How to choose App Store keywords that you can actually rank for

Most listings fail at keywords for the same reason: they target the words that describe the app category best, which are also the words every other app in the category targets. A new budgeting app that aims at "budget" is competing with apps that have hundreds of thousands of ratings. It will not show up, and the characters are wasted.

Good keyword choice is a trade between three things: how many people search a phrase, how hard it is to rank for it, and how well it describes what your app does. Here is a method that works whether you have zero ratings or fifty thousand.

1. Start with a long list, not a short one

Write down every phrase someone might type to find an app like yours. Think in tasks and problems, not features: "split bills with roommates" rather than "expense sharing module". Then widen it:

• App Store suggestions. Type the start of each phrase into App Store search and note what it completes to. These are real searches.
• Competitors' names and subtitles. The words that several rivals put in their 30-character name and subtitle are words they believe convert.
• Your reviews. The words your users use for your app are often different from yours. If people call it a "bill tracker", that is a keyword.

Aim for 50 to 100 candidates before you judge any of them.

2. Measure volume and difficulty for each one

Apple does not publish search counts outside Apple Search Ads, so ASO tools estimate. What matters is comparing phrases on the same scale. For each candidate, look at two numbers:

• Search volume: how often the phrase is searched, relative to others.
• Difficulty: how strong the apps already ranking for it are, mostly measured by their ratings and popularity.

Then sort them into four groups:

Group	Volume	Difficulty	What to do
Targets	Medium to high	Low to medium	Put these in your name, subtitle and keyword field first.
Maybes	Low to medium	Low	Good filler for the keyword field; easy wins for new apps.
Competitive	High	High	Keep tracking; aim for them once you rank for easier phrases.
Low volume	Very low	Any	Drop them unless they describe your app exactly.

3. Look at who ranks, not just the number

A difficulty score is a summary. Before committing, search the phrase yourself and look at the top results. Two questions decide it:

• Are the top apps like yours? If the results are a different kind of app, the store has decided what the phrase means, and you will struggle even if difficulty is low.
• Is there a weak app in the top 10? One app with a few hundred ratings in the top five tells you the phrase is winnable.

4. Go specific before you go broad

Ranking is not only about your text. Apps that rank for a phrase and get downloaded from it tend to climb for related phrases. So a new app does better by ranking first for specific, longer phrases ("budget planner for couples") and letting that momentum carry it toward broader ones ("budget planner") than by aiming at the broad phrase from day one. This is widely observed by ASO practitioners rather than documented by Apple, but it matches how search engines generally reward relevance plus engagement.

5. Decide per country

A phrase that is hopeless in the United States can be easy in Germany or Brazil, and the words people use are different in each language. Treat each store as its own market: measure your candidates in every country you care about and pick a separate set for each. A direct translation of an English keyword is often not what people actually type, so check the local search suggestions too.

6. Find the gaps your rivals leave you

Take your five to ten closest competitors and look for phrases where several of them rank in the top 10 and you do not appear at all. That is proven demand in your category that your listing does not cover yet. Gaps with low difficulty are often the fastest wins available.

7. Place them, then watch

Once you have your set, place the strongest targets in the fields Apple indexes most, the app name and the subtitle, and fill the 100-character keyword field with the rest. Our guide to the keyword field covers the details, and the name and subtitle guide covers the 60 most valuable characters you have.

Then track your ranks every day for a few weeks. Keyword choice is not a one-off: drop the phrases that do not move, promote the ones that do, and repeat with each new version.