“Almost all of our clients are non-profits who often don't have the staff bandwidth or budget to develop, plan, and execute large-scale market research initiatives in-house. We offer them clean, comparative insights they may not be able to receive otherwise.”

Olivia Zvara, Director of Operations at CultureComp

Challenge: Moving beyond attendance-only metrics

For decades, attendance has been the default success metric across the U.S. cultural sector. But this single number can obscure more than it reveals—especially when attendance is impacted by factors including market size and socioeconomic differences from community to community.

“Museums or attractions in New York are generating more attendance than where I am in the Carolinas due to differences in market size and tourism. So while attendance is an important metric, it is not the only metric that should be used to evaluate performance,” explains Olivia Zvara, Director of Operations at CultureComp.

As consultants monitoring over 800 museums, zoos, and aquariums, CultureComp knew attendance figures alone couldn't capture digital engagement, public interest, or visitor experience. They needed a better way to compare performance across vastly different institutions.

CultureComp relied on Google Trends for market intelligence but found several limitations, including:

Measurement constraints. Google Trends only allows five concurrent comparisons using index-based data. With 800 organizations to track, this created a fragmented view of market performance.
No standardized benchmarking. Each analysis required manual interpretation. There was no consistent way to compare performance across hundreds of organizations.
Limited competitive intelligence. The team couldn't analyze competitor strategies or identify industry-wide performance patterns.

To serve their clients effectively, CultureComp needed a scalable system to track all 800 institutions consistently, offering comparative insights without excessive manual labor.

That’s when they discovered the Semrush Trends API—a scalable way to deliver real, standardized market intelligence at sector-wide scale.

Solution: Trends API integration for comprehensive cultural analytics

In search of a tool with more comprehensive market intelligence, CultureComp chose Semrush's Trends API integration, which provided custom reporting capabilities. The platform's ability to provide data for hundreds of domains consistently while providing comparative analytics made it the clear choice.

In addition to data consistency and scale, the API offered a pricing structure that aligned perfectly with CultureComp’s non-profit client base.

“When we buy the data on a massive scale, we're able to distribute it at an affordable cost across our client base rather than leaving them to purchase it on their own, or worse, not receive the data at all.”

Olivia Zvara, Director of Operations at CultureComp

This model made premium analytics accessible to hundreds of cultural institutions. Their strategy focused on four core areas to drive measurable results:

Step 1: Integrate annual data via Trends API for standardized benchmarking

CultureComp implements an annual data strategy using Semrush’s Trends API.

Each year, clients receive comprehensive data for all 800 organizations and their domains, which integrates into their master database.

“We receive a custom report from Semrush in January of every year that has all of that data for those 800 organizations and their respective domains. And then we integrate that into our master database,” Zvara explains.

With this systematic approach, CultureComp can:

Track identical metrics for every client consistently
Create reliable benchmarks for performance comparison
Distribute premium analytics costs across their client base
Eliminate fragmented data collection processes

This annual integration gives CultureComp a consistent foundation for year-over-year benchmarking—making premium insights accessible to every client, regardless of size.

Step 2: Track performance across five key metrics consistently

CultureComp monitors five core data points as indicators of digital awareness and engagement across all cultural attractions.

The team tracks website traffic analytics (Trends API), including duration of stay and unique visitors, keyword search volume as an indicator of awareness and interest, and domain analytics for comprehensive site performance, and position tracking for competitive positioning (Semrush API).

Zvara’s team tracks identical metrics for every client, creating reliable benchmarks for performance comparison and evaluation.

With standardized tracking methodology, CultureComp can:

Compare performance across hundreds of organizations reliably
Identify top and bottom performers instantly
Provide consistent benchmarks regardless of geographic location
Eliminate subjective analysis requirements

This consistency in performance tracking helps clients see exactly where they stand, why it matters, and how to improve.

Step 3: Analyze competitive intelligence at scale for industry insights

Using Trends API, CultureComp analyzes competitor strategies and identifies performance gaps across the entire cultural sector.

Unlike Google Trends' limitation of five concurrent comparisons, Semrush enables CultureComp to analyze all 800 cultural attractions simultaneously with consistent methodology.

By purchasing data at scale, CultureComp distributes costs across its client base, making premium analytics accessible to nonprofit organizations.

With industry-wide competitive intelligence, CultureComp can:

Analyze all 800 cultural attractions simultaneously
Provide insights into performance relative to similar institutions
Help clients understand their market position
Identify areas for improvement based on industry benchmarks

Step 4: Detect problems immediately to optimize performance

By analyzing Semrush data, Zvara’s team uncovered a strong correlation: More unique website visitors, longer average visit duration, and higher pages per session frequently predict stronger performance across cultural attractions.

One client, for example, faced persistently low attendance. When benchmarked against similar institutions using CultureComp’s Semrush-powered analysis, it became clear that their website was underperforming, drawing fewer unique visitors, shorter visit times, and less engagement per session than peer organizations.

A subsequent website audit revealed one of the culprits: poor navigation. Essential visitor information, like operating hours and ticket pricing, was difficult to locate.

“Cultural attractions need to use their websites as visitor conversion tools. A cultural attraction whose website has poor navigability or visit-related information that is difficult to obtain is unlikely to capture their full attendance potential. The Semrush data confirmed our suspicions that the website's poor navigability may be diminishing their attendance potential. With this data-backed insight, the museum felt confident in its decision to invest in a complete website redesign to improve engagement.”

Olivia Zvara, Director of Operations at CultureComp

Thanks to this diagnostic capability, CultureComp helps organizations take immediate action. With Semrush insights, they can:

Distinguish between awareness issues and operational challenges at a glance
Identify website optimization opportunities based on user behavior patterns
Deliver clear, actionable recommendations tailored to each institution
Track the long-term impact of improvements through consistent annual reporting

By surfacing problems early, CultureComp enables faster course correction—and better outcomes for both digital engagement and in-person attendance.

Results: Transforming analytics for cultural attractions

With Semrush, CultureComp has traded scattered data points for standardized, actionable insights across the entire cultural sector. By aligning its efforts with comprehensive data and industry benchmarking, it has achieved measurable growth and provided outstanding value to its cultural institution clients.

Key Results:

800+ cultural attractions tracked with standardized benchmarks
18% revenue growth in the first half of 2025, surpassing all of 2024
49% reduction in data costs for nonprofits
Immediate problem identification through comparative analytics

“Demand for our comparative analytics has grown significantly through word of mouth among past clients, as we are offering a unique volume of data to a sector that has historically been underserved by enterprise data providers ,” explains Zvara.

CultureComp's success with Semrush shows how consulting organizations can use traffic and market data to serve an entire industry, providing standardized benchmarking and competitive intelligence that drives measurable improvements in digital performance.

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