What is Sistrix?

Sistrix is a data analysis platform focused on the main digital marketing channels, with an emphasis on SEO/organic positioning on Google. It also offers analysis of advertising on Google Ads, Amazon, social media, and content generation.

The German tool that turned its visibility index into the benchmark SEO KPI.

How many times have you made changes to your SEO strategy only to wonder if they are really working?

Uncertainty in organic or natural positioning is the number one enemy. This is where the Sistrix tool comes in, an application that offers a reliable view of a website's Google ranking, providing not only data but also a true market insight.

Forget inflated or vanity metrics. If there is one tool on the market that has managed to become the “barometer of SEO health” at a European (and increasingly global) level, it is this German software.

This article is your roadmap to understanding why Sistrix's famous Visibility Index is not just a number, but the key to predicting the future of your website.

What does SISTRIX do? The all-in-one SEO software

1. Monitoring and control of your visibility vs. your organic traffic. Discover the “why” behind the rankings. From search intent to traffic potential, with the advantage of being able to analyze long-tail and short-tail with great precision.

2. Analyze your competitors. Discover their secrets to success. Sistrix not only tells you who your competitors are, but also which keywords they have that you don't (keyword gaps), revealing high-value content opportunities that other tools overlook.

3. Link Analysis: A solid backbone for link auditing in any link building strategy. Its link database is robust and essential for identifying spam or disavowing toxic links.

4. Improve your website. Correct on-page errors.

5. Create perfect content. Inspire and convince your visitors.

6. Google Ads, Amazon, and social media. Offers the possibility to jump from SEO analysis to Google Ads analysis or even visibility in marketplaces such as Amazon.

The Sistrix visibility index. The key metric in SEO.

One of the elements that distinguishes Sistrix from other SEO tools is its visibility index. This indicator is essential because it allows you to measure changes in a domain's positioning within Google search results. Movements in the ranking are reflected in a simple and concise manner by means of a compact number, which facilitates the analysis and interpretation of the data.

Thanks to the visibility index, it is possible to quickly identify any variation in Google's ranking, both positive and negative, and to do so in a comprehensive and efficient manner. In addition, by delving deeper into the data for a specific date, it is possible to analyze in detail the causes that have led to these changes in positioning.

This metric is particularly useful for evaluating the success of SEO actions implemented on a domain, as well as for detecting the effects that Google algorithm updates may have on the website. Therefore, the Sistrix Visibility Index becomes an essential tool for understanding and optimizing the SEO health of any digital project.

Most SEO tools focus on keyword rankings. Sistrix goes one step further and focuses on the Visibility Index.

Why is the Sitrix Visibility Index so powerful?

The Visibility Index is a weighted metric that reflects the actual strength and relevance of a domain in a specific market. It is not based on traffic, but on a fixed and enormous set of keywords that Sistrix constantly monitors.

• It is stable: Changes are not capricious; they reflect real market trends.
• It is comparative: It allows you to compare your evolution with that of your competitors in a direct and fair way.
• It indicates impact: When Google launches a Core Update, the Visibility Index is the first to draw a graph indicating who won and who lost. It is the most accurate snapshot of Google's impact on a website's organic positioning.

It is important to appreciate the importance of having an index that measures changes in a domain's ranking in Google search results regardless of the seasonality of organic traffic/SEO data.

What is the Sistrix Visibility Index?

The SISTRIX Visibility Index is a figure that measures the total value of a domain's visibility in Google search results.

Therefore, the visibility index is ideal for measuring and evaluating the success of SEO measures or, for example, for analyzing the effects of changes in Google's algorithms.

The three major advantages of the visibility index over Google Analytics or Google Search Console:

1. Not only can data be obtained from your own domain, but also from all your competitors.
2. The data is NOT subject to seasonal variation or trends, so SEO measures applied to any domain can be reliably measured and evaluated.
3. There is a historical database dating back to 2008 (2010 for Spain) for all domains, which is updated weekly and daily automatically.

How is the SISTRIX visibility index calculated?

The SISTRIX visibility index is obtained through a clearly defined process consisting of three main steps. Since its introduction in 2008, the basic formula has not been modified, ensuring the comparability of all historical values.

