Share of search on otto.de: measuring your products' share of visibility

What share of visibility measures

A single position tells you where one product ranks for one search term. Share of visibility sums up how present your range is for the searches that matter to your business: of all page-1 places across your keyword set, how many are yours?

otto.de currently shows 120 products per results page (as of October 2026) – see Page 1 on otto.de. With ten keywords there are 1,200 page-1 places. If your products hold 36 of them, your share is 3 %. In marketing, "share of search" sometimes means a brand's share of brand searches; here it means places in the results list.

Step 1: fix your keyword set

The share is only as good as the set behind it. What works:

• 10 to 30 search terms per product area – the terms shoppers use for your product type, not your brand names.
• A mix of head and long-tail terms, such as "laufschuhe herren" and "laufschuhe herren wasserdicht" – see Finding long-tail keywords.
• Include synonyms on purpose: according to OTTO Advertising, since late 2024 OTTO's search understands meaning and synonyms ("Jogging-Schuhe" → "Laufschuhe"). More in Semantic search on OTTO.
• Freeze the set: change it rarely and note the date, or your weekly figures won't be comparable.

Step 2: calculate in a simple spreadsheet

Add one row per keyword: column A search term, B your page-1 results, C of which organic, D of which ads, E total ad tiles on page 1. The figures below are a made-up example, not measurements:

• "laufschuhe herren": 3 results (2 organic, 1 ad), 10 ad tiles
• "trailschuhe herren": 2 results (2 organic), 10 ad tiles
• "laufschuhe dämpfung": 1 result (1 ad), 10 ad tiles
• "joggingschuhe herren": 0 results, 10 ad tiles
• "laufschuhe wasserdicht": 4 results (4 organic), 10 ad tiles

Overall share = SUM(B) ÷ (number of keywords × 120) = 10 ÷ 600 = 1.7 %. As a formula: =SUM(B2:B6)/(COUNTA(A2:A6)*120).

Also track coverage: for how many keywords do you appear on page 1 at all? Here 4 of 5 = 80 %. A rising share at the same coverage means more products per search; rising coverage means you're reaching new searches.

Step 3: separate organic and sponsored

Ad places can be bought, organic ones can't. According to OTTO Advertising, Sponsored Product Ads placements were expanded in late 2024 from four to up to eleven per results list. Lump both together and you can't tell whether more visibility comes from better listings or more budget. Using the example above:

• Organic share = SUM(C) ÷ (keywords × 120 − SUM(E)) = 8 ÷ 550 = 1.5 %
• Ad share = SUM(D) ÷ SUM(E) = 2 ÷ 50 = 4 %

How overall, organic and ad position relate is explained in Otto rankings explained. If the organic share falls while the ad share rises, you're buying back visibility your listings have lost.

Not every place is worth the same

A product in position 3 is more likely to be seen than one in position 110. A second, stricter figure is the top share: count only results in the first places, say 1 to 20, and divide by keywords × 20. You choose the cut-off – what matters is keeping it fixed.

Keywords differ in importance too. If you want to weight them, use a figure you can back up, such as your revenue per search-term group. If you run Sponsored Product Ads, the search-term report shows impressions per search term according to the API documentation – a pointer to which terms people actually search for.

Measure weekly – the same way every time

• Same day, same time: positions move between two checks because otto.de rotates ads and tests layouts – see Ranking fluctuations.
• Measure from Germany: rankings differ by the visitor's country.
• Trend over single values: judge four weeks, not one. The share belongs in your weekly KPIs.
• Date your actions: title change, price promotion, new campaign – otherwise you can't explain a movement later.

MarktRank provides the raw data: the overall, organic and ad position of each of your products per search term, on demand and automatically each week, as a history. From that you count your page-1 results each week.

What moves the share

• Listing quality: titles, attributes and images decide whether a product counts as relevant for a search – that moves the organic share.
• Stock: sold-out products don't sell even when visible; check results without stock separately.
• Ads: budget and bids only move the ad share. If it rises without the organic share following, the visibility is rented.
• Competition: new sellers or better listings elsewhere push your share down even if you change nothing. If useful, count the results of your two or three main competitors too – see Researching competitors on otto.de.
• Season: in November and December more sellers and ads crowd onto page 1. Compare with the same week last year.

Frequently asked questions