Is your organization winning the searches that create new customers, or quietly losing them to competitors? Webolutions’ Digital Marketing Research answers that question with data. Each study compares real companies, side by side, on the measures that decide who gets found: authority, rankings, search value and visibility in AI-generated answers.
Most marketing reports measure a company against its own history. Our research measures it against the competition, because that is how customers experience a market. A company can grow its traffic every year and still lose ground if its competitors grow faster.
Every study is part of our Digital Performance Research series. Each one uses the same framework and methodology, so findings can be compared across industries, markets and years. We publish new studies regularly and update earlier ones as new data becomes available.
Who this research is for: marketing and business leaders at established and growth-stage organizations who need to know whether their digital investment is winning ground against competitors, not just growing on its own.
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What our research is finding
Across industries, the same four patterns keep appearing:
- Rankings no longer guarantee clicks. In our 2026 study of Denver SaaS companies, one company kept nearly all of its top-10 rankings but lost 57% of its non-branded traffic as Google added AI Overviews above the results. In our 2026 study of mental health platforms, just two platforms account for 60% of the AI Overview citations we tracked. Learn how Google’s AI search results are changing visibility.
- Total search value hides what’s really happening. Brand searches often make up most of a company’s search value, and changes in brand ad costs can swing totals dramatically. In our SaaS study, branded swings ran from a 47% decline to a more than seventyfold increase with no real change in performance. That’s why we report non-branded value.
- Authority isn’t enough on its own. Several SaaS companies with strong backlink profiles earned little from the searches their buyers use. Among mental health platforms, Rula earned roughly four times the non-branded value of a peer with the same authority score.
- Depth beats breadth. The SaaS companies gaining ground, SambaSafety and zvelo, built deep content around a focused topic. Among mental health platforms, Thriveworks and Ellie Mental Health capture patients with pages built around the needs and locations people actually search.
Our studies
Why the Dentist Down the Street Beats the Big Dental Brands in Denver Search
Dental care · 5 dental groups, 5 independent practices and 120 Denver search results · October 2026
Of 120 page-one positions for Denver’s core dental searches, multi-office dental groups held one. Independent practices held 86, and five neighborhood practices earn about seven times as much from non-branded Denver searches as five dental groups whose websites are worth more than 100 times as much. The study shows why local, service-specific pages win and what multi-location organizations can do about it.
Read the Denver dental study →
Who Owns Denver’s Home-Services Searches? A Year-Over-Year Study of 10 Plumbing, HVAC and Electrical Companies
Home services · 10 Denver plumbing, HVAC and electrical companies · October 2026
In Denver home services, Google’s map results and its regular results crowned different winners. One company leads the regular results with nearly half of all top-3 rankings, two others rank second and third in search value almost entirely through the map, and one established brand lost ground in a year when every competitor grew. The study shows what the winners did differently and what local service companies should do next.
Read the Denver home-services study →
Who Wins the Search for Fertility Care? A Year-Over-Year Study of 10 Fertility Providers in Colorado’s Search Market
Fertility and reproductive health · 10 national and Colorado providers · October 2026
Combined search traffic across 10 fertility providers was flat, but visibility shifted sharply between them. One national network grew on every measure, while another lost a fifth of its traffic as its estimated search value more than doubled. The study shows why rising dollars can hide shrinking reach, how AI answers are redistributing visibility and how a local clinic competes with national brands.
Read the fertility provider study →
Who Wins the Search for Orthopedic Care in Denver? A Year-Over-Year Study of 10 Colorado Orthopedic Practices
Orthopedics and specialty healthcare · 10 Colorado practices · October 2026
One orthopedic group now earns nearly half of the non-branded search value across 10 Colorado practices, while six practices lost share even as their own traffic grew. The study shows how AI Overviews, brand dependence and patient education separate the practices gaining ground from those slipping, and what specialty practices should do next.
Read the Denver orthopedic practice study →
Who Wins the Search for Care? Digital Performance Research on 10 Mental Health Platforms
Mental health and behavioral health · 10 national platforms · October 2026
Three platforms earn nearly two-thirds of the non-branded search value across 10 leading mental health platforms, while directories and local practices hold most of the first-page results patients see. The study shows where authority turns into visibility, where it stalls, and what growth-stage health companies should do next.
