App Store keyword ranking: how to check where your app ranks for any keyword on iOS and Google Play

Your App Store keyword ranking is the position your app holds when someone types a specific word or phrase into App Store or Google Play search. It is the number that decides whether your ASO work pays off, and neither store shows it to you. App Store Connect reports how often your app appeared in search, not where it ranked or for what. Google Play Console lists the search terms that brought visitors, not your position for them.

So most indie developers check by hand, get a different answer on every phone, and give up. This guide shows how to check your app's keyword ranking properly for free: how to get a clean, comparable result for one country, how to read the data the stores do give you, a simple weekly log, and a small script that records your rank for a short list of keywords on both stores.

Key takeaways

• There is no single rank. Your position for a keyword differs by store, country, device type and, increasingly, by user.
• Check from a signed-out, unpersonalized view for one storefront at a time: the App Store website and Google Play's web search both let you pick the country.
• Track 10 to 20 keywords weekly, not hundreds daily. Note every metadata change next to the numbers.
• Use App Store Connect search impressions and Play Console search terms to confirm what the rank checks suggest.

Why your App Store keyword ranking is different for everyone#

Before checking anything, it helps to know why two people searching the same word can see your app in different places.

Each country is its own ranking. The App Store and Google Play run a separate storefront per country, each with its own set of competing apps and its own search behavior. An app can sit at #4 for "budget planner" in the UK and outside the top 50 in the US. As one developer put it on Hacker News years ago, "An app will rank differently on different keywords in different App Stores." That has not changed.

The store ranks on more than words. Apple's own App Store search guidance says: "Search results are based on a number of factors, including text relevance (matches for your app's title, subtitle, keywords, and primary category), as well as user behavior (downloads, ratings and reviews, and more)." When your downloads or ratings move, your rank moves, even if you changed nothing in your listing.

Search is increasingly personal. Apple's App Store privacy statement says your searches, browsing and purchases "may be used to personalize your experience on the App Store", and in June 2026 Apple announced Personalized Collections that "can appear on the Apps, Games, and Search tabs", as 9to5Mac reported. If you search on the phone you develop on, the store already knows you open your own app every day.

Ads sit on top. On both stores, paid results appear above and among organic ones. When you count your position, count organic results only, and write down whether an ad for a competitor was showing. Our post on App Store search in 2026 covers the newer ad slots.

The practical answer to all four is the same: pick one consistent way of checking, per country, and compare yourself against yourself over time.

Step 1: Pick the keywords worth tracking#

Tracking every word in your metadata produces a spreadsheet nobody reads. Track a short list, chosen on purpose:

1. Your brand name. You should be #1 for your own name. If you are not, read why an app stops showing in App Store search before anything else.
2. Three to five core terms that describe what the app does in the words users use ("habit tracker", "receipt scanner").
3. Five to ten long-tail phrases where you have a realistic chance of the top 10 ("habit tracker widget", "receipt scanner for taxes").
4. Two or three stretch terms you want to rank for in six months.

Our free ASO keyword research guide shows how to find and score these terms with Apple Ads popularity, Play Console search terms and a quick look at the competition. This post picks up where that one ends: once you have chosen your keywords, how do you know whether they are working?

A keyword you do not rank for is invisible from your side: nothing tells you, unless you check. Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels

Step 2: Check your App Store keyword ranking from a clean view#

On the App Store#

You have two options, and both are free.

The App Store website. Since November 2025, apps.apple.com is a full browse-and-search storefront rather than a static page; MacStories noted it has a menu to switch regional stores. You can open a search for any storefront directly:

https://apps.apple.com/us/iphone/search?term=habit%20tracker
https://apps.apple.com/gb/iphone/search?term=habit%20tracker
https://apps.apple.com/de/iphone/search?term=gewohnheitstracker

Change the two-letter country code and the term. Because you are signed out, your own history does not shape the results, which makes this the most repeatable view you can get for free. Apple has not said that the web search uses exactly the same ranking as the App Store app, so treat it as a consistent reference point and spot-check your most important terms on a device now and then.

An iPhone, with personalization off. For on-device checks, turn off Personalized Recommendations, which Apple documents under Settings > [your name] > Media & Purchases > View Account. Search, scroll, and count organic results only. The App Store on a phone only shows the storefront of the Apple Account signed in, so a device check covers one country.

