by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, March 22, 2017

Searchmetrics Wednesday released findings of the top 20 most visible sites in paid search and organic search on google.com, based on Searchmetrics data collected for the first 10 weeks of 2017.

The analysis, which uses metrics to measure paid and organic visibility in search results, identifies the types of businesses that play a major role in search advertising on desktop across Google. It also identifies how some companies have “drastically increased” the amount spent on paid-search advertising in the short term and then reduced it — all within the first 10 weeks.

This is why some companies in the ranking have a relatively high average paid visibility score and why sites like Informationvine.com place higher than amazon.com, although the former may continue to reduce the amount spent.

The higher the score, the more visible the site is as it serves up in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Informationvine.com took the No. 1 position for paid-search visibility with a score of 150,071 during the first 10 weeks of the year. Amazon.com came in at No. 2 with a score of 137,332, with Netfind.com at 79,375; Bestdeals.today.com at 56,588; jet.com at 55,792; poki.com at 36,898; att.com with a score of 36,303; expedia.com with 36,139; google.com at 33,337; and directvnow.com with a score of 32,535 rounds out the top 10 in paid search.

Creating the Top 20 lists in this study required Searchmetrics to average out the Paid and SEO Visibility scores for the relevant domains based on the weekly scores over the course of the first 10 weeks of 2017.

Amazon, ATT, and Google are the only sites in the top 20 paid-search advertisers list published today that were also on the list in the 2013 published list from data gathered in 2012, when Searchmetrics conducted a similar analysis.

The analysis also notes fewer retail-focused sites in the top 20 this year, compared with the analysis published four years ago. In the last report there were 11 retail-focused sites, such as Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Buycheapr, JC Penney, Lowes, Target, Sears, Home Depot and Nordstrom. There are less than a handful today: Amazon, Best Deals, Jet, and Overstock.

Another dramatic change can be seen in the online entertainment, streaming and games category. In 2017, six sites — Poki, ATT, DIrectvnow, Hulu, Owntitle, and Pogo — appear in the top 20, compared with only one, ATT, in the 2013 report.

Searchmetrics reveals that content-heavy sites — social networks, publishers, and encyclopedia and dictionary sites — dominate the top 20 list of the most visible sites in organic search.

To determine the scores, Searchmetrics tracks the paid and organic ranking of millions of keywords on Google.com weekly and calculates the paid visibility and SEO visibility scores based on several criteria. These include the number of times that a domain appears in the SERPs across the keyword set.

The prominence within those SERPs — because of a higher ranking and the competitiveness of the keyword — equates to a higher visibility score, according to the company.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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