ASO Keyword Research: How to Find Keywords That Actually Drive Downloads

Most indie developers pick their App Store keywords based on gut feeling. They type a few words into the keyword field, hit publish, and wonder why nobody finds their app. The problem is not effort -- it is method. ASO keyword research requires a fundamentally different approach than web SEO, and if you treat them the same way, you will waste the most constrained real estate in all of digital marketing.

This guide walks through a systematic process for finding, validating, and deploying keywords that bring real organic downloads.

Why App Store Keywords Are Nothing Like Web SEO

If you have any experience with website SEO, forget most of it. App Store Optimization operates under constraints that make web SEO look luxurious by comparison.

On a website, you can write 3,000-word pages targeting dozens of keywords. You have meta titles, meta descriptions, headings, body text, image alt tags, and URL slugs -- all indexed by Google. The surface area is enormous.

On the App Store, you get:

30 characters for your title
30 characters for your subtitle
100 characters for your keyword field (iOS only, invisible to users)
A description that Apple largely ignores for ranking purposes

That is roughly 160 characters of high-impact keyword space. Every single character matters. There is no room for filler, no room for vanity, and no room for guessing.

This constraint is precisely why research matters more here than anywhere else. You are not optimizing a page -- you are optimizing a sentence.

Understanding Where Keywords Get Indexed

Not all metadata fields carry the same weight. Apple's algorithm treats them differently, and understanding this hierarchy is the foundation of any keyword strategy.

Title (strongest signal): Keywords in your title have the highest ranking impact. Apple treats title words as the strongest indicator of what your app does. If you can fit a high-value keyword naturally in your title, do it.

Subtitle (strong signal): The subtitle appears directly below your title in search results. It is both a ranking factor and a conversion factor -- users read it before deciding whether to tap. Use it for your second-most important keyword phrase.

Keyword field (strong signal, invisible): This 100-character field is only visible to you in App Store Connect. Users never see it. Apple indexes every term here for search ranking. This is where you pack in additional keywords that did not fit in your title or subtitle. For a detailed breakdown of how to maximize this field, see our guide on the iOS keyword field.

Description (weak signal on iOS): Apple does not heavily index the app description for keyword ranking on the App Store. The description matters for conversion -- convincing someone to download after they land on your page -- but it will not help you rank for new terms. Note: Google Play does index the description, so this changes if you are on Android.

In-app purchases and promotional text: These carry minor indexing weight and are not worth optimizing for keywords in most cases.

The 100-Character Keyword Field: Rules That Most Developers Break

The keyword field has specific formatting rules that Apple enforces silently. Get them wrong and you waste precious characters.

Separate terms with commas, no spaces after commas. Write budget,tracker,expense,money not budget, tracker, expense, money. Those spaces count against your 100-character limit.
Do not repeat words from your title or subtitle. Apple already indexes those. Repeating them in the keyword field is pure waste. If your title is "BudgetPal - Expense Tracker", do not put budget, expense, or tracker in your keyword field.
Do not use plurals if you already have the singular (or vice versa). Apple generally matches both forms.
Do not include "app" or your category name. Apple indexes your category automatically.
Do not use competitor brand names. Apple may reject your update and it can trigger takedown requests.
Use single words, not phrases. Apple combines individual keywords to match search queries. Writing expense tracker as two separate words in your keyword field lets Apple match "expense tracker", "expense manager", "budget tracker", and other combinations. Writing them as a phrase locks you into one combination.

A well-optimized keyword field looks something like this:

finance,spending,receipt,subscription,bill,saving,wallet,planner,monthly,income,cashflow,net,worth

Every term is unique, no spaces wasted, nothing repeated from the title, and each word can combine with others to match dozens of potential search queries.

How to Research: Start With Competitors, Not Brainstorming

Brainstorming keywords from scratch is the most common mistake. You end up with a list that reflects what you think users search for, not what they actually search for. Start with data instead.

Analyze competitor titles and subtitles

Open the App Store and look at the top 10-20 apps in your category. Write down every keyword they use in their titles and subtitles. These developers -- especially the ones with millions of downloads -- have already done extensive testing. Their keyword choices are not accidental.

Look for patterns:

Which words appear in multiple competitor titles?
What phrasing do the top 3 apps use versus apps ranked 15-20?
Are there keywords that only one or two competitors use but seem highly relevant?

Use App Store autocomplete

Start typing relevant terms into the App Store search bar. The autocomplete research suggestions are based on actual user search behavior. If "budget tracker" autocompletes to "budget tracker for couples" or "budget tracker simple", those are real queries with real volume.

Document every suggestion that is relevant to your app. These long-tail variations are goldmines for indie apps.

Browse category rankings

Go through the top charts in your category and adjacent categories. Look at apps you had not considered as competitors. Sometimes the best keyword opportunities come from adjacent use cases that overlap with your app's functionality.

Check localized listings

Look at competitor listings in different countries. Developers who invest in localization often reveal keyword strategies that are invisible in the English-language listing.

Long-Tail vs Short-Tail: Why Indie Apps Should Think Small

A short-tail keyword like "fitness" gets enormous search volume. It also has enormous competition. The top results are apps backed by companies with eight-figure marketing budgets and millions of reviews. You will not rank for "fitness" as an indie developer. Period.

