What is share of search?
Share of search is the percentage of branded search volume in a category that belongs to your brand: searches for you, divided by total searches for you plus your competitors. Research by Les Binet and others shows it correlates strongly with market share and tends to lead it by months, which makes it a forward indicator marketers can read from free data.
How to calculate and use share of search
The metric is computed from search volume data (Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, or an API source) on a fixed competitor set, tracked monthly. Rising share of search means your brand is winning a growing slice of category demand before that demand shows up in revenue. Falling share of search is an early warning that competitor marketing is working.
In an SEO program, share of search separates brand growth from ranking growth. You can gain rankings while losing share of search (competitors growing demand faster), or hold rankings while share of search climbs (brand building working). Its AI-era sibling is share of AI citations: the equivalent measure inside answer engines.
Example
Example
A challenger brand tracks monthly searches for itself and four competitors. Its share moves from 9% to 14% over two quarters while revenue share stays flat: historically that gap closes, so the team treats it as a leading indicator and holds investment.
Frequently asked questions
How is share of search calculated?
Your brand’s monthly search volume divided by the total search volume for all brands in your defined competitor set, tracked on a consistent basis. Keyword Planner or Google Trends both work if the source stays constant.
Why does share of search matter?
It is a leading indicator of market share: shifts in branded search demand tend to precede shifts in revenue by months, giving an early read on whether brand building is working.