice and discover important keywords for your industry, it’s best to combine keyword analysis with some competitor research. A great place to start is with tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs.

Google Keyword Planner: Helps find keyword ideas and provides search volume estimates.
SEMrush: Offers in-depth competitor analysis and keyword tracking.
Ahrefs: Provides comprehensive data on keyword difficulty and backlink analysis.

Next, analyze your top competitors' websites. See which keywords they rank for, as this can reveal valuable opportunities. Keywords that appear across multiple competitor sites are likely essential for your industry.

Long-tail keywords can boost your niche visibility. These are specific phrases with lower search volume but higher conversion rates. For example, instead of targeting "running shoes," focus on "best lightweight running shoes for marathon training." These longer phrases usually have less competition, making it easier to rank for them. Plus, users searching for long-tail keywords are often further along in the buying process, which increases the chances of conversion.

Step 2: Track Your Rankings for Selected Keywords

To measure your website's Share of Voice, start by tracking your rankings for selected keywords, focusing on where your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) for terms crucial to your business. Use ranking tools to track your position accurately, including device and location settings, to gather insights into your current rankings and observe any shifts over time.

This approach allows you to monitor visibility across various search engines and platforms, providing a comprehensive view of how your SEO efforts impact your rankings. Analyzing this data can evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies and identify areas that require improvement.

Step 3: Calculate SEO SoV Using Keyword Visibility

Here’s a breakdown of the SEO Share of Voice (SOV) calculation, along with an example:

Let's say your brand received mentions on social media, and you want to calculate your Share of Voice. Here’s how it works:

Your Brand Mentions: 500
Total Mentions for All Brands in Category: 5,000

Steps:

Plug in the numbers into the formula:
SEO Share of Voice = 500 / 5000
Perform the calculation:
SEO Share of Voice = 0.1
Convert to percentage:
SEO Share of Voice = 0.1×100 = 10%

In this example, your brand has a 10% Share of Voice in terms of social media mentions. This indicates that your brand's visibility is significant within the competitive landscape.

Strategies to Improve Your SEO Share of Voice

Your SEO Share of Voice is important because it reflects how well your brand is recognized and positioned among competitors in search engine results. Consider implementing the following strategies to improve it:

1. Optimize for High-Impact Keywords

To improve your SEO Share of Voice, focus on selecting keywords with strong search volume and manageable competition. Start refining your on-page SEO through optimized title tags and meta descriptions that naturally incorporate your target keywords.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps for improving your SEO Share of Voice:

Choose keywords with high search volume and low competition.
Refine on-page SEO, optimizing title tags and meta descriptions.
Maintain balanced keyword density in headers and body text.
Diversify content formats by including videos and infographics.
Plan and update content regularly to maintain relevance and visibility.

Developing a strong SEO Share of Voice requires consistent effort. By following these steps—targeting keywords, optimizing on-page elements, balancing keyword use, diversifying content formats, and planning content updates—you can build a more impactful presence and enhance your performance in search results.

2. Build a Strong Backlink Profile

Building a strong backlink profile is crucial for improving your SEO Share of Voice. Implementing strategies like guest posting, partnerships, PR outreach, and monitoring tools can enhance your online presence and increase brand visibility.

Here are the strategies to build a strong backlink profile:

Guest Posting: Create high-quality content for reputable sites within your industry. Look for websites with high authority and relevance, then send personalized pitches highlighting your expertise and value to their audience. Once accepted, incorporate natural links back to your site.
Partnerships and Collaborations: Partner with complementary businesses or influencers to create joint content or co-host webinars. This strategy can generate valuable backlinks and introduce your brand to new audiences, helping boost your Share of Voice.
PR Outreach: Reach out to journalists and bloggers by sharing newsworthy stories about your brand. Write engaging press releases with unique angles. Successful outreach can lead to high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources.
Use of Backlink Monitoring Tools: Tools like Ahrefs allow you to track new and lost backlinks and compare your backlink profile to competitors. Monitoring helps ensure your efforts are on track and identifies areas for improvement.

Strengthening your backlink profile through guest posting, partnerships, PR outreach, and regular monitoring is essential to increasing your SEO Share of Voice. Each strategy supports a more visible and competitive online presence.

3. Boost Local SEO Efforts (for Local Brands)

Local brands have another way to improve their SEO Share of Voice, and it’s through local SEO efforts. Start by using city-specific terms in your content and meta tags. This helps you rank higher in local search results.

Don’t forget to keep your local business listings updated. Your go-to platforms here are Google My Business and Yelp. So, keep your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) information consistent everywhere.

It’s also a good idea to track your local search performance monthly. It can help you spot trends and quickly tackle issues like inaccurate or needing additional information, declining visibility, or changes in customer engagement.

Common Challenges in Measuring and Improving SEO SoV

Measuring and improving SEO Share of Voice (SoV) can bring challenges for brands. Here are some of the common ones you should know of:

1. Tool Limitations and Data Accuracy

Different SEO tools employ varying methodologies to calculate Share of Voice, leading to consistency in data across platforms. Some key issues include:

Differences in keyword databases and search volume estimates
Variations in how organic rankings and website traffic are calculated
Discrepancies in competitor identification and tracking

Additionally, most tools, like Moz, do not provide real-time data, with updates typically occurring monthly.

2. Keeping Up with Competitive Changes

Your competitors’ activity can affect your Share of Voice over time. New competitors may enter the market, existing competitors may ramp up their SEO efforts, or algorithm updates may shift rankings. To address this:

Monitor competitor rankings and content regularly
Track new entrants in your target keyword spaces
Analyze competitor backlink profiles for new link building strategies
Adjust your keyword targeting based on competitor movements
Update and refresh your content to maintain relevance

3. Balancing SEO SoV with Other Marketing Goals

Focusing only on SEO Share of Voice can hurt other important marketing goals. It’s vital to find the right balance between:

Organic SoV efforts and paid visibility campaigns.
Short-term SoV gains and long-term brand name building.
Broad keyword targeting for SoV and more targeted, conversion-focused keywords.

Achieving SEO Share of Voice takes time and resources and must be balanced with other marketing priorities and budget allocations. So, being flexible will help ensure your success in marketing campaigns.

Key Takeaway

Your site’s Share of Voice measures how visible your brand is in search results. It’s a snapshot of your digital market share, showing how much of the online conversation you lead in your industry. By tracking SoV, you gain a clear sense of your SEO performance and can spot areas for improvement. This metric goes beyond simple rankings by factoring in search volume and click-through rates, giving website owners a well-rounded view of their brand’s overall impact.

However, measuring and improving SEO SoV isn’t always simple. Many marketers find it hard to calculate SoV or make sense of the results. Improving SoV can also mean going up against big, established brands in your field—a task that can demand time and resources. Instead, focus on building a smart SEO strategy that fills the gaps in progress and taps into new opportunities.

Need a boost in your SEO Share of Voice to stand out in your industry? tiny lever is an SEO marketing agency that helps brands grow their online presence with expert SEO content and marketing strategies. Contact us via david@tinylevermarketing.com or fill out this form to get started.