App Store keyword research: how to choose your words

How App Store search uses your words

Apple says search looks for matches in your app’s name, subtitle, keywords and primary category, alongside how people behave: downloads, ratings and reviews (Apple). Your app is also searchable by your company name. The keyword field is never shown to anyone; it exists only to be searched.

Step 1: collect the words people would type

• Describe the job, not the product. People search for what they want to do (“split bills”, “edit photo background”), not for your feature names.
• Read your reviews and support emails. Customers describe the app in their words, which are the words other customers search with.
• Type into the App Store search bar. Search hints appear as you type and show the phrases people use.
• Look at the apps that show up. Their names and subtitles show how a category talks about itself. Learn from them; never use their names.
• Use Apple Ads data if you run campaigns. Search term reports show what people actually typed before they found you.

Step 2: judge each word

Apple describes the trade-off itself: popular, functional terms such as “jobs” or “social”, and seasonal ones such as “Christmas”, bring a lot of traffic but are highly competitive, especially for newer or smaller apps. Less common terms bring less traffic and less competition. For a new app, a list of specific terms it can actually rank for usually beats a list of famous ones it cannot. For each candidate, ask:

• Is it relevant? Irrelevant keywords can be rejected, and they would not convert anyway.
• Who ranks for it now? If the top results are household names, it is a long-term goal, not a launch keyword.
• Would someone who types it want this app? Traffic that does not download is worth nothing.

Step 3: place the words

• The most important term goes in the name or subtitle, where it is indexed and also seen.
• The rest go in the keyword field, separated by commas with no spaces: budget,splitter,expenses,group,trip.
• Never repeat a word that is already in the name, subtitle or category.
• Use singular forms. Apple treats plurals of words you already have as duplicates.
• Drop filler and generic words such as “the”, “app” and “free”.

Step 4: repeat for every language

Each localisation has its own name, subtitle and keyword field, so research each language in that language rather than translating your English list. Apple also lists, for every storefront, a default language and additional supported ones (localizations). In the United States, for example, the additional languages include Spanish (Mexico), Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese; in Türkiye, the default is English (U.K.), with Turkish as an additional language. More in how to localize your App Store listing.

Step 5: measure and adjust

• Watch App Store search as a source in App Analytics: impressions, conversion and downloads.
• Change a few keywords per version, since the field is updated with each new version.
• Give it time. One release cycle is rarely enough to judge a change.
• Keep a log of what you changed and when, or you will not know what worked.

A worked example

A hypothetical app for splitting shared expenses on trips. Name: “Tally: Split Trip Costs” (23 characters). Subtitle: “Group expenses, settled fast” (28). The keyword field then avoids every word already used and fills the rest:

bills,friends,roommates,travel,budget,shared,owe,payback,holiday,vacation,dinner,receipt,iou

That is 92 bytes, with no repeats from the name or subtitle, no plurals of words already used, and no competitor names. The name is a placeholder, not a recommendation.

Related: ASO checklist · App Store character counter · App Store Optimization