A Guide to App Store Keyword Research

Have you recently launched an app but aren’t sure how to optimize your listing? Or has your app been listed for months with little traction? With about 2 million apps in both the Apple Store and Google Play Store, the odds of standing out initially are slim. However, the solution is simple: App Store Optimization (ASO).

ASO is the process of optimizing your app listing to rank higher in app store search results. To make a comparison, ASO is to app stores what SEO is to search engines. And like SEO, success starts with keyword research. By identifying the right keywords, you can improve visibility and attract more downloads. In this guide, we’ll explore how to master keyword research to give your app the best chance of success.

If you’re ready to learn how to perform your own ASO keyword research—and help your app to gain traction as a result—keep reading!

Key Takeaways

• ASO keyword research is the process of identifying and selecting the most relevant and effective keywords to improve an app’s visibility and ranking in app store search results.
• Focusing on keywords that align with your target audience’s search intent can help attract the right users to your app.
• Using a mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords can help balance visibility and competition in app store searches.
• Regularly analyzing and updating your keywords can help you adapt to changing trends and maintain rankings.
• Leverage ASO tools and competitor analysis to identify high-performing, relevant keywords for your niche.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• What Are ASO Keywords?
• Why Keywords Matter for ASO Success
• Understanding App Store Algorithms
• How to Conduct ASO Keyword Research
  • 1. Identify Your Target Audience
  • 2. Brainstorm Keywords
  • 3. Analyze Competitor Keywords
  • 4. Use ASO Tools
  • 5. Test and Iterate
• Best Practices for Optimizing Keywords
• Common Mistakes to Avoid in ASO Keyword Research
• Measuring the Success of Your Keywords
• FAQs
• Conclusion

What Are ASO Keywords?

ASO keywords are the words and phrases users type into app store search bars to find apps. Including these terms in your app’s title, description, and metadata boosts your app’s visibility in search results. They are an important part of app store optimization. 

The phrases potential users are searching for are usually short and to the point—think “fitness tracker” or “budget planner.” By targeting the right keywords, you increase the chances of your app showing up at the top of search results. It’s a simple way to connect your app with the right audience.

Why Keywords Matter for ASO Success

Just as you choose the right keywords to rank on search engine results pages, choosing the right ASO keywords ensures your app ranks higher in app store searches.

The right keywords—that is, the terms your target audience are using to find apps like yours—make your app more visible and attract users who are genuinely interested in what your app offers. A well-optimized listing that incorporates keywords naturally can also boost brand perception and clearly communicate your app’s value to potential users. 

Think of it this way: if your app targets “meditation for beginners,” but you’re using generic terms like “health,” you’re missing users actively searching for apps like yours. When your keywords align with your audience’s needs, it’s a win-win!

Understanding App Store Algorithms

What makes one app rank higher than another? App stores like Google Play and Apple’s App Store each have their own algorithms, but they aren’t identical.

For example, keywords presence and placement are important for both algorithms, but especially so for Google Play. IOS uses a 100-character keyword field for you to make relevant entries, while Google Play focuses on keyword usage in your app title, subtitle, and long description.

They differ in other ways as well. For example, Google Play takes backlinks to your app pages into consideration for ranking, while iOS does not.

Many elements are ranking factors for both, though, like download rates, user reviews, and retention. So, while keywords get your foot in the door, having a great app experience helps seal the deal.

But how do you know which keywords to target? That’s where app keyword research comes in.

How to Conduct ASO Keyword Research

You create an amazing app and the people will come, right? Not quite. 

Gaining traction on the app store can take time, but one way to improve the odds of breaking through is with ASO keyword research.

Once you understand who your audience is, what they’re searching for, and why they might choose the competition over your app, you can pinpoint the keywords you need to include in your own listing.

Let’s break it down step by step.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Understanding your audience is the foundation of ASO keyword research. 

There are three ways of understanding your target audience.

The first is through demographics. These will tell you things such as:

• age
• gender
• education background
• purchasing power
• social class
• location
• consumption habits

The second is through buyer profiles. These cover who your audience is on a more personal level. They include:

• personal characteristics
• lifestyle
• interests
• engagement in social networks
• personal beliefs and values

Last are buyer personas. Think of these as a snapshot of an ideal customer. They get highly specific and are a form of storytelling. For example, a buyer persona for your language learning app may read:

Nancy is a 40-something married mother of two who works full-time outside of the home as a Marketing Director. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. In her limited free time, Nancy loves to learn new things. Her dream is to one day travel to Italy and be able to speak fluently with the locals. She learns best by practicing dialogue. She fears she may be “too old” to learn a new language on her own without a costly tutor or immersion program.

