Search Engine Visibility Indices Versus Visitor Traffic on Websites

摘要

"Search engine (optimization) visibility indices" or also called "SEO visibility indices" are a widespread and important key performance indicator in the SEO-Communities. SEO visibility indices show the overall visibility of a website regarding the search engine result page (SERP). Although search engine visibility indices are widespread as an important KPI, they are highly controversial regarding the aspect of a correlation between real website visitor traffic and search engine visibility indices. Furthermore, only a few online-publications examine this controversial aspect. Therefore, we designed a study, analyzing the correlation between organic visitor traffic and search engine visibility indices, the correlation amongst the indices themselves and the impact of Google Updates on the indices. The study is based on 32 websites of German enterprises from various business branches. Key findings imply that there is no high correlation between organic visitor traffic and search engine visibility indices, but a high correlation between the indices themselves. Furthermore, there is no identifiable pattern relating to the expected effect that Google Updates influence the search engine visibility indices.