App Store Keywords: How Search Ranking Works

Most app installs still begin with someone typing a word into a store search box, and the two stores decide what to show using a small set of text fields you control. This guide explains which fields are read, how long they can be, how search and the top charts reinforce each other, and which widely repeated "rules" do not hold up.

Where search traffic comes from

Apple has for years quoted a figure of roughly 65% of App Store downloads happening directly after a search; that number circulated in Apple Ads marketing from around 2016 to 2018 and is still repeated by agencies, but Apple's current search and ads pages no longer display it, so treat the exact share as historic unconfirmed ¹¹. What Apple does say today is that search results are ranked on two groups of signals: text relevance (title, subtitle, keywords, primary category) and user behaviour (downloads, ratings, reviews and "more") ¹. Google is similarly guarded, stating that Play search weighs "ratings, reviews, downloads, and other factors" and that the weights are proprietary ⁵.

The fields that are actually indexed

The two stores read different text. On iOS the long description is a conversion asset, not a search asset; on Android it is both.

Two further iOS inputs matter as of 2026. Custom product pages can now be assigned their own keywords, so a tailored page rather than the default one can appear for selected searches ¹. And Apple's LLM-generated App Tags, announced at WWDC25, surface in search results alongside categories; developers can remove tags they dislike but cannot add their own ¹². Whether tags change ranking position, as opposed to presentation, is not documented unconfirmed.

Making the 100 characters count

Apple's own advice on the keyword field is unusually concrete: do not repeat words already in your name, subtitle or category; skip plurals of words you already have; drop "app", "game" and filler words like "the"; and avoid trademarks, competitor names and celebrity names, which are a common cause of rejection ¹. Spaces inside a phrase are fine, but the comma list itself should carry no spaces ². Because the field is measured in bytes, non-Latin scripts consume it faster ³.

How search and the charts interact

Search and the top charts are separate surfaces with separate ranking logic, but they feed each other. Apple's search ranking includes downloads as a behavioural signal ¹, and Google's chart placement is "heavily influenced by popularity" while search is driven by query relevance ⁶. In practice that produces a loop: good keyword coverage earns impressions; impressions that convert become downloads; a rising download rate lifts chart position and also strengthens the behaviour side of search ranking.

Neither company publishes a chart formula. Third-party analyses consistently describe the free charts as velocity-weighted, meaning a burst of recent installs beats a larger lifetime total, though the exact window (claims range from 24 hours to two weeks) is unverified ¹³. For keyword work the implication is simple: the queries that matter most are the ones that convert into installs, because installs are the currency both systems share.

Keyword research methods that still work

• Apple Ads popularity. Apple's keyword suggestion tool shows search popularity on a 1-to-5 scale, with 5 the most searched ^8,9. Third-party tools expose a finer 5-to-100 version of the same signal; it is relative, not a volume count, and the scale is not linear unconfirmed.
• Autocomplete and competitor metadata. Typing a seed term into the store and noting the suggestions, then reading the titles and subtitles of the apps that already rank, remains the cheapest way to see which phrasings the store has learned to match.
• Apple Search Match. Running a discovery campaign with Search Match on lets Apple match ads to queries using your metadata and genre data, and the resulting search-term report reveals real queries you had not thought of ⁸.
• Google Play's own guidance. Google tells developers to put the most important text in the top half of the description and to apply SEO practices without "keyword spamming" ⁵; the same page notes that a professionally translated description improves discoverability.
• Chart cross-checking. Look at which apps sit in the top 100 of your category on AppWinners and compare their titles and subtitles; the terms that cluster there are the ones the chart audience is already searching for.

Localising keywords

Each App Store localisation carries its own name, subtitle and keyword field, so adding a language multiplies your indexable characters. Community testing also shows that some storefronts index more than one localisation: the United States storefront reads English (US) and Spanish (Mexico), Canada reads English (Canada) and French (Canada), and many European storefronts read their local language plus English (UK) ¹⁰. Apple does not document this behaviour and the pairings may change; some ASO blogs list as many as nine secondary locales for the US, which we could not confirm unconfirmed ¹⁰.

Google Play works differently. Each language has its own name and descriptions, and if you do not supply one Google machine-translates the listing and labels it as automatic ⁴. A machine-translated description is indexed, but a human translation re-researched for local search terms performs better ⁵.

Common myths

• "Repeating a keyword across fields boosts it." Apple says the opposite: duplicating name or subtitle words in the keyword field wastes characters ¹.
• "The promotional text is a hidden keyword slot." Apple states it does not affect search ranking ¹.
• "Stuffing the Play short description helps." Google says it will not improve ranking and degrades the listing ⁷; repetitive keyword use in titles and descriptions is a stated suspension risk ⁴.
• "Ratings do not touch search." Both stores list ratings and reviews as ranking inputs ^1,5.
• "The iOS description is indexed." Apple's list of indexed fields does not include it; a handful of blogs claim otherwise without evidence unconfirmed.
• "Screenshot text is read for search." Some ASO vendors claim Apple OCRs screenshots; no Apple documentation supports this unconfirmed.

How this shows up in the charts

Keyword changes are invisible in a chart snapshot but obvious over time. On AppWinners, an app that climbs the free chart of its category without a corresponding paid-media burst usually shows a preceding metadata change: a new subtitle, a localised keyword field, or a custom product page tied to a seasonal query. Conversely, the apps that fall steadily after a feature ends are often the ones whose organic search coverage was never strong enough to sustain the velocity the chart rewards. Because iOS indexes only 160 characters of name, subtitle and keywords per localisation, the chart winners in competitive categories are rarely the apps with the most keywords; they are the ones whose few indexed terms match what the chart's audience actually types.