On Google Play#

Google Play's web search takes a country parameter:

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=habit%20tracker&c=apps&hl=en&gl=US

Set gl to the country and hl to the language. Open it in a private browser window so you are signed out. Results on the web can differ from the Play Store app on a phone, especially when a signed-in account has history, so again: use one method and stick with it.

Step 3: Keep a weekly keyword ranking log#

Rank moves daily, and most daily moves are noise. A weekly check, on the same day, is enough to see the trend. A plain spreadsheet works:

The Note column is the important one. Write down every change you made (new subtitle, new keyword field, new screenshots, a price change), plus anything you noticed in the market. Without it, a rank change three weeks later is impossible to explain.

A weekly log with a note for every change is what turns rank checks into decisions. Photo: RDNE Stock project / Pexels

Record a rank only for what the page shows#

The App Store website's first page of results holds roughly the top 10 to 11 apps; Google Play's web results hold more. Beyond that, record "not in top 10" rather than guessing. For a small app, moving from "not in top 10" to #7 is the change that matters, because that is where taps happen.

Step 4: Automate the check with a small script#

If you track more than a handful of keywords in two countries, a script saves time. The one below uses Node 18 or later, has no dependencies, and prints a CSV row per store, country and keyword that you can paste into your log. It reads the same public search pages described above.

// rank-check.mjs: run with `node rank-check.mjs` (Node 18 or later)
const APPLE_ID = '1234567890';        // the number after "id" in your App Store URL
const PLAY_ID = 'com.example.app';    // the id= value in your Google Play URL
const KEYWORDS = ['habit tracker', 'habit tracker widget'];
const COUNTRIES = ['us', 'gb'];
const HEADERS = { 'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (personal rank check)' };

const unique = (list) => [...new Set(list)];

async function appStoreRank(term, country) {
  const url = `https://apps.apple.com/${country}/iphone/search?term=${encodeURIComponent(term)}`;
  const html = await (await fetch(url, { headers: HEADERS })).text();
  const ids = unique([...html.matchAll(/\/app\/[^"/?]+\/id(\d+)/g)].map((m) => m[1]));
  const index = ids.indexOf(APPLE_ID);
  return index === -1 ? `not in top ${ids.length}` : index + 1;
}

async function googlePlayRank(term, country) {
  const url = `https://play.google.com/store/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(term)}&c=apps&hl=en&gl=${country.toUpperCase()}`;
  const html = await (await fetch(url, { headers: HEADERS })).text();
  const ids = unique([...html.matchAll(/details\?id=([\w.]+)/g)].map((m) => m[1]));
  const index = ids.indexOf(PLAY_ID);
  return index === -1 ? `not in top ${ids.length}` : index + 1;
}

const today = new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10);
console.log('date,store,country,keyword,rank');
for (const country of COUNTRIES) {
  for (const term of KEYWORDS) {
    console.log([today, 'app_store', country, `"${term}"`, await appStoreRank(term, country)].join(','));
    console.log([today, 'google_play', country, `"${term}"`, await googlePlayRank(term, country)].join(','));
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 2000)); // stay polite: a few requests, slowly
  }
}

Output looks like this:

date,store,country,keyword,rank
2026-10-17,app_store,us,"habit tracker",3
2026-10-17,google_play,us,"habit tracker",5
2026-10-17,app_store,us,"habit tracker widget",not in top 11

A few honest caveats:

• These are public web pages, not APIs. Their markup can change without notice, and the script will then report "not in top N" for everything. Check the result against the page by eye the first time and whenever numbers look odd.
• Keep it small. A few dozen requests a week, spaced out, is a personal check. Hammering store pages is not, and you should read each store's terms before automating anything at scale.
• Do not use the iTunes Search API for this. It is useful for looking up app metadata, and our keyword research guide uses it to size up competitors, but its result order is not the App Store's search ranking.

Step 5: Confirm with the data the stores give you#

Rank checks tell you where you appear. Store analytics tell you whether that position brings anyone in. Use both.

App Store Connect: search impressions and conversion#

App Store Connect does not show keyword rankings, but its App Store Search source shows the effect of them: impressions and downloads that came from search. Our guide to App Store Connect analytics explains how to read it. The rule of thumb:

• Rank up for a few terms and search impressions up: the keywords have real volume. Keep going.
• Rank up and search impressions flat: the terms you climbed for are rarely searched. Swap some for more popular ones at your next version.
• Rank steady and impressions down: an ad or a competitor moved above you, or overall demand dropped.

