"Speed/Backlinks/Competitors temporarily unavailable" banner
If the Speed, Backlinks, or Competitors panel shows a yellow banner reading "temporarily unavailable", it means RankEngine could not refresh that public SEO data and we do not have a recent enough cache.
Why this exists as a banner instead of empty data
Pre-phase-167, RankEngine returned empty arrays or zeros when upstream search data failed. Merchants saw "0 backlinks!" and assumed their site had no backlinks, when the real issue was a temporary refresh failure.
Phase 167 changed the contract: when an external provider fails, the API returns 503 / data_source_unavailable. The UI renders a specific banner so the merchant knows the gap is temporary.
What to do
- Wait + retry. Most provider outages clear in under 5 minutes. Click "Retry" on the banner.
- Check RankEngine status. Open help.rankengine.app/status.
- Use cached data. If the banner shows "Using cached data from Xh ago" — the figures are valid up to 24h old. Real-time refresh just isn't possible right now.
Cache freshness
| Surface | Cache TTL |
|---|---|
| Speed (Lighthouse) | 24h |
| Backlinks | 7d |
| Competitors | 7d |
| Keyword volume | 24h |
| SERP rankings | depends on plan: weekly/daily/6h |
When fresh data is available, RankEngine fetches it on the next page load + caches.
What if the banner persists for hours?
- Check the RankEngine status page.
- Email RankEngine support with the affected shop and screenshot.
- If you see persistent failures from a specific region, include that detail so support can compare edge logs.
Why we don't error-out the whole report
Each external-data section is independent. If Backlinks fails but Speed works, you still see the speed score. The banner is per-panel, not per-page.