By considering demographics, profile, and persona, you can be sure you’re making room for everyone who might find your app fun or useful and then target them with the appropriate keywords.

Let’s continue with the example of the language learning app mentioned above. Ask yourself: who does my app appeal to? A college student on a gap year? A middle-aged professional moving to a new country for their job? A retired traveler?

Whatever the answer, it will help you to further refine your list of ASO keywords.

2. Brainstorm Keywords

The “right” keywords aren’t going to come to you suddenly. Effective keyword research requires brainstorming. 

Start by writing down broad terms that describe your app, like “budget tracker” or “fitness planner.” Then, refine your list by focusing on user intent. Are they looking for free options or beginner-friendly tools? Narrowing your focus to long-tail ASO keywords like “free fitness app for beginners” makes your app stand out to the right users.

What else should you consider while brainstorming?

• Branded keywords such as “fitness by [developer name]” or “[brand name] budget”
• Core features and functionalities of your app such as “cross-device compatibility” and “offline functionality” 
• Awards or industry recognition such as “mobile app of the year by [awarding agency]” or “top downloaded fitness app in 2023”
• Keywords used by the competition (which I’ll outline how to find in the next section)
• Trending terms relevant to your app’s category like “boutique fitness app” or “bulking”

Remember, this list is just a jumping-off point. Add whatever comes to mind to the list, even if you don’t think it’ll end up making the final cut.

3. Analyze Competitor Keywords

Want to stand out in the app store? As mentioned above, an important part of app keyword research is competitive keyword analysis. Analyzing competitors’ keywords reveals gaps in their strategies and opportunities for your app.

Why not learn from the best? Analyze successful apps in your category to see what keywords they’re ranking for. This will give you ideas for your own strategy and help you identify gaps they may have missed. 

Where to begin? 

You can search the app store for common keywords to see where your competitors rank. This takes considerable time and effort and how do you know if you’re even targeting the right keywords? Fortunately, there are tools—like Ubersuggest—that can help you to narrow down your list of competitor keywords in seconds.  

While Ubersuggest can’t show you where your competitor ranks on the app store, they can show you where your competitor’s website ranks on search engines. This may give you some ideas for keyword terms to search on app stores and use in your own listing.

Create a free account on Ubersuggest and then head to the dashboard. Scroll all the way down to My Competitors: 

Click it and this will bring you to the Competitor Tracking page. Here, you can see which keywords your competition ranks for in relation to your own website’s rankings: 

From here, you can head back to the app store and look at other apps that rank for those same keywords or use them as jumping-off points for your own keyword list. 

4. Use ASO Tools

While Ubersuggest can’t provide data on app store rankings, ASO tools—like data.ai, Sensor Tower, and others—can.

These tools can help you identify high-performing keywords, analyze trends, and track your app’s performance over time. 

Sensor Tower, for example, will give you an overview of any app’s performance on the iOS app store:

You can dive deeper by going to Store Marketing > Keyword Rankings:

Here, you can see how your top competitors rank for the most common keywords in the category. You can also utilize the Keyword Optimization and Keyword Suggestion tools to see which keywords competitor apps should be targeting but aren’t. 

These tools turn guesswork into data-driven insights, so you’re always one step ahead.

5. Test and Iterate

Keyword research doesn’t stop once your app is live. 

To see good results, you must closely monitor how your ASO keywords perform. You can do so using mobile app analytics tools—like the aforementioned Sensor Tower and data.ai—to track performance metrics and refine your strategy. I’ll show you how to use tools like these for metric tracking in greater detail later. 

If something isn’t working, don’t hesitate to tweak your strategy. Staying flexible ensures your app stays relevant as trends evolve.

Best Practices for Optimizing Keywords

Just like with search engine optimization, app store optimization can feel more like an art form than a perfect science. Sometimes, even when you do everything “right,” your app store listing may not perform as well as you’d expected.

And while it’s true that there are some things you can’t overcome—such as the popularity of competitor apps—there are best practices you can implement that will put your listing in the best position possible. 

Here are some best practices to maximize the impact of your ASO keywords: 

• Strategic placement: Use keywords in the app’s title, subtitle, description, and tags. These are the areas app store algorithms prioritize.
• Less is more: Keep the app title within the 30-character limit.
• Mix short-tail and long-tail keywords: Short-tail keywords, like “budget,” boost visibility, while long-tail phrases, like “budget planner for couples,” attract a more targeted audience. You want a natural mix of these throughout your listing. 
• Natural readability: Your text should make sense to humans, not just algorithms. Keywords should flow naturally.
• Regular updates: Trends change, and so should your keywords. Update them regularly throughout your listing to stay competitive.

