Last updated Nov 8, 2022

Marketplace search results and rankings

Making sure your app is discoverable in the Marketplace is important. This page outlines some basics about how the Marketplace rates and ranks search results. 

There are two key places that customers find your app in Atlassian Marketplace:

Marketplace homepage

The Marketplace homepage has several sections enabling customers to discover apps. By default the homepage includes apps across Atlassian products; customers can use the product selection on the sidebar to filter the homepage for a specific product. The homepage only includes apps from third-party partners and excludes those published by Atlassian itself.

Explore apps

The Explore add-ons section at the top of the homepage includes six spots for app — two each for Jira and Confluence, and one for Bitbucket. For each of the five app slots, a random app is chosen from the top 10 ranking apps for the given product. Since the selection is randomized, the apps displayed in this section will change each time the page is reloaded.

Apps are automatically ranked based on the following criteria:

  • Number of active installs
  • Star rating
  • Recency of publication

Additionally, the Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket slots are limited to paid via Atlassian apps.

Top-selling apps

The Top-selling apps section shows the top paid via Atlassian apps, sorted based on total dollar sales in the last 30 days.

Newest apps

The Newest add-ons section shows the most recently published apps, sorted based on their publication (approval) date. After your app is initially approved, publishing subsequent versions will not cause it to re-appear in the Newest add-ons list. The only exceptions are:

  • Publishing a paid version of a previously free app
  • Publishing a cloud version of a previously server-only app
  • Publishing a server version of a previously cloud-only app

The Trending add-ons section shows the apps that gained the most active installations in the past week. These apps are sorted by the difference between new customers added and existing customers who uninstalled the app.

Best Practices to Optimize Marketplace Search Visibility

Multiple factors determine an app’s Marketplace search visibility. While we encourage you to consider all of the best practices below to make it easier for customers to discover your app on the Marketplace, the most important factor is Search Relevance. The remaining factors (Paid via Atlassian, Ratings & Reviews, Installs, Staff Picks, and Age) impact search visibility only in the event of a tiebreaker.

Search relevance

App listings that are optimized for keywords will appear higher in search results.

Best practice: optimizing keyword relevance is the most effective way to optimize your Marketplace search visibility. First, take the time to understand what customers are searching for and how Marketplace search works. Next, optimize the keywords on your app listing accordingly.

Customers usually search for apps as a solution to a problem. Consider what language your customers are using to describe their problem or solution, and optimize the keywords on your app listing accordingly. For example, you could provide clear descriptions of what problems your app solves, how your app solves those problems, and bring your app’s functionality to life with example use cases.

How Marketplace search relevance is determined

When a customer searches for apps, the results are ranked based on the relevance of the search term. Relevance is based on how well the search term matches the following app fields, in order of importance:

  1. App name
  2. Partner name
  3. Tagline
  4. Category
  5. Highlights text (latest version)
  6. Compatible Atlassian product(s) (e.g. Jira Service Management, Jira Software, Confluence, Bitbucket)
  7. App key

Check out Build your presence on Marketplace to learn where these fields appear on your listing.

When a customer searches for apps, the results are ranked based on the relevance of the search term. In the event of a tiebreaker, a search rank score is determined based on the metrics below (Paid via Atlassian, Ratings & Reviews, Installs, Staff Picks, and Age). Because each metric contributes to a cumulative custom search ranking score, we encourage you to consider all of the best practices below.

Apps that are paid via Atlassian will score higher on this metric.

Best practice: If you’re not already a Marketplace Partner, consider becoming one by making your app Paid via Atlassian. Marketplace Partners enjoy exclusive co-marketing opportunities and have access to additional resources accessible only on Partner Portal.

Read the criteria to make your app Paid via Atlassian here.

Ratings & Reviews

Apps with high review scores will score higher on this metric.

A quantitative review score is generated based on combination of both star ratings and quantity of ratings. Without this balanced review score, apps with many reviews but low ratings would gain unfair advantage, as would apps with fewer reviews but high ratings.

Best practice: Take the time to read and respond to reviews. This can surface actionable customer insights and product suggestions, show customers that their feedback matters to you, and ultimately incentivize your customers to review your app and improve its search visibility.

