Share of voice comes from advertising, where it meant your share of all the ads in a market. In SEO it answers a similar question: of all the attention available for the keywords that matter to us, how much are we getting compared with competitors?
How it’s calculated
There’s no single standard formula, but most SEO tools follow the same idea:
- Take a set of tracked keywords.
- For each keyword, estimate the share of clicks each ranking position typically gets (a click-through rate curve: position 1 gets the most, position 10 very little).
- Weight each keyword by its search volume.
- Add up the estimated clicks for each site and divide by the total.
A simplified example for three keywords:
| Keyword | Volume | Your position | Est. CTR | Your est. clicks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| water heater repair austin | 880 | 2 | 15% | 132 |
| tankless water heater austin | 390 | 7 | 3% | 12 |
| emergency plumber austin | 1,600 | 4 | 7% | 112 |
Do the same for each competitor, and your share is your total divided by everyone’s total. The CTR figures here are illustrative; tools use their own curves.
Why it matters
Rankings for individual keywords move up and down all the time. Share of voice rolls them into one number that shows if you’re gaining or losing ground in your market overall.
Coastline Plumbing tracks 60 keywords against four local competitors. Its share of voice rises from 11% to 17% over six months, while one competitor slips from 24% to 19%. That’s a clearer story for the owner than 60 separate rank changes, and it shows where the gains came from.
Limits to keep in mind
- It’s only as good as the keyword set. Track the keywords that bring customers, not vanity terms.
- CTR curves are averages. AI Overviews, ads and map packs change real click rates.
- Local results vary by location, so share of voice from one tracking location is a sample.
- It’s an estimate, not real traffic. Check it against Search Console clicks.
AI share of voice
The same idea now applies to AI assistants: across a set of questions, how often is your business mentioned compared with competitors? See AI visibility.
Common mistakes
- Comparing share of voice from different tools or different keyword sets
- Adding keywords mid-period and reading the change as growth
- Reporting it without the underlying rank tracking detail
How to track it
RankThat’s Rank Tracker calculates share of voice for your tracked keywords, alongside a 12-week visibility trend, so you can report one clear SEO KPI for market position.