In short
- Leading
- Readiness. You can work on it today and see the difference tomorrow, with nobody else involved.
- Following
- Visibility. It moves slower, it also moves because of others, and it is the reason you are doing this.
- The mix-up
- Steering on visibility alone produces panic at every fluctuation. Steering on readiness alone produces a perfect site nobody talks about.
What does each combination of the two numbers mean?
Four cases, three of them with a different starting point. The middle two are the interesting ones: there the combination says something neither number can say alone.
| What you see | What is going on | Where you start |
|---|---|---|
| Readiness low, visibility low | the ordinary starting state — and the cheapest one to leave | gate and structure on your own website |
| Readiness high, visibility low | your website is fine, outside it too little is written about you | sources: registers, trade media, the places where your category gets written about |
| Readiness low, visibility high | your brand carries it, your website does not — fragile, because it hangs on what others say | your own website, because that is the part you can repair yourself |
| Both high | maintenance state — the question shifts from repairing to holding | measure again at fixed moments and watch what moves elsewhere |
Which of the two do I start with?
Measure them together and work on readiness. That is not a compromise but a consequence of how the two relate: today's visibility measurement is only worth something in three months if there is a measurement from today beside it, and readiness is the only thing you can act on this afternoon.
What do I lose if a report turns them into one figure?
The diagnosis. A merged figure moving from sixty-two to fifty-four tells you something happened; it does not tell you whether your site lost something or a competitor won something. Those are two different problems with two different solutions and two different budgets.
There is also a less pleasant reason providers do it anyway: one figure moves more often and therefore looks livelier. Two figures, one of which sits still for months, are more honest and sell worse.
How do I explain this to someone with no time?
In one sentence: the first number is our homework, the second is our report card. Homework you can do tonight; the report card arrives at the next measurement. Anyone who makes that distinction once never again asks why nothing moved this month although work was done.
Frequently asked questions
Can my visibility drop without me changing anything?
Yes, and it happens regularly. A competitor getting listed in an authoritative source, an engine starting to weigh another source more heavily, or a question phrased differently: all three lower your share without anything happening at your end. That is why readiness belongs beside it — it shows whether it was you.
Which of the two do I show my web developer?
Readiness, because that is the only one they can act on. Visibility belongs in the conversation with whoever owns the brand: they decide whether anything gets written about you and whether you are listed in the registers you belong in.
Read on
Free, no account and no card.