We started with the German visibility index and started adding other countries relatively quickly, and decided to distribute the same number of visibility index points in each country. That means that there are around 100,000 visibility index points in Germany, and there are also those in Austria and Liechtenstein. That means that if you have a visibility index of 5 in Austria, then you are as visible in Austria as you are in Germany with a visibility index of 5 - but you will of course receive fewer visitors in Austria because there are simply fewer searches in the whole country. But from a pure SEO success perspective, you can say that you are equally visible in both countries. The fact that in one country this visibility then converts into fewer visitors and then probably also into less sales and less profit and so on, I think that is more down to the country than the visibility index.
This is of course a real issue, yes. I think you have to adapt your search term set over time. This year I might have searched for the 2024 Olympic Games, in three years nobody might be looking argentina phone number data for that anymore, or the iPhone 7 might not be such a popular product anymore. If you adapt the keyword set, won't that also change the visibility index without my website having changed?
Exactly, we adapt the keyword set in such a way that keywords are included that have long-term search volume, and keywords that no longer have long-term search volume are eliminated. We generally have the approach that nothing that is relevant in the short term is included. So something like "Olympia 24", for example, will not be included because it is only interesting for a relatively short peak. So there is a bit of a view on it: It has to have a relevant search volume for at least two years to be included with us, and it has to no longer have a relevant search volume for two years to be eliminated. And there aren't that many keywords that come in and that get eliminated. Of course, there is an iPhone in there, "iPhone 16" will definitely have a relevant search volume for two years. For example, individual sporting events or individual concerts or individual football matches are not included. Instead, we try to keep in mind that SEO should generally be geared towards the long term and should have long-term success, and we make sure that the keyword set also reflects long-term demand.
Seasonality is such a nice topic. It's always surprising when you have a website like weihnachtsgeschenke.de, which has a very good visibility index all year round, but of course nobody is looking for Christmas presents between January and October. Does that make sense, or could you do something with seasonality?