Advice and answers from the Advanced Web Ranking Team
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Introducing next-level SERP insights in Top Sites report: Brand Ownership, Volatility & more
Track SERP volatility, measure a brand’s dominance in search results, and asses the dynamics of the competitive landscape — all within the new SERP Overview report.
The Top Sites report has been upgraded with new proprietary metrics, enhanced data visualization, and expanded URL insights. These updates were meant to help you track SERP volatility, measure your brand’s dominance in search results, and analyze the dynamics of the competitive landscape more effectively — all within the new comprehensive SERP Overview report.
What’s new?
✔ Volatility metric – measures how much ranking shifts are between the two AWR ranking updates selected indicating how stable the search results are for each keyword.
✔ Brand Ownership metric – quantifies how much of a SERP’s physical space is occupied by your brand (the main website of a project).
✔ Main Website Overview & Pixel Position Trend KPI – shows the keyword’s ranking position against the pixel position shifts over time relative to the top of the SERP.
✔ Additional KPIs & metric columns – the Top Sites report now shows the Keyword Difficulty, Search Intent, Estimated Visits, Traffic Cost, Click Share, and Pixel Height values for a more insightful view of your competitive landscape.
✔ New ranking filters – so you can view all ranking changes or focus specifically on search results that have improved or declined their ranking position.
The new Top Sites report provides a deeper understanding of top search result dynamics, allowing for more data-driven SEO decisions.
Track SERP fluctuations using the Volatility metric
The Volatility metric measures how much the top-ranking URLs fluctuate between updates for a given keyword and the selected search engine.
A higher score indicates significant ranking shifts among the top sites between the 2 updates used for comparison, suggesting the SERP is highly dynamic, while a lower score reflects a more stable competitive landscape:
High volatility (Score 9-10) – Significant ranking changes
Medium volatility (Score 6-9) – Moderate ranking fluctuations
Low volatility (Score 0-6) – Stable rankings with minimal movement
High volatility signals a competitive niche where ranking URLs change more often, requiring ongoing content optimization for those keywords. Lower volatility suggests a more predictable search landscape helping you to asses those keywords on which long-term SEO efforts are more sustainable.
Measure brand visibility using the Brand Ownership metric
The Brand Ownership KPI shows how much of the physical SERP space, measured in pixels, is occupied by your brand’s (main website of the project) listings. It helps you quickly identify keywords where your brand dominates the SERP and those where visibility opportunities exist, allowing you to refine your search strategy based on data-driven decisions.
The Brand Ownership percent is calculated using the total pixel height of all ranking URLs belonging to the keyword across the selected search engine relative to the entire SERP height (from the top to bottom).
It can range from 0% to 100%, where:
A low value ( 0% or close to 0%) means your brand has little to no presence in the SERP for that keyword. This is common for highly competitive non-branded keywords.
A moderate percentage (e.g., 20-50%) shows that your brand holds a strong presence but competes with other sites, often seen in generic industry-related searches.
A value close to 100% indicates that your brand dominates the SERP, occupying nearly all visible space. This is typical for branded keywords, where your brand-related pages (e.g., homepage, product pages) take up most of the search results.
This metric is computed for both branded and non-branded keywords. For easier identification, a representative icon is displayed next to the percent value, for branded terms.
Assess your search visibility beyond rankings with the Main Website Overview & Pixel Position Trend KPI
Ranking positions alone don’t tell the full story of how visible your website is in search results. The Main Website Overview and Pixel Position Trend KPI provides deeper insights by showing:
The ranking position recorded during the latest update in the report’s date range to see where your website appears in search results.
The type of result owned to quickly identify whether your ranking is organic, a featured snippet, a recipe, or another SERP feature.
How the keyword’s position, measured in pixels, shifts relative to the top of the SERP, showing whether it remains above the fold or drops below with each update in the selected time range.
Comparing the ranking position with the pixel-based one helps you understand not just where you rank, but how prominently your website appears on the SERP, allowing you to refine your SEO strategy for maximum visibility.
