What it is
This article explains:
What each ranking position means in Keyword.com
How ranks are collected (Top 50 vs Top 100)
What >50 and >100mean
How movement columns (1d, 7d, 30d, Life) are calculated
How historical charts work
How Maintain Continuous Rank History affects your data
This is your reference guide to understanding how ranking data behaves across the platform.
Why it matters
Rank data is only useful if you understand:
What depth was scraped (Top 50 vs Top 100)
Whether a keyword was actually found
How gaps are treated
How movement is calculated
Without this context, rankings can look inconsistent when in reality they are behaving exactly as designed.
1. What “Rank” actually means
The Rank column shows your Google position at the most recent update for the tracked keyword and URL.
Important:
Rank is device-specific (desktop, mobile, maps)
Rank is region and location-specific
Rank is tied to your tracking settings
If you change device, region, or location, you are effectively running a different search.
A scheduled update can keep the previous rank on screen until a new result arrives. If an update fails, the previous rank can remain with a Couldn’t update status. Rank verification can also show Showing last known rank while a drop is checked.
2. How deep we track
Keyword.com offers different tracking depths depending on your account settings and plan.
Admins can choose the account-wide depth in Settings → Data collection → Visibility depth. The setting applies across your projects. Enhanced depth is available when your plan includes it.
Consistent depth
Consistent depth collects the Top 50 Google results on every update.
This means:
The same tracking depth is used every time a keyword is refreshed
Ranking data remains consistent across updates
Rankings outside the Top 50 appear as >50
For most users, Consistent depth provides the right balance between ranking visibility and tracking efficiency.
Enhanced depth
Enhanced depth collects the Top 100 Google results on every update.
This means:
Full Top 100 visibility on every refresh
Greater insight into keywords ranking beyond the first few pages
More complete competitor and SERP analysis
Rankings outside the Top 100 appear as >100
Enhanced depth is recommended for highly competitive industries, large keyword portfolios, and teams that require complete SERP visibility.
3. Understanding rank values
The meaning of ranking values depends on the depth collected for that update.
Consistent depth
Positions 1–50 indicate the exact ranking found
>50 means the update confirmed the keyword was not found within the Top 50 results
Enhanced depth
Positions 1–100 indicate the exact ranking found
>100 means the update confirmed the keyword was not found within the Top 100 results
The number in >50 or >100 reflects the depth of the keyword’s latest update. After a depth change, a row keeps its existing value until its next update.
A spinner means an on-demand refresh or first update is in progress.
4. Movement columns (1d, 7d, 30d, Life)
Movement columns compare your current rank to a previous point in time.
1d → compared to the most recent update on or before 1 day ago
7d → compared to the most recent update on or before 7 days ago
30d → compared to the most recent update on or before 30 days ago
Life → compared to the Start rank
Start is the rank from the keyword’s first update, including >50 or >100 if it was not found. You can edit the Start rank, which changes the Life comparison.
Important behaviours:
?? means there is no data yet
N/A means a current or comparison rank is unknown, or the comparison data is too old. A comparison point more than 30 days before the target day is not used
— means there is no change
An up or down arrow with a number shows the movement
A confirmed >50 or >100 is treated as position 100 for movement calculations. For example, a drop from 5 to not found shows a drop of 95 positions
5. Maintain Continuous Rank History
Maintain Continuous Rank History controls how gaps in ranking data are treated. It is on by default.
Hover over a keyword row and click Show historical chart.
Open Chart settings using the gear icon.
Use the Maintain Continuous Rank History toggle.
When enabled
Chart lines connect across gaps in ranking data.
Historical trends appear smoother and easier to follow.
Unranked results remain unranked; no ranks are filled in or carried forward.
A connected chart line does not confirm that the keyword ranked during an unranked period. This setting only changes the chart’s appearance. It does not affect ranking values, movement calculations, metrics, alerts, reports, exports, or API results.
Best for:
Client reporting
Clean charts
Visual consistency
When disabled
The chart does not connect lines across gaps in ranking data.
Missing or unranked periods remain visible as breaks in the chart.
You can hover over a date to inspect the recorded result, such as Not in top 100.
Best for:
Maximum transparency
Technical SEO analysis
6. Historical charts
You can access historical charts by hovering over a keyword row and clicking Show historical chart. On mobile, open the row’s more menu to find the same action.
Features include:
Multiple timeframes (10 days → 5 years, depending on plan), plus a custom date range. Plans with 10 keywords or fewer offer up to 180 days
Competitor comparison: use Add competitor to compare up to 5 competitors on a single-keyword chart. This is not available for Google Maps keywords
Google update incident markers: use Chart settings → Display Google Search Incidents to show or hide them
SERP History
Ranking URL history in the Ranking URLs tab
Export as PNG, JPEG, PDF, or SVG, or use Print Chart
Compare multiple keywords
You can also compare multiple keywords on one historical chart by selecting up to 10 keywords from the table and clicking Charts in the selection bar. Competitor overlays are available on single-keyword charts only.
Ranking URL history
Open the Ranking URLs tab to see which page ranked on each date. Use View SERP to inspect the saved search results when the snapshot is still available.
SERP history
You can view results collected for your keyword on previous dates. Open the SERP History tab in the chart dialog, or use the keyword row’s more menu and select SERP history. This is not available for Google Maps keywords.
The results reflect the depth collected on that date: Top 50 for Consistent depth or Top 100 for Enhanced depth. The available range is limited to the last 12 months, the keyword’s added date, and your plan’s history allowance. Plans with 10 keywords or fewer have up to 6 months of SERP history.
Dates with updates provide the collected results. You can export SERP history as CSV.
This is useful for:
Investigating ranking drops
Understanding competitor movement
Debugging algorithm impact
7. Why rankings may differ from manual searches
Differences can occur due to:
Google data center variance
Personalization
Device differences
Location/IP differences
Time difference between refresh and manual check
You can verify any keyword using the Spyglass tool, which shows the exact snapshot we collected. Hover over the keyword, click Search results, then Open in Spyglass. You can also open Spyglass from the row’s more menu.
Spyglass snapshots are available for the last 30 days. Older snapshots show Retention expired.
For deeper troubleshooting, see Ranking Inaccuracies Explained.
8. What “Last updated” means
The project-level Last updated timestamp reflects the most recent keyword update activity, including queued updates. It does not mean all keywords have finished updating.
Individual keyword update times are visible in the table’s Last updated column. Hover over a value to see the exact UTC time. In column settings, this column is called Keyword Last Updated.