- Overview
- Subdomains
- SERP Features
- SEO Visibility changes
- Winner- and Loser
- Keyword research for analysis of potential
- Keyword Rankings
- URL Details
- Top performing URLs
- Competitor by URL
Overview
The KPIs on the overview page give a quick impression about the current state of the domain. Let's explain this with an example: We can see how present web.de is in Germany. The Organic Rank shows the organic position (rank 61) across all domains found in the selected country (here: Germany). By clicking on this KPI, we can look at this metric over time and then go in search of reasons for rises and falls in position.
In addition, the overview has the evaluation of SEO Visibility for the desktop as well as mobile area. These two metrics are set in relation to each other and provide information about possible disbalances as well as trend changes.
In addition, the main market of a domain can be quickly accessed using the view. In our example we see that web.de achieves the highest SEO visibility in Germany. It could also make sense in the future to tailor our content to Austrian customers (2nd place in the top countries).
The overview page also gives us an insight into the domain structure. Usually website operators do not know about all subdomains. Searchmetrics offers the possibility to see how many subdomains, URLs and directories are behind the analysed domain.
Behind these fields are deep links, which redirect you to the analysis of the respective area. For example, if we click on "Subdomains", we end up in the Research Cloud > Organic Search > Subdomains tab.
Subdomains
On this page Searchmetrics provides an overview of the most important subdomains, as well as their share in the overall visibility and visibility trend.
This example shows us that the route.web.de accounts for nearly 11% of the total domain visibility and that it has lost visibility in the last week. From here, further analyses could be started and possible market or structural changes could be identified.
In addition, comparisons can also be made here between the desktop area and the mobile area. For example, we see that the visibility of the route.web.de subdomain has increased significantly in the mobile area (screenshot below), while it has dropped in the desktop area (screenshot above). This could also be a starting point for further analyses.
SERP Features
The overview page (screenshot at the top) also gives an overview of the most important SERP features in the market. For web.de we see that 70% of the rankings have a related question integration. If we click on these numbers, we'll land in the Research Cloud > SERP Features > Domain Overview. There we can see that web.de has no integration. Important recommendations for action can be pulled from this view. For example, optimizing the URLs for related questions integrations could gain significantly more visibility and traffic.
The SERP Feature Details (Research Cloud > SERP Features > Domain Details) also provides information about the keywords that have individual SERP features. In the upper left corner, a SERP feature can be selected. The table below will then list all keywords with this integration. Let's take a look at this with an example as well.
In the example, the keyword "camping" was listed, with which the analysed domain has a news integration. This keyword has a high search volume and for this reason can be considered a great traffic driver. The domain should try to maintain this news integration and continuously optimize the URL for these integrations.
SEO Visibility changes
Further down on the overview page in the Research Cloud is the SEO Visibility development chart. In this chart the development of a domain can be compared with that of the largest competitors. Individual data points can be highlighted for changes that should be noted to be able to start deeper analyses in the Searchmetrics Suite.
Let's explain this with an example: We observe the visibility development of two domains. We notice a data point where both domains overlap and the yellow domain overtakes the blue one. By displaying the Google updates, we recognize that a Google update was made shortly before the overlap, which could be indicative of the visibility changes. By hovering over the Google icon we get more information about the respective update.
Start a deeper analysis from here and search for other factors that led to the visibility increase of the yellow domain. For that, take a look at the following article: Exploring the Declining SEO Traffic.
Winner- and Loser
On the Research Cloud > Organic Search > Winners and Losers page, the top chart not only shows the previous SEO visibility, but can also be used as a forecast.
We see in our example that the last data point has a lot of new rankings and Winner keywords. This leads to the conclusion that the SEO visibility will probably increase again at the next data point.
The tables below show all keywords that have lost or gained positions in the selected time period. Clicking on the three dots next to a specific keyword opens the keyword position history, which provides information about the position history of the specific keyword, as well as the time of the best positioning. For example, it is possible to see whether a losing keyword has already been regained in the past.
Each keyword is qualified, which is why it has its own search volume and search intent, from which the traffic index can be calculated.
If a point in time could be identified in the SEO Visibility Chart, where our domain has lost visibility, we can look at the loser keywords for the respective data point.
We can also start a keyword research from this view to uncover keywords that are related to a listed keyword.
Keyword research for analysis of potential
Clicking on the three dots and "Find similar keywords" opens the keyword research area. There you will find a market cluster structure, which provides information about the contexts in which the analyzed keyword appears.
Let's assume the keyword "beyonce" is listed as a loser keyword and we open the keyword research to learn more about the keyword. For example, the keyword "beyonce" is often searched in connection with "jay z". So it makes sense to include this topic in an article about Beyonce, as this seems to be interesting for many people.
Another quick win is the single word analysis, which also allows us to enter two keywords in the search bar to compare their respective relevance.
For example, if we enter "beyonce rihanna" in the search bar, we learn that "rihanna" has a higher search volume. If we had to choose between an online article about Beyonce or Rihanna, it may make sense to choose Rihanna, as this is likely to generate more traffic.