Additional KPIs now available in the Top Sites report
To provide a more complete SERP analysis, several additional KPIs have been integrated into the Top Sites report. These include:
Keyword Difficulty
The Keyword Difficulty KPI shows how challenging it will be to rank for the selected keyword, based on the link profiles and content relevancy of the top 10 search results retrieved from Google. This KPI shows 4 metrics as follows:
Domain difficulty score which is calculated using the backlink quality and authority of the domains belonging to the top 10 ranking results.
URL difficulty score based on the backlink quality and authority of each of the URLs (specific pages) belonging to the top 10 results.
Content score assesses how well the top 10 results are optimized for the keyword based on on-page factors.
Global score which reflects the overall difficulty rating calculated using the domain, URL, and content scores of the selected keyword.
Each metric is measured on a 0-100 scale, where a lower value (0-29) indicates achievable rankings with moderate SEO efforts, a mid-range value (30-69) requires strong SEO strategies, and a higher value (70-100) reflects highly competitive terms that demand significant authority and resources to rank.
All the difficulty scores give you a clear picture of whether you will need to compete against authoritative websites with a strong backlink profile and well-optimized content. This allows you to prioritize keywords strategically, focusing on those with a realistic chance of ranking while planning for more competitive terms over time.
Search Intent
The Search intent KPI shows the purpose(s) behind the keyword, based on the top 10 search results retrieved from Google, and tracks how intent changes between updates. A keyword’s intent can be:
Informational – keyword queries used in the discovery stage when seeking knowledge (e.g., "weather today," "SEO tips"). These queries have a high search volume, making them great for brand awareness.
Navigational – keyword queries used when searching for a specific brand or website (e.g., "Gmail login," "Starbucks"). These searches indicate brand familiarity.
Commercial – keyword queries used to compare options before purchasing (e.g., "best laptops 2024," "Nike vs Adidas"). They signal interest but not immediate intent to buy.
Transactional – keyword queries used when ready to take action (e.g., "buy iPhone 15," "sign up for Netflix"). These queries usually lead to conversions.
Estimated Visits
The Estimated visits KPI shows the amount of organic traffic your website may receive during a month for the selected keyword if found ranking in a top 20 ranking position on Google. The organic traffic potential is calculated based on the keyword’s related Click Share and Search Volume.
Traffic Cost
The Traffic Cost KPI estimates the value of organic traffic for the selected keyword by calculating how much it would cost to acquire the same traffic through paid ads (PPC). This metric is based on the keyword’s total Estimated Visits and CPC.
Click Share
This KPI shows the Click Share values and the types of SERP features owned by each result ranking on the top 20 ranking positions on Google for the selected keyword, helping you understand how these features influence user behavior.
The KPIs can be enabled or hidden from the report using the Show/Hide toggle button, allowing for a tailored view based on your reporting needs.
More granular insights into top-ranking URLs with new metrics added to the Top Sites table
Two metric columns are now available in the Top Sites table allowing for a granular view of individual ranking URLs and their visibility in the SERP:
Click Share column shows the estimated percentage of clicks each top 20 search result is expected to receive, considering its ranking position and owned SERP features.
Pixel Height column displays the total height of each search result, measured in pixels, indicating how much vertical space it occupies in the SERP.
Both metrics are available as additional columns and can be added to the report via the Table settings menu.
Easily track movements among top-ranking URLs with the new changes filters
To make it even easier to track URL movements between updates, the Top Sites table now includes three new filtering options:
Total Changes – Highlights all results that have shifted in ranking (moved up or down) compared to the previous update.
Improved – Displays search results that moved higher in the SERP.
Declined – Shows search results that dropped in ranking.
These filters allow for both a broad and focused view, helping you quickly spot which competitors gained or lost visibility after changing their positions — crucial insights for refining your SEO strategy.
With these updates, the former Top Sites report has evolved into a comprehensive SERP Overview, offering a clearer, more actionable view of the search landscape, helping you track ranking trends, measure brand dominance, and refine your strategies with confidence.
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