So what does a well-optimized app store listing look like in real life? Let’s take a look at the Apple Store listing for Max (previously HBO Max):

With 3 million downloads, $42 million in revenue, and a category ranking of #5, there is no doubt that Max is a well-performing app. Here’s what it gets right:

First, it includes a descriptive title letting users know exactly what they can do on this platform: stream.

The app’s description is also full of naturally-occurring keywords, both evergreen and trending:

It makes timely references to its lineup (e.g. upcoming movie release) lists popular associated brands/channels for streaming, and makes its value obvious and undeniable.

They also respond to reviews in a timely and friendly manner:

This clearly shows to users that the developer is interested in the user experience. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid in ASO Keyword Research

When first setting up your app store listing, it’s easy to make mistakes that can hurt your app’s performance. You can prevent this, however, by avoiding these common pitfalls:

• Overusing irrelevant keywords: Popular doesn’t always mean effective. Irrelevant keywords won’t attract the right audience and may hurt your app’s rankings.
• Ignoring long-tail keywords: These may have lower search volumes, so it’s easy to overlook them in the initial stages of your ASO keyword research. However, these often attract more qualified users so they should not be ignored.
• Keyword stuffing: App stores penalize keyword stuffing, so keep your content user-friendly. There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, but a few tips for avoiding it include using your keywords naturally, varying keyword usage (i.e. don’t repeat the same keyword multiple times in a row), and prioritizing user experience.
• Making updates too soon: Once you have optimized your app store listing, it’s best to keep those updates in place for a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks. This gives the app store algorithm enough time to ingest those updates and incorporate your listing into their rankings. Tweaking it too often will give you false performance data and hurt your listing’s performance.
• Failing to monitor performance: Keyword trends change frequently. If you’re not updating your listing based on data, you’ll lose visibility. Keep the 3-to-4-week rule in mind, but also don’t be afraid to make smaller tweaks like adding in new keywords or removing entirely irrelevant ones.

Overall, the message is clear: stay proactive, and you’ll see better results!

Measuring the Success of Your Keywords

How do you know if your ASO keywords are doing their job? The good news is, you don’t have to guess. By keeping an eye on app analytics and tracking key metrics, you’ll know when your keywords are hitting their mark and when they need an adjustment. 

This is similar to the way you measure SEO and make adjustments to keywords on your website.

So what are these key metrics?

• Impressions: The number of views your app receives in the app store search results. You would expect this number to increase as you rank for more keywords in your category.
• Downloads: The number of downloads your app has received. This should increase right alongside impressions as your app becomes more dominant in the listings.
• Rankings: The space in which you appear on search result pages. This can mean both the number of keywords that are ranking (in any space on search results from one to infinity) and your average rank in relevant keyword searches. You want the first number to be higher and the second number to be lower as the lower you are, the higher you appear in search results.

Where do you get these metrics? 

Use tools like Sensor Tower and Mobile Action to analyze performance and refine your strategy. 

These tools allow you to track downloads, revenue, and daily reviews:

You can also see how you stack up against the competition by looking at category rankings and overall app rankings:

Regularly review your metrics to see what’s working and where you can improve.

FAQs

What are ASO keywords?

ASO keywords are terms and phrases that users type into app store search bars to find apps. Optimizing your app with relevant ASO keywords helps improve its visibility and rankings.

How to do keyword research for ASO?

To research ASO keywords, you will need to identify your target audience, study competitors’ apps and the keywords they use, identify high-volume, relevant keywords for your own app, and then monitor performance using ASO tools.

What tools can you use for ASO keyword research?

Popular tools for ASO keyword research include Sensor Tower, MobileAction, and Keyword Tool. These platforms help you identify high-performing keywords, analyze trends, and track your app’s performance over time.

Conclusion

App store optimization doesn’t have to be a difficult process. When you start with a strong foundation of keyword research, you can get off to a solid start in just a few hours. Just follow the steps above—and avoid falling for these common ASO myths—and you’ll be optimizing your listing like a pro in no time.
If you’re new to ASO keyword research, or you’re just feeling overwhelmed, remember that I’m here to help. In fact, I created my on-demand webinar—Cracking the Code: Mastering App Store Optimization for Incredible Growth—for app developers just like you.