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Maintain Continuous Rank History

Understand how Maintain Continuous History affects the way ranking data is displayed in historical charts.

⚠️ Hybrid Tracking has been retired. All accounts now use Consistent Tracking (Top 50) or Enhanced Tracking (Top 100). Historical OTR values remain available, but new updates no longer generate them. Maintain Continuous History now affects historical chart visualization only.

What it is

Maintain Continuous History controls how historical ranking charts display gaps in ranking data.

It does not change how rankings are collected, stored, or calculated. It only affects how historical trends are visualized.

To enable or disable it:

  1. Open a keyword’s historical chart.

  2. Select the Ranking History tab.

  3. Click the gear icon above the chart.

  4. Toggle Maintain Continuous Rank History on or off.


Why it matters

Ranking data is not always available for every date in a chart.
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This can happen when:

  • A keyword was added after the selected date range began

  • Historical data is unavailable for part of the period

  • A keyword was temporarily paused or removed

  • Data collection was interrupted

Maintain Continuous History gives you control over how these gaps appear in historical charts.


How it works

Maintain Continuous Rank History = ON (Enabled)

When enabled:

  • Chart lines are connected across missing periods

  • Historical trends appear smoother

  • It is easier to identify long-term movement patterns

This is useful for:

  • Client reporting

  • Executive dashboards

  • Long-term trend analysis


Maintain Continuous History = OFF

When disabled:

  • Historical charts show gaps where ranking data does not exist

  • Only confirmed ranking records are displayed

  • Missing periods remain visible

This is useful for:

  • Technical SEO analysis

  • Auditing historical data

  • Investigating ranking changes


What Maintain Continuous History does not do

Maintain Continuous History does not:

  • Change ranking positions

  • Create new ranking data

  • Modify visibility metrics

  • Affect movement calculations

  • Influence Share of Voice calculations

  • Change reports or exports

It only changes how ranking history is displayed visually in charts.


Migration from Hybrid Tracking

Keyword.com has retired Hybrid Tracking. All accounts now use either Consistent Tracking, which collects the Top 50 results on every update, or Enhanced Tracking, which collects the Top 100.
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As part of this change:

  • Out of Tracked Range (OTR) has been retired

  • Maintain Continuous History no longer affects OTR behaviour

  • Maintain Continuous History is now focused solely on historical chart visualization

Older reports and charts may still contain OTR values collected under Hybrid Tracking. These historical values remain available. New results outside the tracked depth appear as >50 for Consistent Tracking or >100 for Enhanced Tracking.


Best practices

Enable Maintain Continuous History when:

  • Presenting data to clients

  • Reviewing long-term ranking trends

  • You prefer cleaner chart visualization

Disable Maintain Continuous History when:

  • Performing audits

  • Investigating ranking anomalies

  • Reviewing raw historical ranking data

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