Long-tail keywords flip this dynamic:

"fitness" -- impossibly competitive
"fitness tracker no subscription" -- much less competition, highly specific intent
"home workout timer for beginners" -- even less competition, even more specific

Users who search for long-tail terms tend to convert at higher rates because they know exactly what they want. An app that matches "home workout timer for beginners" precisely will outperform a generic fitness app for that query, regardless of review count.

For indie apps, the strategy is clear: own 20 small keywords rather than compete for 3 big ones.

Assessing Keyword Difficulty

Not every keyword is worth pursuing. Before committing a keyword to your limited character budget, assess whether you can realistically rank for it.

A simple difficulty check:

Search the keyword in the App Store.
Look at the top 10 results.
Check their review counts and ratings.

If the top 10 results all have 50,000+ reviews, this keyword is highly competitive. You are unlikely to break in unless your app offers something dramatically different.

If several results have under 5,000 reviews, this keyword is accessible. You can compete here with a solid listing and decent ratings.

If some results are clearly irrelevant to the search query, this is an opportunity. Apple is struggling to fill results, which means a well-optimized app can rank quickly.

Do this assessment for every keyword candidate before you allocate your 160 characters.

Localization as a Keyword Strategy

Most indie developers only optimize for English. This is a strategic mistake.

Non-English App Store markets are dramatically less competitive. A keyword that has 50 apps competing in the US market might have 5 competing in the German, Japanese, or Brazilian market. Your app does not need to be fully translated -- even localizing just your title, subtitle, keyword field, and screenshots can unlock entirely new user bases.

Apple allows you to set unique keywords for every localization. This means you can target different keyword strategies for different markets without any conflicts -- a technique known as cross-localization that effectively doubles your keyword coverage. Your US listing targets English keywords while your Spain listing targets Spanish keywords that may have completely different competitive dynamics.

Markets worth considering for localization, even if your app is English-only:

Spanish (Spain and Latin America) -- large market, lower competition in many categories
Portuguese (Brazil) -- massive smartphone user base, underserved by ASO
German -- high purchasing power, fewer competing apps
Japanese -- high app spending per user, very different keyword landscape
French -- significant market across multiple countries

How to Prioritize: The Relevance-Volume-Difficulty Framework

With a list of candidate keywords, you need to decide which ones earn a spot in your 160 characters. Rank every keyword on three dimensions:

Relevance (most important): Does this keyword accurately describe what your app does? Ranking for an irrelevant keyword brings users who immediately bounce. This kills your conversion rate, which in turn hurts your rankings. Never sacrifice relevance for volume.

Volume (second): How many people search for this term? Autocomplete suggestions and competitor usage are proxies for volume. A keyword that no one searches for is worthless even if you rank first.

Difficulty (third): Can you realistically rank for this keyword given your current review count and app authority? The best keyword in the world is useless if you are on page five of results.

The ideal keyword scores high on all three. When you have to make tradeoffs, always protect relevance first.

Implementation: Distributing Keywords Without Waste

Once you have your prioritized keyword list, distribute them across your metadata fields strategically:

Title (30 characters): Your app name plus your single highest-value keyword. Example: "BudgetPal - Money Tracker" uses the brand name plus two strong keywords.

Subtitle (30 characters): Your second-highest priority keyword phrase. Example: "Simple Expense & Bill Manager" packs in three additional keywords.

Keyword field (100 characters): Everything else, following the formatting rules above. No repeats from title or subtitle. Single words separated by commas without spaces.

Write out your full allocation and count characters before entering anything into App Store Connect. Going one character over means Apple silently truncates your keyword field -- and you will not know which keywords got cut.

Measuring Results

Keyword optimization is not a one-time task. After every update:

Track your ranking for target keywords weekly. Note which keywords you are gaining or losing ground on.
Monitor impression data in App Store Connect analytics. A spike in impressions after a keyword change confirms the new keyword is being indexed.
Watch conversion rates. If impressions go up but downloads stay flat, your new keywords might be attracting the wrong audience.
Iterate every 4-6 weeks. Swap out underperforming keywords for new candidates. ASO is an ongoing process, not a launch checklist.

Using Real Data Instead of Guesswork

The research process described above works, but it is manual and time-consuming. Analyzing 20 competitor titles, checking autocomplete for dozens of terms, and assessing difficulty for each candidate can take hours.

This is exactly the problem StoreLit's competitor analysis was built to solve. The tool scrapes real App Store data from your category -- actual competitor titles, subtitles, descriptions, and keyword patterns -- then uses n-gram extraction to surface the keywords that top-performing apps use most frequently. Instead of manually scanning competitor listings, you get a data-driven keyword list ranked by frequency, difficulty, and gap analysis showing which high-value terms your listing is missing.

The keyword research process stays the same. The difference is starting with real competitive data instead of a blank page.

Key Takeaways

You have roughly 160 characters of high-impact keyword space. Treat every character as expensive real estate.
Start research with competitor data, not brainstorming.
Target long-tail keywords where indie apps can realistically compete.
Assess difficulty before committing any keyword to your limited space.
Localize your metadata to access less competitive markets.
Prioritize relevance over volume over difficulty.
Distribute keywords across title, subtitle, and keyword field without repetition.
Measure, iterate, and repeat every 4-6 weeks.

Keyword research is the highest-leverage ASO activity available to indie developers. The apps that rank are not always the best apps -- they are the apps that understood what users search for and allocated their 160 characters accordingly.