Keyword Rankings
However, we want to become more relevant for "beyonce" and for this reason we analyze the keyword rankings (click on the respective keyword). In this section, we can see an image of the search engine results over time for a particular keyword. For example, it is useful to compare the results of the week before a visibility drop, with the week in which the visibility dropped. Sometimes changes in SERPs (e.g. dropping relevance for image integrations) can result in high visibility and traffic losses.
In addition, important knowledge about the benchmarks and context-specific topics can be gained to assess whether it makes sense to address the issue.
In the example case, it seems that Beyonces own website has priority rights to inform about Beyonce in first position (site links). We also see related question integrations that should definitely be included to increase the chances of being listed there.
We additionally see that their are no other sides that gained or lost positions. It might be hard to rank for "beyonce" on the first result page. You could start to visit listed pages that and analyze how they present the content.
Another possibility is to analyze the top dog, in this case beyonce.com. By clicking on the link we land in the URL details.
URL Details
The URL Details provide an overview of important KPIs related to a specific URL.
Let's explain the analysis with our previous example. In the previous steps, we identified beyonce.com as an important benchmark related to the topic Beyonce. We now analyse this Wikipedia page and learn that https://www.beyonce.com/ has 522 other keywords in this environment, with which this URL also ranks on the first five pages of results for "beyonce".
Another important clue is the Traffic Index Potential, which provides information about the potential traffic index behind this topic.
We can see in our example that https://www.beyonce.com/ is already grabbing a lot of the traffic around the topic (148.9 of 221.9). Nevertheless, we could try to tap the delta traffic index potential of 73.068 which is not yet covered by beyonce.com.
The list below can be sorted by position to show the worse positions at the top of the list. The topics listed usually have little search volume, but could be covered one by one to be able to exploit the Traffic Index potential. For example, you could write about the pregnancy of Beyoncé to optimize for these keywords.
Top performing URLs
Further quick wins can be achieved from the top-performing URLs (Research Cloud > Content Performance > Top-performing URLs). It can make sense to take care of the most important URLs of a domain first and optimize them, since they already generate the most traffic.
At the top of the page there are several KPIs that show what is currently achieved with the SEO measures and what could still be achieved with further optimization. Above all, the traffic value should be emphasized, which indicates how much advertising costs can be saved through organic search engine results.
In this example, it can be seen that SEO has already saved over €44 million. However, further optimization could save another 112.79M€ (Delta Traffic Value Potential). This KPI underlines the importance of search engine optimization in general and can be monitored over years to measure success.
The chart below shows the top 10/25/50/100/1000 URLs. Each bubble stands for one URL. The goal of the optimization should be to get as many URLs as possible into the lower right corner of the chart. In other words, to convert potential into real traffic.
The tables below list the URLs according to the following three criterias:
- Top Performing: URLs sorted by the highest traffic index.
- High Potential: URLs, sorted by the highest potential
- Traffic Value Potential: URLs, sorted by the highest Traffic Value Potential (amount of advertising that can be saved).
The table shown below can additionally be filtered by specific URLs. This way, all pages of a domain can be displayed for explicit topics.
Going back to the previously described example, all URLs dealing with the topic "Beyonce" can thus be filtered out. To do this, we click on the advanced filters, select URL and type in the topic we are looking for under "include" + "contains".
The table then shows the topic-specific URLs. It also provides information about the ranking keywords as well as other helpful KPIs, such as the Traffic Index and Traffic Value.
It can make sense to constantly monitor the most important URLs as well as URLs with high potential with the help of the Visibility Guard in order to avoid visibility losses.
In addition, this overview tells us whether the listed URLs are in competition with each other (see: Canibalization (of keywords)) or reinforce each other.
URL Details
By clicking on one of the listed URLs, the URL details will be opened. This provides quick opportunities to explore the competitive situation on URL level in more detail.
The spider chart evaluates the performance of the analyzed URL as well as that of the top 10 competitor URLs. Thus, an overlap analysis between similar websites can be started.
Individual competitor URLs can also be selected to obtain a direct comparison.
Competitor by URL
In addition, the Competitors by URL tab can be used for an overlap analysis. The URL comparison is even clearer than the domain comparison, as it is based on URLs that all deal with similar products or topics.
The number of common keywords (shared keywords) of up to 100 competitors can be seen at a glance.
The table below provides a detailed list of all URLs. These are sorted by relevance, so that important competitor URLs can be quickly located, which can be used for orientation.
Direct URL comparison
A deeper comparison analysis of two competitor URLs is offered by the direct URL comparison. This can be started in the upper right corner via the "Compare URL" button.
In addition to the comparison of various KPIs and the spider chart, the degree of overlap of the respective ranking keywords can also be found there.
The lists of all shared and unique keywords can also be found at the bottom.
The shared list contains all keywords that are covered by both URLs. For this reason, there is a direct comparison of the respective ranking positions and the traffic index.
Important findings can be obtained above all from the unique keyword lists, because these offer an insight into all keywords with which only the competitor or only the own URL ranks. Thus, gaps can be quickly identified and filled or advantages can be expanded even further.
Pro-tip: Perform the URL comparison several times with different competitors and export the lists of their unique keywords as an Excel/CSV file. By combining these keyword lists, you can quickly obtain many relevant keywords on which you can optimize your existing pages.