I. Collection of search results

The first step is to collect all organic search results for one million queries or keywords. These keywords are carefully chosen to constitute a representative sample of the search volume in each country analyzed. In addition, periodic changes are made to some of these terms to reflect trends and variations in search demand. For each keyword, the top 100 organic results from Google are typically considered, thus generating a base of 100 million data points (1,000,000 x 100) for the calculation of the index.

II. Assigning weight to the data

In the second step, the weight of each data point is determined by taking into account two main factors: the search volume for the keyword and the expected click-through rate based on the organic position of the result. For example, an eighth position for a keyword with high traffic volume (such as “iPhone”) contributes a higher value than a first position for a keyword with low traffic volume (such as “second-hand iPhone 10”). Click probabilities vary depending on search intent; in informational terms, clicks can be distributed across lower positions, while for navigational searches (“go to site”), the first result usually gets most of the clicks.

III. Summing the weights and obtaining the index

In the third and final step, the weights of all rankings obtained for a domain are added together. The total result constitutes the visibility index. In the SISTRIX Toolbox, it is possible to view the global visibility index of a domain, as well as partial values for subdomains, directories, or specific URLs.

Distribution and coverage of the visibility index

The index is automatically determined for any domain that appears in at least one of the analyzed keywords. A total of 100,000 visibility index points are distributed among all identified rankings and domains. The tool provides visibility values for more than 100 million domains in 30 different countries.

Important questions about positioning/SEO for any web project

As managers of any web project, in general, one of our main objectives and starting points for any conversion/sale should be to generate traffic for our project.

Traffic can be captured from any of the following channels:

• Organic traffic from search engines (mainly Google).
• Traffic from artificial intelligence platforms.
• Referral traffic, which comes from websites that link to ours.
• Direct traffic, which comes from users who know our brand and/or our website URL.
• Email, all the traffic we generate through our customer database and email mailings such as newsletters, promotions, etc.
• Social media. Although it is becoming easier for users to purchase products and services from social media, on most websites today, potential customers still need to visit a company's website to make their purchases.

In the marketing sector, there are numerous studies, reports, articles, etc. on the importance of each channel, both in terms of traffic and conversion. In this regard, it is very important to be aware of the maturity of each market from which the data we can use as a reference comes. The US market is not the same as the British, Spanish, or Norwegian markets. There are substantial differences in user purchasing behavior depending on their country of origin, thus affecting the traffic percentages of each channel and its conversion.

Therefore, depending on the sector or products we offer to the market, it is important to refer to data from the main market where the company obtains most of its customers.

In the case of Spain, one of the most rigorous and reliable sources of reference is the annual study of digital business conversion by the agency Flat101.

This study, which has been conducted since 2015, provides data on more than 1,000 Spanish digital businesses, offering a reliable data framework from the Spanish market and thus incorporating a good sample of the behavior and purchasing characteristics of the Spanish public.

Looking at the composition of traffic by channel in the 2025 study, we find the following data:

The following conclusions can be drawn from this data:

Organic traffic

The organic search channel significantly leads the way in generating traffic, followed by direct traffic, which accounts for an average of 26% of sessions.

Paid search

Paid search ranks third in terms of traffic acquisition, and its share increases when the display channel is included, reaching up to 12%.

Email

The use of channels such as email and organic social media is low, contributing only 1% and 2% of total sessions, respectively.

Therefore, if our target audience is in Spain, according to the study data, we must be aware of the specific weight, 45% of the total, that the organic channel (SEO) currently has within the set of channels that generate traffic to a website.

Depending on the sector in which we are working, this percentage can vary significantly, as can be seen in the following table for the DIY and construction and computer equipment and electronics sectors:

Traffic by channel and sector in Spain in 2025

Once we are clear about the importance of the organic traffic channel, we will work on our SEO strategy, planning and executing all the actions that seek to improve our organic positioning and, therefore, increase traffic to our website to achieve the maximum number of conversions possible.

And here we come to the first of the big questions in SEO, with its corresponding follow-up questions:

How do I know if my SEO is working?

Is the strategy correct? Are the proposed actions appropriate? Have they been executed correctly? Are they working as we expected?

To answer these questions, we need to rely on professional tools that help us detect problems while they can still be solved and it is not too late to take corrective measures.

