Category Curves provide a comprehensive analysis of how entire categories of websites perform within a specific landscape in SiteCurve.
They aggregate data across all domains ranking for keywords in a category, giving users a top-down view of the competitive landscape. The overview page within Category Curves is the starting point for exploring category-level performance metrics, trends, and competitive insights.
What Are Overview Pages in Category Curves?
The Overview Page in Category Curves serves as a summary of all the key metrics, trends, and competitive insights related to a category and the domains that are in that category. It aggregates data such as estimated traffic, share of voice, keyword trends, and performance scores to give users a quick snapshot of how the category is evolving. By visualizing trends and providing leaderboard rankings, it helps users identify opportunities, threats, and patterns in the competitive landscape.
Key features include:
Category Scores: Aggregated metrics like Curve Score, Google Score, and Volatility Score to gauge overall performance.
Site Trends: Time-based trends for traffic, rankings, and scores within the category.
Leaderboards: Rankings of top-performing domains by traffic, scores, or visibility.
Winners & Losers: Highlights domains with significant gains or losses within the category.
Keyword and Competitor Insights: Drill-down options to explore individual keywords or competitors driving performance within the category.
Notice: You may notice that the ‘traffic’ and ‘share of voice %’ curves are flat by default in the Category Curve overview screen. This is because you are viewing all sites within a category or niche. This is normal. If you engage the ‘website type’ and ‘business model’ filters you can view the traffic and share of voice % just for domains within a sub-segment, it which will change these curves. Also, if you create an index, in the index curves module, you can select less than all of the domains which would show a non flat curve
Why Use the Overview Page?
Market-Level Insights: The Overview Page provides a holistic view of how a category is performing, enabling better strategic decisions.
Competitive Analysis: Identify leading domains, emerging threats, and opportunities within the category.
Trend Tracking: Monitor performance metrics over time to spot patterns, seasonality, or sudden shifts in the landscape.
Actionable Data: Use the aggregated metrics to refine SEO strategies, identify high-value niches, or focus efforts on underperforming areas.
Winners & Losers: View winning and losing websites by category and drill into different niches, business models, and website types.
Key Features of the Overview Page
Category Performance Scores
Traffic: The total estimated visits for the category.
Average Rank: The average position across all tracked keywords in the category.
Curve Score: Measures the overall performance of domains relative to their authority. A high score here indicates a low competition category.
Google Score: Tracks SERP feature activity (e.g., AI Overviews, Featured Snippets) for the category’s keywords. A high score here indicates that the category is dominated by search engine widgets.
Volatility Score: Indicates how stable or unstable rankings are within the category. A high score here indicates that the rankings in a category change a lot.
Site Trends
Visualize time-based trends for metrics like traffic, Curve Score, and Google Score.
Compare domains within the category to understand performance dynamics.
Leaderboards
Highlight top domains within the category based on metrics like estimated traffic, Curve Score, or Google Score, or Volatility Score.
Use the filters in the header to segment by niches, business models, or website types for deeper insights.
Winners & Losers
Identify domains with significant gains or losses in estimated traffic or share of voice %.
Filter by time period to focus on recent performance changes.
New Entrants
Discover new domains entering the category and their performance trends.
Monitor potential emerging competitors.
Keyword Performance
Aggregate keyword data for the category, including MSV (Monthly Search Volume), CPC (Cost Per Click), and rankings.
Identify high-performing or declining keywords within the category.
Competing Websites
List of domains competing for the same keywords within the category.
Visualize traffic trends and performance metrics for each competitor.
Discussions & Alerts
Centralized feed for category-related discussions and alerts.
Collaborate with team members and track significant category events.
How to Use the Overview Page
Analyze Category Scores
Start by reviewing the aggregated performance scores to understand the category’s overall health and dynamics.
Track Trends
Use the Site Trends graph to monitor changes over time and identify patterns or anomalies.
Explore Leaderboards
Identify top-performing domains and analyze their strategies to replicate success.
Use filters to focus on specific niches or business models within the category.
Monitor Winners & Losers
Keep an eye on domains with significant changes to spot emerging threats or opportunities within a category you compete in.
Dive into Keyword and Competitor Insights
Drill down into keyword data to identify high-value opportunities.
Study competing websites to uncover strategies driving their success.
Engage with Discussions & Alerts
Leverage the Discussions and Alerts sections to collaborate with team members and stay updated on key events.
Best Practices for the Overview Page
Focus on High Curve Scores: Domains with high Curve Scores often have strategies worth emulating as they are over performing their domain authority.
Track Volatility: Pay attention to the Volatility Score to identify unstable rankings for domains that could signal an opportunity.
Leverage Google Scores: Use high Google Scores to assess SERP feature activity and adjust your content strategy accordingly (i.e., deprioritize serps with many features).
Set Alerts: Enable alerts for key categories to stay informed about performance changes in real-time.
Use Leaderboards: Regularly analyze leaderboards to identify trends and benchmark your performance against top competitors.
FAQs About the Overview Page
How are Category Scores calculated?
Category Scores are aggregated metrics that combine traffic, rankings, and visibility data across all domains within a category. The score at the category level is derived from the domains that fall within that category.
For example, if many domains have a high curve score within a category, that category will have a high curve score indicating its an easy category to secure search visibility.
Can I segment data by niches or website types?
Yes, use the filters to drill down into specific niches, business models, or website types within a category. All scores auto-recalculate so you can see how your custom segment stacks up relative to the unfiltered category.
How often is data updated?
Data within SiteCurve is updated daily at or around 1am EST.
What is the difference between traffic and share of voice for categories?
Traffic represents the estimated number of visits to the category, while share of voice indicates the category’s visibility percentage relative to the entire landscape.
If you are looking at an unfiltered category, the share of voice % will be 100%, but if you segment to only show ecom websites, it will show you the share of voice domains that resemble ecom websites own in the category.
How are discussions integrated into the overview?
Discussions are tied to domains within the category and are aggregated in the Discussions section for easy access and collaboration.
If you comment on a domain within SiteCurve and it matches the category you are currently viewing, you will see the comment flow through Category Curves.