Where Applyra's ranking data comes from, and how fresh it is
Applyra reads the stores' own public search results, the top 100 per keyword and market, every day. No panel, no estimate, no third-party data source.
Video transcript
Where does a position in Applyra come from? From the store itself. For every keyword and every market you track, Applyra runs the search the way a user would, and records the top 100 apps in order, once a day. One day, one reading: every chart has exactly one point a day. Outside the top 100, the app is recorded as not ranked. That's a result, not missing data. And nothing is estimated. If a store doesn't answer, the last real reading stands, instead of a zero that would look like your app vanished overnight. Positions move every day. Traffic and difficulty describe the market, so they don't jump because you had a good week. A ranking belongs to the market, so data is often waiting the moment you add a keyword. And what you track stays yours.
Every position in Applyra comes from the store's own public search results. For each keyword you track, in each market you track it in, Applyra runs the search the way a user would and records the top 100 apps in order, once per calendar day. Nothing is estimated, modelled or bought from a third party. If the App Store shows your app at 14 for "habit tracker" in the US, that is what gets written down.
What lands every day
| What | What you get |
|---|---|
| Keyword positions | Your rank in the top 100 for every keyword, in every market you track |
| Category and global charts | Where your app and your competitors sit in the charts |
| App listings, yours and your competitors' | The full listing, as that storefront serves it |
| Visibility scores | One per app and market, on the day's positions |
One calendar day is one reading. A chart in Applyra has a point per day, whatever happened behind it, which is what makes two dates comparable at a glance.
A number in Applyra is a number the store returned
Applyra never fills a gap with a guess. A position is written only when a store returns one, so the last real reading stands until a fresh one replaces it, rather than a zero being written as though your app had vanished overnight. The same rule covers your listing: an empty answer from a store is never recorded as a listing that lost all its screenshots.
That is not a detail. A tool that records its own failures as results shows every affected keyword collapsing on the same day, which reads exactly like a store-wide event and is not one. Applyra would rather repeat yesterday's number than invent today's.
Not ranked is a real value
Applyra reads 100 positions per keyword, which is already several screens past where anyone scrolls. Outside that, the app is recorded as not ranked and contributes nothing to the visibility score, because a user never sees it. That score reads its own fixed set of terms from your niche rather than your tracker, so what you add or remove there never moves it. If a keyword you expect to see is missing, keyword not ranked walks through the usual causes, and if the rank you get searching the store yourself is a different one, Applyra shows a different number from the store explains why.
Positions move daily, scores describe the market
Two different cadences, and mixing them up is the most common misreading of the data.
- Positions are re-read every day. They move with the store, with your releases and with whatever your competitors ship.
- The traffic and difficulty scores describe a property of the market, not of your app. A term does not become easier because you had a good week, and it should not look like it did.
When Applyra improves a score, the whole history is rewritten with it, so a chart crossing the change still compares like with like. What that means when a store recalibrates its search is described in what the difficulty score measures.
Your account is yours
A keyword's ranking belongs to the market, not to your account: the US App Store in English returns the same results to everyone who searches it. So a keyword often has data waiting for you the moment you add it, and nothing you track, inspect or analyse is ever visible to anyone else.
How much ranking history each plan keeps
The free plan keeps 7 days of history, which is enough to see yesterday's move and to learn what the numbers mean. The paid plan keeps all of it. A listing change reaches the rankings within a day, but a single day of movement is mostly noise, so the comparison worth making is rarely with yesterday, and the full history is what the paid plan is for. See plans and limits and reading your rank history.
One thing to know if you step away: your free plan keeps running as long as you use it, and one button brings a paused account back. It is covered in inactivity pause.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Applyra get its keyword ranking data?
From the stores themselves. For every tracked keyword, in every tracked market, Applyra reads the public App Store or Google Play search results and records the top 100 apps in order. There is no panel, no estimate and no third-party data source.
How often are keyword rankings updated?
Every day. Applyra records one position per keyword, per market and per calendar day, so a ranking chart has exactly one point a day and never two readings competing for the same date.
What does Not ranked mean in Applyra?
Not ranked means the app was not in the top 100 results for that keyword on that storefront when the position was recorded. Applyra reads 100 positions, which is already far past where anybody scrolls, so anything below that is recorded as not ranked rather than as a number.
Does Applyra estimate a rank when a store does not answer?
No. Applyra writes a position only when a store returns one, so the last real reading stands until a fresh one replaces it, instead of a zero being recorded as though the app had vanished overnight. The same rule covers listings: an empty answer from a store is never stored as a listing that lost all its screenshots.
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