It seems easy to think that, with the right tool, I will be able to answer the questions in a timely manner, but if we put ourselves in the situation, think, for example, that you have to do a job at home that requires a saw to cut part of an electrical conduit. You go to the hardware store and find a self-service store like this:

Suddenly, something that seemed simple at first, such as going to a place that sells the type of tool I need, becomes quite complicated because it is very difficult to choose the right tool from the wide range available, and we are not experts nor do we have sufficient criteria and information to make the right choice.

This example brings us to the same situation, this time in the context of choosing the best tool to answer our questions about whether our SEO strategy and actions are working.

Below, you can see the range of marketing tools available in 2025 and how it has evolved since 2011, going from 150 possible choices to 15,384 today:

As is evident, it is quite difficult to have the financial capacity and time necessary to test and choose the right tool when faced with such a large offering that continues to grow every year.

Below are some criteria that can help you choose the right tool to support you in evaluating your SEO results:

A. Strategic alignment

• Does it help evaluate hypotheses and prioritize quick wins vs. long-term initiatives?

B. Data coverage and accuracy

• In addition to providing ranking data, does it have native/reliable access to Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4?
• Update frequency (daily/hourly) and sufficient historical data to analyze seasonality and pre/post.
• Link quality metrics (referring domains, toxicity, topicality) with verified sources.

C. Technical SEO capabilities

• Crawling at scale (control of crawl depth, JavaScript rendering, pagination, i18n/hreflang).
• Indexability (meta/directives, canonicals, etc.).
• Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS, INP) with field (CrUX) and lab data; tracking by template/segment.
• Internal structure (click depth, orphan pages, broken links/redirects).

D. Visibility and ranking

• Tracking of keywords by country/language/device, buckets (Top3/Top10/Top20/Top100), competition.
• New keywords vs. lost keywords; indexing time for new URLs.
• Detection of search intent, SERP features (featured snippets, PAA, local pack, images, video).

E. Content and entity (E-E-A-T)

• Content audit by cluster/topic: coverage, freshness, cannibalization, content decay.
• NLP/NER: entity extraction, topical authority, readability, content gap compared to competitors.
• Validation of structured data (Schema.org) and rich results.

F. Business measurement and attribution

• Control of external effects: seasonality, paid campaigns, branding (branded vs. non-branded signals).

G. Integration and activation

• APIs/Connectors (GA4, GSC, etc.).
• Exportability (CSV/BigQuery/API) for dashboards and prediction/forecast models.
• Automation/Alerting (drastic changes in rankings, traffic drops, 404 spikes, new cannibalizations).

H. User experience and support

• Learning curve, documentation quality, onboarding, local support, community, roadmap.

I. Total cost of ownership (TCO)

• Licenses, crawl/row/API limits, cost of implementation and maintenance of dashboards/processes.
• Risk of vendor lock-in and ease of data migration.

By fulfilling these criteria, we will have the information we need to choose the best possible option based on our needs.

In the case of Sistrix toolbox, the tool covers a substantial part of the criteria for evaluating whether your SEO strategy and actions are working as expected.

Therefore, to answer the question of whether a strategy and its actions are working, Sistrix is ideal for finding those answers, even offering a higher reliability rate than other tools on the market.

Are my SEO strategy and actions effective over time?

So, to find out if our SEO work is working, we can find the answer by looking at the Sistrix visibility index and its evolution over time, which will allow us to quickly and easily see if we are improving or worsening our positioning.

In the following visibility index graph, we can see how the trend has been upward since 2016, despite having different ups and downs. We can also see that the strategy followed in 2025 is working very positively, with constant and very pronounced growth, reaching the highest values of this project in its entire history.

How do I know who my competition is on Google?

Identifying Competitors in the Business World

When asking a company about its competitors, it is common to receive answers that list a long list of names, usually based on market share and/or geographic location (offline). However, when it comes to Google ranking, these lists are often inaccurate and do not adequately represent the true competitive dynamics of the market.

Competition in SEO: A Specific Approach

In SEO, the concept of relevant competitors changes: it refers only to companies or entities that compete to appear in the top positions—especially the first—for the same search terms as us.

