The author focuses on the analysis problems of the main metrics of scientific productivity for the faculty in the USA universities specializing in the investigations and teaching in the field of urban planning. The increasing role of the Internet is highlighted in the process of communicating the ideas of planning scientists to the professionals and public, extending the reach of academic communications and possibilities of estimating the quality of the investigations and impact. Using case study the methods of applying webometrics for citation analysis in the Internet are investigated. The analysis focused on the main criteria: productivity, visibility, reputation, and impact. The article proposes an expanded approach for estimating general scientific popularity and impact of academics in the Internet, which includes publication analysis in frames of “gray literature”, teaching and outreach activity, which may also be a significant part of the scientific activity. The author stated the importance of academic visibility estimation both for promotion, improving competitiveness of a faculty member on the labor market in the sphere of educational services, and for urban planning schools’ development in general, raising their reputation, prestige and impact, getting the opportunities for financed researches, consolidating the positions on the global educational and science market.