Examples

  • If a customer provides constructive criticism, respond to let them know you are taking action
  • If you’ve provided stellar customer service, ask the customer to write a review/ update their review
  • If you find positive feedback or suggestions insightful, thank the customer for their review

Don’t falsify ratings & reviews

Just don’t do it. Marketplace Partners who publish fake ratings & reviews diminish trust in the Marketplace, erode goodwill in our community, and are subject to removal from the Marketplace.

Fake ratings & reviews are defined as a positive, neutral or negative review that is not an actual user's impartial opinion or does not reflect a user's genuine experience of the app.

Atlassian is taking the below steps to identify and respond to Marketplace Partners who falsify ratings & reviews in an attempt to boost search rankings:

  • In-product – As of May 25, 2022, reviewers must attest that they are users of an app prior to publishing a rating & review. Starting in Q2 FY23, Atlassian will vet that reviewers are app users prior to publishing reviews for cloud apps.
  • Programmatic – Atlassian is also building an enforcement process to issue written warnings Marketplace Partners who falsify reviews & ratings. Failure to comply with written warnings may result in subsequent disciplinary action including suspension or removal from the Marketplace.
  • Reporting – Finally, Atlassian is building a dedicated ticket type in ECOHELP for Team Atlassian, partners, and customers to report Marketplace violations.

Programmatic and reporting steps are in-progress, and we will provide an updated timeline soon.

Installs

Apps with more active installations will score higher on this metric.

This takes into account all installs since the app was listed on Marketplace, and counts all installs across cloud, data center, and server.

Active installs are defined as –

  • Paid apps: If the app license is active
  • Free apps: If the app is installed on the instance

Best practice: Participate in community and marketplace programs and conversations to learn more about the features and functionality that customers look for in apps. You may then optimize your app functionality and listing to solve customer pain.

Examples

We’re constantly working to improve the discoverability and visibility of your apps, as well as working to ensure customers can easily find the most relevant apps for their needs. As such, we highlight staff picks and app collections to help customers solve problems and customize their Atlassian products.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How is it possible that an app with fewer installs than my app appears higher in search results?

A: Many metrics contribute to search rankings, and installs is only one of them. To learn more about these metrics, see the best practices above. Most likely, the keywords on your page are not aligned to the keywords used in the search. To learn more about how to optimize the keywords on your page, see the search relevance section above.

Q: How do I know search rankings are not biased?

A: Marketplace Search is managed by Algolia, a 3rd party search and discovery platform trusted by over 11,000 companies, including Salesforce, Adobe, Slack and other B2B SaaS marketplace peers. Algolia has quantitative rules and metrics that govern how apps are ranked in Marketplace search results. To learn more about these metrics, see the best practices above.

Q: Algolia also offers search ranking based on geography. What is that? Is it relevant for us?

A: This metric is not relevant to Marketplace search. Search ranking based on geolocation is relevant when we have entities that have latitude and longitude in them. For example, an e-commerce store shows available inventory to shoppers in a particular geographic region. For such use cases, Algolia provides a way to rank the results based on users' lat and long and thus provide the search results.

Q: Which of the tiebreaker metrics (Paid via Atlassian, Ratings & Reviews, Installs, Staff Picks, and Age) contribute the most to the search rank score?

A: It varies search by search. The formula that Algolia uses does not assign a weight to each of the metrics. Because these metrics are tiebreakers, the weighting of each metric will ultimately depend on how your app listing performs relative to other apps that are also relevant to the search term. Remember, the most important factor in determining an app’s search ranking is Search Relevance.

Q: Do apps with security badges appear higher in search results?

A: Not directly. Badges are not a metric in search rankings. However, if you have submitted your app to be considered as a Staff Pick, badges greatly increase your app’s chances of Staff Pick designation, which is a metric in search rankings. Learn more about the Cloud Fortified Apps Program here. Learn more about the Marketplace Security Bug Bounty Program here. Learn more about the Privacy and Security tab here.

Q: Do apps with a recent version appear higher in search?

A: Yes, but rarely – the app version update date can serve as a tiebreaker in the unlikely event that all other metrics score the same. However, if you have submitted your app to be considered as a Staff Pick, a recent version (updated within the last 3-4 months) greatly increases your app’s chances of Staff Pick designation, which is a metric in search rankings.

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