How ranks are measured
Why the App Store is tracked to the top 200 and Google Play to the top 30, and how popularity and difficulty are calculated.
Every number in the keyword table comes from a real store search, done in the country you track. This page explains what is measured and how the scores are built, in plain terms.
Rank
AppRankHero runs the store's public search for your keyword, in the storefront of the country you track, without any personal history. Your rank is the position of your app in that list. On the App Store this is Apple's public search service (the iTunes Search API). On Google Play it is the public Google Play search.
| Store | Depth | Why |
|---|---|---|
| App Store | Top 200 | The App Store search returns up to 200 apps per keyword. You see your exact position, from 1 to 200. |
| Google Play | Top 30 | Google Play search shows about 30 apps for a keyword. That is how deep a person can scroll, so that is what we track. |
When your app is not in that range, the rank is empty, and the S column shows OUT if you were ranked before.
Searches run through our own scanning workers, so ranks are not influenced by your personal Apple or Google account. You can see whether the workers are healthy on the status page.
Popularity
Popularity estimates how often people search for a keyword, on a scale from 0 to 100. Apple and Google do not publish search volumes, so each store gets its own estimate from public data.
App Store popularity
AppRankHero asks the App Store for the first 200 results and counts how many come back.
popularity = results returned ÷ 200 × 100
A broad keyword such as "photo editor" fills all 200 places and scores 100. A narrow keyword that only 40 apps match scores 20. More matching apps usually means more people search for it and more developers target it.
Google Play popularity
Google Play autocomplete suggests what people type most. AppRankHero types the beginning of your keyword into Google Play search, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 11 characters, then the whole keyword, and notes when Google first suggests it.
popularity = 100 − 7 × (letters typed − 2) − 3 × (place in the suggestions)
The result stays between 5 and 100. If Google suggests "meditation app" after 2 letters, at the top of the list, it scores 100. If it appears after 6 letters in third place, it scores 100 − 28 − 6 = 66. A keyword Google never suggests scores 5.
Difficulty
Difficulty estimates how hard it is to rank, on a scale from 0 to 95. It follows popularity, because the keywords many people search for are the ones many apps compete for.
difficulty = popularity × 0.9, never above 95.
Relevance
The RELEVANCE column is yours. Rate each keyword from 0 to 100 by how well it describes your app, then filter by it. AppRankHero never changes it.
How often ranks are checked
| Plan | When |
|---|---|
| Free | Once a day at the time in Settings › Automatic Update (11:00 by default) while the Mac app is open, and whenever you click Refresh. |
| Pro and Studio | The same, plus a server refresh every morning, starting at 01:00 UTC, that runs even while your Mac is off. A keyword where your app stayed outside the top results in its last three server checks is checked by the server every third day instead, until it ranks again. Keywords added in the last 7 days are always checked daily. |
Questions and answers
Why is my rank different from what I see on my phone?
Store results on a device are personal. Your phone takes your downloads, language and history into account, and both stores show ads above the results. AppRankHero searches without a personal history and without ads. On the App Store, Apple's public search service can also order a few results differently from the App Store app. Use the trend over days rather than a single position.
Are popularity and difficulty the same as Apple Search Ads popularity?
No. They are estimates from public search results and autocomplete, made the same way for every keyword. Use them to compare keywords with each other, not as search volumes.