ASO keyword research
ASO keyword research is the process of finding the search terms people use inside the App Store and Google Play, then working out which of them your app can realistically rank for. It differs from web keyword research in two ways: neither store publishes search volume, so every figure is modelled, and you have roughly 130 indexable characters on Apple to act on what you find. appXL runs this research continuously rather than quarterly — scoring each term by volume, difficulty and your app's actual ranking chance, then rewriting the metadata to target the winners.
What it does
Continuous discovery
Pulls candidate terms from store autocomplete, your category's top-ranking listings, your own console data and competitor metadata changes — and re-runs as the category moves.
Winnability scoring
Every term is scored on modelled volume, difficulty and your app's realistic chance of ranking, so the shortlist reflects what you can win rather than what looks impressive.
Character budgeting
Allocates your title, subtitle and keyword field against the shortlist without wasting characters on duplicates — the single most common source of lost coverage.
Per-market research
Researches natively in each target locale instead of translating an English keyword set, which is where most localized listings quietly fail.
What the agent handles for you
- Re-runs keyword discovery on a schedule and flags newly winnable terms.
- Drafts title, subtitle and keyword-field copy targeting the current shortlist.
- Detects when a competitor's metadata change has cost you coverage.
- Ships approved metadata changes straight to App Store Connect and Play Console.
How the research actually runs
- 1
Build the candidate set
Seed from your app's current metadata, then expand with autocomplete prefixes, competitor terms and category vocabulary until the set is exhaustive rather than convenient.
- 2
Score winnability
Combine modelled volume, difficulty and your app's authority signals. A term you can reach the top five for is worth more than a term where you would sit on page three.
- 3
Allocate characters
Assign the shortlist across the indexed fields, deduplicating across them, because a word already in the title gains nothing from being repeated in the keyword field.
- 4
Measure and re-run
Track impressions and conversion per field change, then feed the result back into the next scoring pass.
The truth about app store search volume
No ASO tool has real App Store or Google Play search volume, including this one. Apple exposes a relative popularity score through Search Ads; Google exposes nothing. Everything else in the market is a model built on those signals plus observed ranking behavior.
That is not a reason to ignore the numbers — it is a reason to use them comparatively. A term scored at 140 is meaningfully bigger than one scored at 20. Treating either as a literal monthly traffic forecast is where teams go wrong.
Field rules that decide coverage
| Field | Store | Limit | Rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Both | 30 chars | Highest weight; commit it to one primary term |
| Subtitle | App Store | 30 chars | Indexed; never repeat title words |
| Keyword field | App Store | 100 chars | Comma-separated, no spaces, no duplicates, singular forms |
| Short description | Google Play | 80 chars | Indexed and highly visible |
| Long description | Google Play | 4,000 chars | Indexed; 2-4 natural repetitions of the primary term |
| Long description | App Store | 4,000 chars | Not indexed — write purely for conversion |
Frequently asked questions
How many keywords should an app target?
One primary term the title commits to, and roughly ten to twenty supporting terms spread across the remaining indexed fields. Beyond that you are spreading a fixed character budget too thin to rank for anything.
Should I use singular or plural keywords?
Singular. Both stores handle basic stemming, so "tracker" generally covers "trackers", and using both wastes characters you cannot get back.
How often should keyword research be redone?
Continuously in practice. Competitors change metadata, categories shift and seasonal demand moves, so a set researched once a quarter is usually a few weeks out of date by the time it ships.