This page contains information about the inventory and the definition of the various metrics included.
The Pages and Topics Inventory tables summarize data found in your inventory.
As a refresher, there are 3 sections in your inventory. All, Pages, and Topics.
The All Section: Comprised of Page to Topic connections or Position/Rankings, the All section is not The Pages Section + The Topics Section, but is every page/topic combination. It’s possible to have topics that you don’t rank for in the Topics section, which could make it larger.
The Pages Section: Each row has a unique URL. But it can be associated with multiple topics and other data points such as Page Authority, value, and search volume.
The Topics Section: Each row has a unique topic but multiple pages can rank for the same topic.
Summarized data is typically displayed as a total, average, maximum, minimum, or range.
Value-based metrics use cost-per-click as the default measure of value-per-visit. You can configure this based on how you measure ROI from organic traffic.
Value/Mo (Topic)
The monthly value of a topic is based on our organic traffic estimate (Organic Traffic Est.) times the cost-per-click (CPC). Our organic traffic estimate is based on the search volume, considering your current position in the search engine results accounting for the impact of any SERP features. The value is expressed as a monthly dollar figure.
Note that Organic Traffic Est. is rounded for display purposes only.
Value/Mo (Page)
The value of a page is based on the value of all the topics for which it ranks. The value of a topic is based on our organic traffic estimate times the value-per-visit.
MarketMuse uses cost-per-click as the default measure of value-per-visit. You can configure this based on how you measure ROI from organic traffic.
The organic traffic estimate is based on the search volume of a term, taking into account your current position in the search engine results plus any SERP features. For example, a term may have a monthly search volume of 1,000. But if there are many SERP features taking clicks away from organic results and you’re in the 10th position, the estimate of organic traffic will be a small fraction of the 1,000 visits.
Value Delta, Organic Traffic Delta, and Traffic Change
Delta is represented by a triangle. All three of these metrics show the change from one period to the next. The number, color, and arrow indicate the direction and amount of change.
Potential Value ($) (All)
Determine by value-per-visit (CPC default) of the topic times the Potential Traffic. Potential Traffic is based on the potential rank and the topic’s search volume. Potential rank itself is calculated based on the current rank and personalized difficulty. Overall, it’s an estimation of how much traffic you could have if you were to optimize this page-topic pair.
Potential Value ($) (Page)
Potential value of a page is calculated similar to how we calculate the value of a page. But instead of using your current ranking position, we estimate the potential rank that can be achieved with some basic optimization work and use that position in our calculations. So, if you currently rank 10 we estimate your potential as 6 or 7 and not first place. As your rank changes so will your potential.
Potential Value ($) (Topic)
This theoretical value is calculated using the Topic Volume (monthly searches) times the value-per-visit (CPC default).
Share of Site Value (Topic)
This percentage figure is determined by dividing the value of the topic by the value of all topics for the site.
Share of Site Traffic (Page)
Divide the organic traffic estimate for the page by the organic traffic estimate of all the site’s pages, expressed as a percent.
Difficulty
This is what many know as keyword difficulty and considers off-page factors for the top search results on a topic. This non-personalized metric indicates how hard it is for anyone to rank for a specific term. It’s expressed as a number from 1 to 100, with 100 being most difficult.
Personalized Difficulty
Personalized Difficulty measures how difficult it will be for your domain to rank for a topic based on your coverage of related topics and overall authority. It’s expressed as a number from 1 to 100, with 100 being most difficult. We’ve divided it up into three bands where Easy = 1 to 33, Medium = 34 to 66, and Hard is anything above that.
Topic Authority
Topic authority is the difference between Difficulty and Personalized Difficulty.
Page Authority
Because Page Authority takes into account the number of ranking topics for a page, plus their authority, you may want to display just this metric instead of Related Topics and Avg. Topic Authority.
Competitive Advantage
This metric incorporates Difficulty, Personalized Difficulty, and Topic Authority all in one candlestick display. The best opportunities are those with long green bars shifted farthest to the left. Therefore, you may want to just display this one metric instead.
Here’s how the candlestick works. The gray bar is a scale of 1 to 100 from left to right. Difficulty and Personalized Difficulty are plotted on that scale.
If Personalized Difficulty is on the left side, the bar is green because it’s easier. When Personalized Difficulty is on the right side, the bar is red signifying it’s harder. The width of that bar is the difference in value between Difficulty and Personalized Difficulty, also known as your Authority.
Avg. Competitive Advantage
The Competitive Advantage is calculated for each of the topics for which a page ranks, after which an average is determined.
Organic Traffic Est.
Organic traffic estimate is based on the search volume of a term, considering your current position in the search engine results, taking into account SERP features. Keep in mind that SERP features like ads and featured snippets take away clicks that would otherwise go to organic listings. So the organic estimate of a topic can vary dramatically from its search volume.
Here’s a typical curve of traffic by ranking. Notice that the majority of clicks to organic listings are captured by the top few entries.
At the page level, we summarize the organic traffic estimate of all the topics for which a page ranks.
Topic Volume
This is the monthly search volume for a topic. It’s how many searches are performed for the topic, not how much traffic goes to your site due to its rank.
Topic Volume (Pages)
This is the sum of all topic volumes for the ranking topics of this page. Remember that topic volume shows how many searches are conducted monthly for a term in Google. Searches do not equal traffic. Some searchers do not click on any result, known as a zero-click search. Plus, your position on the search engine results page is competing for clicks against all the SERP features and the rest of the organic results.
Organic Traffic Delta
This shows the change in organic traffic from the previous month.
Traffic Change
This indicates the change in organic traffic from the previous month on a percentage basis.
Top Rank
Since multiple pages can rank for one topic, this data point in the Topics Inventory shows the rank of your highest-ranking page for the topic.
Top Ranking URL
This shows the URL of your highest ranking page for the topic.
SERP Features
This shows what SERP features, if any, appear in the search engine results for the topic; Bottom Ads, Top Ads, Local Pack, News Box, Jobs Pack, Knowledge Card, Knowledge Panel, Featured Snippet, Organic, Related Questions, Reviews, Shopping Results, Site Links, Twitter, Image Pack, Videos.
Avg. Page Authority
The average page authority of all pages related to the topic.
Seasonality
This is a mini graph of the search demand for this topic over the course of one year. This column cannot be sorted or filtered.
Potential Traffic
This metric is based on the potential rank and the topic’s search volume. Potential rank itself is calculated based on the current rank and personalized difficulty. Overall, it’s an estimation of how much traffic you could have if you were to optimize this page-topic pair. Potential traffic values for topics and pages are the aggregates of their related page topics (“rolled up”).
Potential Traffic Gain
This is the difference between the current estimated traffic and the potential traffic. It’s an estimation of how much traffic can be gained if the user were to optimize on the page-topic, topic or page. Again, topic and pages values are rolled up from their related page-topics.
Top Valued Topic
For a given Page in the inventory, top valued topic is the one that has the highest monthly search volume * CPC.