Read the mental health platform study →
Is Your Organic Search Value Growing? A Year-Over-Year Study of 10 Denver SaaS Companies
Technology and SaaS · 10 Denver-area companies · October 2026
Combined non-branded search value fell 29% year over year, and only two of 10 companies grew their visibility with the buyers they sell to. The study shows how AI Overviews, site redesigns and brand-heavy reporting hide real losses, and how the two leaders built durable growth.
What Technology & SaaS Buyers Need Now—and What It Means for Marketing
Technology and SaaS · Buyer research and Denver examples · October 2026
Nearly seven in ten B2B software buyers say an AI chatbot led them to a different vendor than they expected. This article explains what technology and SaaS buyers need now, from visibility in AI answers to CFO-ready proof, and what Denver technology companies are already doing about it.
Read the technology and SaaS buyer article →
How our research works
The four-stage framework
Every study traces the same path, from the strength a company has built to the visibility it actually earns:
- Authority Capacity: the strength of a company’s backlink profile, the foundation search engines use to judge credibility.
- Ranking Strength: whether that authority wins top positions for the searches that matter.
- Search-Market Value: what those rankings are worth, measured as non-branded Organic Search Value in dollars.
- AI Visibility: whether Google’s AI Overviews and AI assistants cite and recommend the company.
Most companies have a breakdown at one specific stage. Finding that stage is where improvement starts. Our SEO services strengthen Authority Capacity and Ranking Strength, and our AI search optimization services build AI Visibility.
Why we measure in dollars
Organic Search Value estimates what a company’s unpaid search traffic would cost to buy through Google Ads. Because buying-intent keywords cost more, it shows whether a website ranks for searches that matter commercially, not just how much traffic it gets. Tracked over time and against competitors, it shows executives at a glance whether their website’s value is rising or falling relative to the market. For clients, we track these measures continuously through our Performance Intelligence™ dashboards.
We report non-branded value: the value that remains after removing searches for a company’s own name. Brand searches reflect demand a company has already created. Non-branded searches show whether it is winning customers who haven’t chosen a provider yet. All figures are modeled estimates, not revenue.
How we select competitors
Each study benchmarks companies through two lenses. Business competitors sell to the same customers. Search competitors appear in the same search results, based on keyword and ranking overlap. Most companies in each study compete on both. When our list differs from the one a company’s own team would name, that difference is often the most useful finding: it shows where the company’s view of its market and its customers’ view have drifted apart.
How we name companies
We name companies where their results offer a model worth following. Companies with less favorable findings are described by category, such as "a Denver HR-tech company." Detailed company-specific findings are shared privately, through our Marketability Audit.
Contact Mike at Webolutions to discuss a Competitive Analysis and Website Marketability Audit.
Data sources
Our studies use Semrush and Ahrefs data for the US market, including organic positions, search value, backlink profiles and AI Overview citations. Each study documents its exact dates and methods.
Frequently asked questions
What is Digital Performance Research?
Digital Performance Research is Webolutions’ original research series. Each study benchmarks a group of real companies on authority, rankings, non-branded Organic Search Value and AI visibility, using one consistent framework.
What is non-branded Organic Search Value?
It is the estimated monthly cost to buy, through paid search ads, the traffic a website earns from searches that don’t include its own name. It shows whether a company is winning new customers who are still deciding.
Why does AI visibility matter?
Google’s AI Overviews and AI assistants now answer many questions before anyone clicks a result, citing a short list of sources. Companies that aren’t cited are increasingly invisible at the moment buyers form their shortlist, even when they rank well. Our complete guide to AI search optimization explains how to earn those citations.
Can Webolutions analyze my company the same way?
Yes. Our Marketability Audit applies the same framework to your organization and the competitors that matter most to your growth, with a prioritized plan for improvement.
Put the research to work for your organization
Our studies show the patterns across a market. A Marketability Audit shows exactly where your organization stands within it. The audit is a confidential, in-depth engagement that compares your non-branded Organic Search Value year over year, benchmarks you against the competitors that matter most to your growth, and pinpoints where your authority, rankings and AI visibility break down. You receive a prioritized plan to fix them.
Contact Webolutions or call 303-300-2640 to discuss the scope for your audit.
About Webolutions
Webolutions was founded in Denver in 1994 by John Vachalek, making it one of the most experienced web design and digital marketing agencies in the country. For more than 30 years, we have helped organizations adapt each time search changed the rules: the rise of Google, the shift to mobile, the arrival of local search and now AI-generated answers. Our SEO, AI search optimization and marketing strategy services are built on the same data-driven approach behind this research. See our SEO results and learn why organizations choose Webolutions.
