Search Visibility
Indexed is not the same as retrievable.
Search visibility describes whether a business can be resolved, retrieved, ranked and presented across classic search results, map results, local packs and directory indexes — for the queries that actually matter to it.
Index → Retrieve → Rank → PresentQuery-relativeIllustrative
The chain
Four things that all have to work
A break anywhere in the chain produces the same symptom: the business is present but not found.
Crawledsource reachable
Indexedstored
Resolvedmatched to an entity
Retrievedreturned for a query
Rankedpositioned
Presentedvisible to a person
Surface breakdown
Search visibility by surface class
Organic search82
Local pack74
Map results71
Directory index69
Marketplace search44
Publisher search38
Common failure modes
- !Entity split across duplicate records
- !Category too broad to match intent
- !Service area not expressed in the record
- !Facts conflict between surfaces
- !No structured data on the source of truth
Query view
Search visibility is measured per query
| Query | Organic | Local pack | Maps | Directories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northland Plumbing | Strong | Strong | Strong | Strong |
| Duluth plumber | Strong | Medium | Medium | Strong |
| Emergency plumber | Medium | Medium | Weak | Medium |
| Water heater repair | Medium | Weak | Weak | Medium |
| 24-hour plumbing | Weak | Weak | Weak | — |
Illustrative demonstration data, not measured search results.