share of voice (SOV)
Also called: share of voice, sov, search share of voice, seo share of voice, visibility share
Share of voice (SOV) is the percentage of total available search traffic a brand captures for a defined keyword set, measured against every competitor ranking for those terms. It collapses a scattered list of keyword rankings into one number that shows your competitive share of visibility.
How it’s calculated
Tools estimate SOV by weighting each ranking by real search demand, not by counting positions. The core formula Ahrefs and Semrush both use is:
SOV = your clicks from tracked keywords / total clicks available across those SERPs
Each keyword’s contribution is its search volume times the expected click-through rate for your position (and any SERP features sitting above you). Rank #1 for a 10,000-volume term counts far more than rank #3 for a 100-volume term. Semrush’s own example: if your tracked keywords generate roughly 100,000 estimated clicks a month and you capture 6,000, your SOV is 6%.
Why bother when you already track rankings? Because 40 keywords each nudging up two spots is invisible in a position report but obvious in SOV. The metric also bakes in competitors: your share only rises if you pull clicks away from someone else, so a climbing SOV signals real market movement rather than vanity gains.
The idea is now spreading past classic SERPs. “AI share of voice” applies the same logic to LLM answers, measuring how often ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI answers name your brand versus rivals across a set of category prompts. The competitive-share concept carries over cleanly. Only the surface and the counting unit (mentions instead of clicks) change.
How it affects your traffic
SOV is the number that tells you whether SEO work is moving your competitive position or just your own vanity metrics. A flat SOV while clicks tick up usually means the whole category is growing and you are standing still relative to rivals. Tracking it against a defined competitor set, with SOV targets per keyword cluster, is central to how our SEO consulting builds a roadmap judged on share gained rather than rankings collected. It also extends to AI answers, where owning share of the prompts your buyers ask is the new version of the same fight.
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