Even if a company considers that it has no direct rivals, in reality it must face at least nine alternative results that appear on the first page of search engines for those keywords. Although these other results are not seen as direct competition, their presence is constant and they represent a permanent challenge in the digital sphere.

The “Competition” feature in Sistrix provides an accurate overview of the websites that are competing for the same keyword groups, sorted by competitive level based on the number of shared keywords. It is important to note that this feature has a limitation, as it only works when the analyzed site appears in the rankings for relevant keywords. SISTRIX only detects competitors that are present in the results generated by Google, without registering competitors that are offline. Therefore, if a website does not have notable rankings—as is often the case with start-ups—this feature would not be suitable.

The recommendation for using this feature is that SEO competitors are those websites that appear in the same searches as your target site. From them, you can get ideas about keywords and structure, and learn about their external linking. A very useful technique is to use the “Competition” feature for both your domain and relevant sections of the site, such as directories or subdomains, and track these two aspects. Discovering important directories and subdomains is easy through the ‘Directories’ and “Hostnames” sections.

Sistrix offers its users an additional tool within its suite of utilities. An alert system (https://app.sistrix.com/account/alerts) that includes the “New Competitor” feature, which allows us to be informed when a new company starts competing with ours using the same keywords. To set up an alert, simply enter the corresponding domain and select the country.

How do we know if we are better or worse positioned than our competitors?

One of the most interesting options in Sistrix is “Compare Data,” which allows us to compare the evolution of the visibility index of up to 5 different domains, superimposing the graph of each one.

In addition, we can compare all the keywords we have positioned with any competitor, obtaining all those that are shared and/or overlap, as well as a one-to-one comparison of domains based on the most relevant KPIs:

How can we control and monitor positioning in response to internal and external changes?

Analysis of variations in the visibility index

The evolution of a project's visibility index is usually marked by the appearance of upward and downward peaks. These variations are common on virtually any website and can be due to multiple causes. Possible causes include changes made to the website itself, the abandonment of SEO tasks, the emergence of new competitors in the sector, the introduction of a new algorithm by Google, or even the imposition of manual or automatic penalties by the search engine.

When there is a change in positioning trends, it is essential that the web manager is aware of the situation and investigates the causes of these changes. This analysis should consider both positive factors, i.e., actions that have led to improvements in positioning, and negative factors, which have caused a decrease in the visibility of the website in Google search results.

In addition to the visibility index, Sistrix offers additional features that help monitor the evolution of your own positioning and that of your competitors:

• The labels superimposed on the graphs, which display a letter of the alphabet and follow a color code, with green ones being those that we can create ourselves to record any changes we have made. Blue labels report algorithm changes by Google, providing information about those changes and their scope. Through the tool's options, we can hide or show the labels.
• Dashboards can save you time, improve your workflow, and reduce the chance of missing an important event. By monitoring a project and its competitors, this can also help identify threats and opportunities.

Sistrix has established itself as one of the most comprehensive and reliable tools for analyzing and managing organic positioning on Google, particularly notable for its visibility index, which has become the benchmark KPI for measuring the SEO health of any digital project. This index allows marketing and SEO managers to objectively and comparatively evaluate the evolution of their positioning, quickly identify the impact of internal and external changes (such as Google algorithm updates), and compare performance against actual competition in search engines, beyond traditional market perceptions.

The platform not only offers a comprehensive view of organic traffic, but also facilitates competitor analysis, link auditing, technical website improvement, and optimized content creation. In addition, its ability to monitor trends, detect opportunities and threats, and provide historical data since 2008 makes it an essential tool for strategic SEO decision-making.

This article has only covered some of the most relevant aspects of the tool, offering a partial sample of everything that one of the most comprehensive tools with the highest quality data on the market has to offer.

In a digital environment where the organic channel continues to lead traffic generation in most sectors—especially in Spain—having a tool like Sistrix allows companies not only to measure the success of their SEO actions, but also to anticipate changes and react in time to any significant variations in the digital market. Its comparative approach, metric stability, and international coverage reinforce its usefulness for both daily management and long-term planning.

In short, Sistrix is a robust and strategic solution for those seeking to optimize their online presence, maximize the return on their SEO actions, and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in today's digital ecosystem.