Google Play Console: search terms#

Google Play gives you something Apple does not: the actual words. In the acquisition reports, the Search term dimension is defined by Google as "The term that the user searched for before navigating to your Store Listing" (Play Console Help). Terms with too few visitors are grouped into Other. Compare the top terms with your tracked list each month: a term that sends visitors but is not on your list should be; a tracked term that never appears in the report may not be worth the space in your title or short description. Our Google Play ASO guide covers where Google reads keywords from.

Apple Ads search terms#

If you run even a small Apple Ads campaign, its search terms report shows the real queries that led to taps and installs on your ads. It is the closest thing to Play's search terms report on iOS. Our post on Apple Search Ads on a small budget shows how to set up a cheap discovery campaign for exactly this purpose.

How to read keyword ranking changes, and what to do about them#

A skeptic on Hacker News once questioned rank tracking in app stores because "there is very few actions they can take if they did drop their rankings". There are more actions than that, as long as you know which kind of drop you are looking at.

Two timing rules help when you change metadata:

• On the App Store, the keyword field and subtitle change with a new app version, so give each version at least two or three weekly checks before judging it. Changing keywords every week makes every result unreadable.
• On Google Play, listing text can change without a new build, but it still goes through review. Change one thing at a time, and note the date it went live, not the date you submitted.

Also remember that downloads feed ranking. A launch week, a feature in a newsletter, or a burst of traffic from outside the store can lift your keyword ranks for a while. Our launch-week visibility checklist covers how to line those up, and our guide to soft launching an app explains how to test keywords in a few countries before a global release.

Keyword ranking is not the goal: installs that stay are#

Ranking #3 for a keyword brings people to your page. Whether they install depends on your product page, and whether they stay depends on your app. A rank that brings installs who leave the next day does not hold for long on stores that weigh user behavior. Once your keyword checks show you climbing, the next number to watch is your app retention rate: how many of those new users are still opening the app a week later.

Your App Store keyword ranking checklist#

• Pick 10 to 20 keywords: brand, core terms, long-tail phrases, a few stretch terms.
• Choose one checking method per store and stick with it.
• Check from a signed-out web view or a device with Personalized Recommendations off.
• Check each country you care about separately.
• Count organic results only; note when ads are showing.
• Log rank weekly, with a note for every metadata or price change.
• Record "not in top 10" instead of guessing beyond the first page.
• Each month, compare ranks with App Store Search impressions and Play Console search terms.
• Give each App Store version two or three weeks before judging new keywords.

Visibility you do not have to check every week#

Keyword ranks are earned slowly and lost quietly, and the stores never tell you the formula. A leaderboard placement works the other way around. On AppRanker, the app leaderboard ranks listings by what each has paid, in plain view, and every row links straight to your App Store or Google Play page. You can paste your App Store or Google Play link on the AppRanker home page to see what each position costs today, and use it alongside your ASO work as one more source of visitors that does not depend on search.

FAQ#

How do I check my app's keyword ranking on the App Store for free?#

Search for the keyword on the App Store website at apps.apple.com, choosing the country in the URL, or on an iPhone with Personalized Recommendations turned off. Count organic results only and write the position down, on the same day each week.

Why does my app rank differently on my phone and on my friend's phone?#

App Store and Google Play results can be personalized by search, browsing and purchase history, and each device may be signed in to a different country's store. Ads can also differ. Use a signed-out view for the storefront you care about to get a comparable number.

Can I see my keyword rankings in App Store Connect?#

No. App Store Connect shows impressions and downloads from App Store search, but not your rank for a keyword or the search terms people used. Apple Ads' search terms report is the closest first-party source of real queries on iOS.

Does Google Play Console show which keywords bring users?#

Yes. The acquisition reports have a Search term dimension, showing the terms people searched before visiting your store listing. Terms with too few visitors are grouped into "Other". It does not show your rank for each term.

How often should I check keyword rankings?#

Weekly is enough for most apps. Daily ranks bounce around, and you cannot act on a daily change anyway. Check more often only in the week after a release or a launch push.

Why did my keyword ranking drop after an update?#

The most common reason is that the new version removed or reworded terms in your app name, subtitle or keyword field, so the store no longer matches them. If every keyword dropped at once, including your brand name, check your app's availability and status instead.

Image credits#

• Cover, iPhone home screen with app icons: photo by dumitru bumbu on Pexels, Pexels License. Cropped to 1200x630.
• iPhone showing a "No Result" message: photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.
• Writing in a spiral notebook beside a laptop: photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels, Pexels License. Resized.