Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ a winner for news publishers in Mobile News Box visibility
10. October 2025Pop superstar Taylor Swift released her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on October 3, 2025 to great fanfare. Swift’s song lyrics always generate a great deal of scrutiny online, and this time was no exception. Lyric-related keywords drove a significant amount of search visibility rankings on Google.
This analysis explores which keywords and publishers gained visibility in the US Mobile News Boxes between Oct. 2-9, 2025.
Keyword Analysis
Roughly 40 keywords related to Taylor Swift’s new album with Mobile News Box visibility rankings were found in the Trisolute News Dashboard.
The top-performing keyword in the Mobile News Box by a good margin was “taylor swift life of a showgirl” which earned 2,354 rankings. However, the shorthand version “taylor swift new album” also performed well, earning third place in Mobile News Box visibility rankings as did “taylor swift album” in fifth place.
Lyric-related keywords earned 3 slots in top 10 visibility in Mobile News Box rankings: “taylor swift wood lyrics” was in fourth place, while “taylor swift lyrics” came in sixth place and “wood taylor swift lyrics” was in ninth place.
Several celebrity name keywords showed up that were referenced on the album: “taylor swift selena gomez,” “taylor swift charli xcx,” “taylor swift 50 cent,” and “taylor swift blake lively.”
There was also a good deal of search interest in Taylor Swift’s late-night show appearances to promote her new album, with “taylor swift the tonight show” earning eighth place and “taylor swift seth myers” earning 11th place in Mobile News Box visibility rankings. Also “taylor swift jimmy fallon” earned Mobile News Box visibility rankings.
Top publishers
Top 5 in Mobile News Box visibility
- people.com: Led the pack in visibility and rankings. Demonstrated authority for several top-ranking keywords in Mobile News Box visibility, including “taylor swift,” “taylor swift life of a showgirl,” and “taylor swift new album,” which helped propel people.com to the top spot overall.
- eonline.com: Owned the most Mobile News Box visibility rankings for “taylor swift wood lyrics” and “taylor swift lyrics” though it’s interesting to note that people.com earned top visibility rankings for “wood taylor swift lyrics” so publishers have the opportunity to earn visibility rankings for keyword variations.
- pagesix.com: Earned third place in visibility and fourth place in rankings. Taking a local angle, they owned Mobile News Box visibility for “taylor swift nyc” tied to an article about Swift’s visit to New York City during her press tour for the new album.
- usatoday.com: Scored fourth place in visibility, but edged out Page Six in rankings. They earned top Mobile News Box visibility rankings for the keyword “taylor swift album.” Approaching from a niche angle targeted for their audience, USA Today had success with an explainer article for parents on how to find the clean vs explicit versions of the album.
- yahoo.com: Yahoo captured Mobile News Box visibility rankings across a wide range of keywords related to Taylor Swift’s new album.
Rounding out the top 10 in Mobile News Box visibility:
- usmagazine.com
- nytimes.com
- billboard.com
- nypost.com
- cnn.com
Here’s a look at the top keywords and publishers on the Mobile News Box by amount of visibility rankings.
Takeaways
Publishers used a variety of angles to cover the release of Taylor Swift’s latest album: staff reviews, song-by-song analysis, lyrics analysis, public reaction, celebrity reaction, and coverage of late-night show appearances.
While the top Mobile News Box keywords were highly competitive, publishers were able to find niches where they could shine in visibility. This is an important part of a publisher’s search visibility strategy when covering a global celebrity like Taylor Swift.
Controversy tends to drive an increase in visibility. The top-performing articles for people.com and eonline.com were about the album’s NSFW lyrics for the song “Wood,” about fiance and NFL star Travis Kelce. Swift’s own reaction to the album’s mixed reviews and reception, and the disses and issues Swift covers on the album also performed well in search visibility. Pagesix.com and usatoday.com scored Mobile News Box visibility hits with articles about critical reviews and reception of the album.
AI Overviews didn’t play a huge role on the mobile SERP for Taylor Swift’s new album. Instead of the NSFW “Wood,” the song that generated the most AIOs was “taylor swift’s ophelia.” That aligns with AIOs generally avoiding controversial topics.
When reviewing share of voice by the social media-focused SERP news box types, (Latest posts, Latest posts from, Live updates, Perspectives, Recent, What people are saying), YouTube was the leader in visibility, while Reddit managed to edge out YouTube to claim the most Mobile News Box visibility rankings. X came in at a very distant third place.
Covering a global sensation like Taylor Swift can be difficult when it comes to search visibility, because of the fierce competition and the amount of publishers covering an event like an album release. The publishers who were able to score Mobile News Box visibility hits leaned into their brand and topic authority, stayed on top of trending keywords for the album release, and found niches they could own with helpful content for their audience.
Seeking more Taylor Swift insights? We have you covered. Check out our recent analysis about Taylor Swift’s and Travis Kelce’s engagement.
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