How to Track App Store Keyword Rankings (and Why Daily Tracking Wins)

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Keyword rank tracking is how you know whether your App Store Optimization is actually working — and it’s the feedback loop that turns ASO from guesswork into a repeatable growth engine. Here’s how to do it well.

What rank tracking actually tells you

For each keyword you care about, rank tracking records your app’s position in the store’s search results over time. Watching that position move tells you:

• Whether a metadata update helped or hurt.
• Which keywords are trending up and deserve more investment.
• Which keywords are decaying and need to be replaced.
• Where competitors are gaining on you.

The magic is in the trend, not any single snapshot. A keyword at position 12 that’s climbing is more valuable than one at position 8 that’s falling.

The metrics that matter

A good rank tracker shows more than just position:

• Current rank — your position today.
• Rank delta — how much you moved since the last check.
• Trend — a sparkline of recent positions.
• Difficulty — how hard the keyword is to rank for.
• Traffic / popularity — how much search volume the keyword gets. (Both are explained in the keyword research guide.)
• Competitor positions — where rivals sit for the same keyword.

AppSqeez shows all of these per keyword, for both the App Store and Google Play, across every country you target.

Track daily, not weekly

Rankings fluctuate constantly, and stores update their algorithms frequently. Daily tracking smooths out noise and catches problems early. With daily snapshots you can see the direction a keyword is heading and react before a slow decline becomes a steep one.

Competitor tracking changes everything

Knowing your own rank is useful; knowing it relative to competitors is decisive. When you add a competitor app, AppSqeez shows a side-by-side comparison for every tracked keyword — so you can see exactly which terms they outrank you on and prioritize closing those gaps.

A simple weekly rank-tracking ritual

1. Review movers. Sort your keywords by rank delta to see what changed.
2. Investigate climbs. A keyword jumping up? Double down by reinforcing it in metadata.
3. Catch declines. A keyword slipping? Consider swapping it or strengthening placement.
4. Check competitors. Did a rival gain ground? Mirror or counter their move.

If you publish on both stores, run this ritual per store: a keyword can climb on one and slip on the other. App Store vs Google Play explains why. 5. Refresh suggestions. Re-run discovery to find new keywords emerging in your niche.

Export and report

For teams and clients, export your keyword data to CSV and build reports around the trends that matter. AppSqeez supports one-click CSV export of your full keyword table — the rank tracking docs walk through it.

Ready to see your rankings clearly? Download AppSqeez and start tracking keywords for both stores today.