Improve your ASO on App Store Connect

This is the single most important thing to understand about Apple ASO, and it is where App Store Connect differs sharply from Google Play. Apple builds its search index from a short list of fields: your app name (up to 30 characters), your subtitle (up to 30 characters), and the dedicated keywords field (up to 100 characters, comma-separated, never shown to users). Your in-app purchase names and your developer name also carry some weight. What Apple does not index is the promotional text and the full description. You can write a beautiful 4000-character description and it will not add a single searchable keyword. So your entire searchable vocabulary on Apple is roughly 160 characters plus your localizations. Every character counts, and repeating a word across fields wastes space because Apple only needs to see it once.

• Indexed: app name (30 chars), subtitle (30 chars), keywords field (100 chars), in-app purchase display names, developer name.
• Not indexed for search: promotional text, full description, what's new / release notes, screenshots, and app preview videos.
• Do not repeat a keyword across the name, subtitle, and keywords field. Apple indexes it once, so duplicates just burn characters.

Your app name is the strongest ranking field you have, so it should carry your brand plus your single most important keyword phrase. With 30 characters you rarely fit more than a brand and two or three words, for example a name followed by a short descriptor of what the app does. The subtitle, also 30 characters, is your second most powerful field and your best chance to add high-value terms you could not fit in the name. Treat name and subtitle as one combined 60-character keyword budget: decide the two or three phrases you most want to rank for, then place each word once across the two fields without duplicating it. Keep both readable, because they are the first text a browsing user sees and they directly affect whether people tap through.

The keywords field is unique to the App Store: it is a private, comma-separated list of up to 100 characters that Apple indexes for search but never displays to users. Because no one reads it, you optimize purely for coverage, not for grammar. Do not use spaces after commas, because a space counts as a character you could spend on another term. Do not repeat words that already appear in your name or subtitle. Skip the plural if you have the singular, since Apple handles many variations, and drop filler words like the, and, app, or free. You can also use single words rather than full phrases and let Apple combine them: entering terms like habit, tracker, and daily separately lets the store match combinations such as habit tracker and daily tracker. Fit as many distinct, relevant terms as those 100 characters allow.

• Comma-separated, no spaces after commas, to maximize the terms you fit in 100 characters.
• No duplicates of words already in your name or subtitle, and no competitor brand names.
• Single words over phrases where possible, so Apple can combine them into multiple queries.
• Drop stop words (the, and, for), the word app, and category words Apple already knows from your category selection.

Yes, just not for keyword ranking. Because promotional text and the full description are not indexed by Apple search, their only job is conversion: turning a visitor who already found your listing into a download. Promotional text sits at the very top of the description, is capped around 170 characters, and can be updated any time without submitting a new build, which makes it perfect for announcing a sale, a new feature, or seasonal messaging. The description should open with the two or three lines that appear before the More button, because most people never expand it, so front-load your strongest benefit and social proof there. Write for humans, not for the index, and use the release notes field to tell returning users what changed in each version.

Screenshots and app preview videos are the biggest lever on your conversion rate, and conversion feeds directly back into ranking. The first two or three screenshots appear in search results before anyone opens your page, so they have to communicate your core value in a glance, with a short caption on each rather than a bare device frame. Custom product pages let you create up to 70 variations of your listing, each with different screenshots, promotional text, and app preview, and give each its own URL to use in a specific ad or campaign so the visuals match the message that brought the visitor. In-app events, which are the timed cards Apple surfaces for launches, competitions, or seasonal moments, give you another indexed and discoverable surface. If you want to move faster, our guide to lifting App Store listing conversion goes deeper, and you can create App Store visuals easily without a designer.

Yes. Your average star rating and the volume and recency of your reviews are genuine ranking and conversion signals on the App Store. A higher rating lifts both how often Apple shows you and how many people tap when it does, so ratings compound: better ratings raise conversion, higher conversion raises ranking, and higher ranking brings more of the impressions that generate more ratings. The practical move is to ask for a rating at a moment of success inside the app using Apple's native review prompt, never on launch or after an error. Respond to reviews in App Store Connect, because you can reply publicly and a thoughtful reply often turns a one-star review into a higher one. Watch your rating per locale too, since it can vary a lot by country.

Every App Store locale you add gives you a fresh app name, subtitle, and 100-character keywords field, which means localization is the single fastest way to multiply your indexed keywords. Adding a language is not only about translating your words into that language: some locales serve more than one country, so a well-chosen extra locale can widen your reach without a full translation. A classic tactic is that English (Australia), English (Canada), and English (UK) let an English app add three more keyword sets that all serve English speakers, effectively tripling your keyword real estate for the same market. Translate the name, subtitle, keywords, screenshots captions, and description for each language you truly support, and localize your keywords to how real users in that market actually search rather than word-for-word. If you run several languages, our guide to managing multiple app languages covers the workflow.

Work through your listing one field at a time. Here is the order that gives you the most ranking gain for the least effort, in App Store Connect.

1. App name (30 chars): brand plus your single most important keyword phrase, readable, no keyword stuffing.
2. Subtitle (30 chars): your next most valuable terms, not repeating the name, still readable.
3. Keywords field (100 chars): comma-separated with no spaces, single words, no duplicates of the name or subtitle, no stop words or competitor brands.
4. Promotional text (about 170 chars): a current, benefit-led hook you can update any time without a new build.
5. Description: front-load the two or three lines above the More fold with your strongest benefit and proof; write for humans, since it is not indexed.
6. Screenshots and app preview: make the first two sell your value at a glance, with captions, localized per language.
7. Custom product pages and in-app events: match visuals to campaigns, and use events for launches and seasonal moments.
8. Ratings and reviews: prompt at moments of success, reply to reviews, and monitor your rating per country.
9. Localizations: repeat the whole checklist for every locale you support, adding English variants for extra keyword sets.

If you would rather start from a draft than a blank field, the free ASO tools can generate a title, subtitle, keywords, and description you then refine, and our companion guides on how to generate App Store metadata and how to improve your ASO on Google Play round out the picture across both stores.

No. Apple does not index the promotional text or the full description for keyword search, unlike Google Play, which does read the description. On the App Store your searchable keywords come only from the app name, the subtitle, and the 100-character keywords field, plus your in-app purchase and developer names. Write the description for conversion, and put your ranking keywords in the fields Apple actually indexes.

As many distinct, relevant terms as fit in 100 characters, which usually means roughly 15 to 20 single words. Separate them with commas and no spaces, skip words already in your name or subtitle, and drop plurals, stop words, and the word app. Prefer single words so Apple can combine them into multiple search phrases, and spend every remaining character on a genuinely relevant term.

You can change your keywords, name, subtitle, description, and screenshots whenever you submit a new app version, and those metadata changes go through App Store review with the build. Promotional text is the exception: you can update it at any time without a new version. Because changes need a submission, plan your ASO edits around your release cadence and change one field at a time so you can measure the effect.

Yes, in one crucial way. The App Store uses a dedicated keywords field and does not index your description, so keywords live in tightly capped fields. Google Play has no keywords field and instead indexes your full description, so you weave terms naturally into the text. The name and short description or subtitle matter on both. See our Google Play ASO guide for the other half of a cross-store strategy.