How is visibility calculated?
Each tracked keyword contributes its popularity, multiplied by a weight for the position the app held that day. The sum is divided by the popularity of every keyword counted and shown as a share of 100.
This is the position discount of discounted cumulative gain, the standard measure for a ranked list of search results. Popularity plays the part of the gain, so a keyword people actually search moves the number and a phrase nobody types barely does.
The API returns visibility with one decimal. The overview and portfolio cards round it to a whole number.
A worked example
An app tracks three keywords on one day.
The counted values add up to 50 out of a possible 100, so visibility is 50.0. Tracking a fourth keyword with a popularity of 50 that the app does not rank for raises the possible total to 150 and lowers visibility to 33.3, although no position moved.
Which keywords count?
Every active keyword the app tracks. A paused keyword is left out of today’s number and out of the history. The overview counts every market the app tracks keywords in. The portfolio card for an app does the same, and a group pools the keywords of every listing in it.
What not found means, and why it is never position zero, is explained in Positions.
What do the 7 and 30 day changes mean?
The difference in points between visibility on the latest checked day and visibility 7 or 30 days earlier. It is missing when no keyword was checked on that earlier day. Both days are calculated over the keywords tracked today, each with the popularity it had on that day. Adding a keyword therefore changes past values too: on the days before its first check it counts as not found, and its own position moves the change from then on.Where else is visibility used?
How should I read it?
As a trend. Visibility depends on which keywords you track, so the useful comparison is the same app against itself over time.- Adding keywords moves it. A keyword you do not rank for yet lowers the number on the day you add it and on every past day. One you already rank for lifts the 7 day change for a week and the 30 day change for a month, because the days before its first check count it as not found. Read each change once its earlier day comes after the keyword’s first check.
- A rescore moves it. The weekly scoring job can change popularity, which changes how much each position counts, without any position moving.
- Stores are not comparable. App Store and Google Play popularity come from different evidence, so the same number means different things on each. See App Store and Google Play.
- Apps are only comparable on the same keywords. Two apps tracking different keywords measure different things.