The visibility score shows how present an institution is within a specific discovery platform or channel. It reflects whether a prospect, when exposed to that platform’s would likely come across an institution at all, and how clearly that presence appears.
Each score from 0 to 5 is based on the proportion of discovery signals where the institution appears. The score can be derived through any clear, measurable method appropriate to the platform. Some may use automated prompts, keyword scans, sentiment tools, or platform-specific indicators.
The Visibility scoring model is designed to be flexible across sectors and discovery channels, allowing the institution to decide what Visibility means for them on a given channel. That is because what counts as a visibility signal may vary depending on the platform, the audience, and the institution’s nature.
Colleges and universities can define what this metric means to them based on how they understand their students’ engagement with that platform or channel. As long as the same standard is used across the board in an institution, the scores provide an honest and comparable read.
Here is a recommended visibility scoring system for the Visibility Gap Canvas.
This scoring system allows marketing teams to assess visibility across any set of discovery platforms. Whether assessing AI, search, social, forums, video, or emerging channels, the model provides a common framework for understanding how discoverable an institution is and how it compares within its landscape.
While the canvas is built around visibility alone, teams may wish to expand their analysis by adding criteria, such as Accuracy or Sentiment, into a parallel scoring process.
5-Step Scoring Process
Step 1: Define Platforms
Begin by selecting the platforms or channels where your audience is likely to begin their discovery. These should reflect real-world user behavior where discovery happens, relevant to your institution, your category, and your market.
Step 2: Establish Criteria
For each platform, identify the criteria that will be used to evaluate visibility. In addition to the core Visibility criteria, you may define custom criteria that are a good fit for your institutions and explain how a platform works. The goal here is to create a consistent rule for deciding whether an institution is present.
Step 3: Score
Use the defined criteria to score each institution’s visibility. Assign a 0–5 value to each platform based on the percentage of scenarios in which the institution is present. Keep the same method across all platforms and institutions to ensure the data remains comparable.
Step 4: Visualize
Plot each institution’s scores across the canvas. Connect the dots to reveal the visibility gap. The shape of lines becomes a direct signal of how well an organization is showing up across the entire discovery ecosystem.
Step 5: Interpret
Now the canvas becomes strategic. Where does your visibility drop? Where are competitors pulling ahead? What platforms are functioning as blind spots in your strategy? These patterns guide investment, repositioning, or platform prioritization.
