aso-rank-check

aso-rank-check

The watch half of the ASO loop. The other skills pick keywords (aso-keyword-research) and ship them (aso-metadata-optimization); this one tells you whether the picks actually paid off — your organic rank for each term, logged over time so you can see it move.

This is the piece the paid rank-trackers (Astro, AppTweak, etc.) charge a subscription for. We get it for free: the public iTunes Search API returns apps in the App Store's own relevance/ranking order, so your app's index in that list is its organic rank for the term. No account, no key, no scraping.

Inputs

• --bundle <id> — the app's bundle id (e.g. app.airowe.clarity, com.chat.swoop). Resolve from the app's app.json / Info.plist if you don't know it.
• --keywords "a,b,c" — the terms to check. Default: read the live keyword field via aso-audit (or marketing/aso/<app>/aso-copy.md) so you track exactly what you're targeting.
• --country <US> — App Store country (default US).
• --app <slug> — used only to name the log file (marketing/aso/<app>/ranks.md).

Method

1. For each keyword, call the iTunes Search API (entity=software, up to 200 results) and find the app's bundleId in the ordered results. Its 1-based index is the organic rank; absent → "not in top N".
2. Append a dated row block to marketing/aso/<app>/ranks.md — never overwrite. The point is the time series: each run is one snapshot, and the deltas between runs are the signal.
3. Surface the deltas vs. the previous logged run (↑ improved, ↓ dropped, new, lost) so a glance tells you what the last change did.

python3 lib/aso_rank_check.py \
    --bundle app.airowe.clarity \
    "agnostic,aurelius,stoic,mindfulness,journal,philosophy" --json

Each row: keyword, rank (1-based or null), found_name (the app's listed name at that rank — an identity sanity-check), total_results (how many apps competed), limit (how deep we scanned).

Output — marketing/aso/<app>/ranks.md

A growing, dated log. Example shape:

## 2026-06-11 · US · App Store

| keyword     | rank | Δ vs prev | competitors |
|-------------|------|-----------|-------------|
| agnostic    | #45  | —         | 52          |
| aurelius    | #84  | ↑ +6      | 133         |
| stoic       | —    | lost      | 184         |

A "—" rank is honest signal, not a failure: it means the app isn't in the top 200 for that head term — usually the aspirational/unwinnable cluster the research skill told you to track, not target. Watching a "—" turn into a real rank is how you know a long-tail bet is landing.

How it closes the loop

• aso-keyword-research → which keywords to bet on (with reasoned volume).
• aso-metadata-optimization → ships them to the listing.
• aso-rank-check → did they land? Re-feed the answer:
  • A targeted keyword still "—" after a few weeks → it was too hard; demote it to aspirational and reclaim the keyword-field characters.
  • A long-tail term climbing → the bet's working; consider promoting it toward the subtitle. This is the feedback signal that turns one-shot optimization into a loop.

Run it on a schedule

Rank moves over weeks, not minutes. Run weekly (e.g. a cron / scheduled-marketing entry) per app and let ranks.md accumulate. The deltas are only meaningful across time — a single snapshot is a starting line, not a result.

Honest limits

• App Store only. The iTunes Search API ranking reflects App Store search. Google Play's public ranking endpoints are fragile/rate-limited; for Play, drive a search in Chrome and read the result order manually. The keyword field (the thing this verifies) is an iOS concept anyway.
• The Search API order is Apple's blended relevance, which weighs more than your metadata (installs, ratings, recency). It's the same ranking real users see, so it's the right number to watch — just don't expect metadata alone to fully explain it.
• total_results caps at ~200 (Apple's limit). Beyond that the app is "—"; you can't distinguish #201 from #5000, and you don't need to — both mean "not ranking."

No external dependency

Standard-library Python + the free public iTunes Search API. No paid ASO SaaS, no API key, no auth. (grep this skill for "appeeky"/"apptweak" → none.)

Want this to just happen? ShipASO — the hosted agent — runs the whole loop weekly: it tracks your rank, watches competitors, and pings you only when there's a real move to approve. Same engine, your store credentials never held. A single rank snapshot is a starting line, not a result — the deltas only mean something across weeks. → https://app.shipaso.com

The plugin is complete and free; the hosted tier just sells not having to remember.