App Store keyword research guide

Choose App Store keywords by relevance to your app, local demand, competition and whether the search results match the task your app solves. Use Wow Keywords to compare phrases market by market, turn a shortlist into listing choices and track their ranks.

Choose keywords and App Store countries

Judge each candidate in this order:

• Relevance: Does it describe a feature or task your app actually supports?
• Local demand: Does the market's phrase show a useful Volume signal?
• Competition: How difficult does that phrase look alongside other relevant choices?
• Matching results: Do the apps returned solve the same problem as yours?

Start with countries where you can support the listing language and the people who install your app. Wow Keywords supports 52 App Store countries, with a separate local phrase and results for each keyword in each market.

Download Wow Keywords and add your app using its public App Store link. Public-app tracking works without an App Store Connect key. Choose your countries and keep the first keyword set small enough to inspect each phrase's results.

Find keyword ideas in each market

Add a phrase describing a real task your app performs, then use Localize to fill and check a local phrase for each tracked country. Review the wording in each market; you can edit it yourself and keep useful alternatives as separate keywords.

Use the in-app researcher for related ideas tied to your app's features and the selected market. It reads your board and can add or edit keywords. Keep ideas that describe your product, then compare their local scores and results before choosing wording for the listing.

Evaluate App Store keyword volume and difficulty

Read both scores for the specific phrase and country. Wow Keywords calculates Volume and Difficulty on a 0–100 scale from live App Store search results:

• Volume estimates demand from how closely the top 50 apps target the phrase.
• Difficulty measures competition using rating counts among the top 10 apps.

Volume is not a monthly search count or Apple Ads popularity. Use these scores to compare candidates, not to predict installs or a particular rank.

Within each country, favor relevant phrases with stronger Volume and lower Difficulty. When a broad phrase looks crowded, compare more specific wording for the same task. Keep the most promising candidates for the search-result check rather than selecting on scores alone.

Check competing apps for each keyword

Inspect each shortlisted phrase's top apps in its country cell. Wow Keywords shows their names, subtitles and ratings alongside the score breakdown and your app's rank history.

Separate direct alternatives from apps that share a word but solve another problem. Keep a phrase when your app could satisfy the same need as the relevant results. If the results point to another task, set it aside and research more precise wording.

Add relevant public apps as competitors if you want to follow them. Research their visible listings and ranks; their private keyword fields are not public. Your useful output is a shortlist of phrases with a clear connection to your app and a result set you have inspected.

Choose keywords for your app name, subtitle and keyword field

Order your shortlist by product fit first, then weigh local Volume, Difficulty and the competing apps. Choose a primary phrase that describes the app's central task and supporting phrases for distinct features or uses. Give each choice a role in the listing:

• Name: Preserve your brand and, where it reads naturally, use the primary phrase to make the app's purpose clear. Keep the existing name if adding a phrase makes it awkward or misleading.
• Subtitle: Use a supporting phrase to explain a meaningful feature or benefit the name leaves out. Read the name and subtitle together and choose the combination that describes your app most clearly.
• Keyword field: Select remaining relevant terms from the shortlist, prioritizing useful concepts the visible fields do not already express. Leave out weaker ideas rather than filling space with unrelated terms.

Use Audit in Wow Keywords to compare proposed metadata with those choices. Accept wording that preserves your brand and selected intent; revise or keep your current fields when a proposal fits less well. Audit supports choosing your own fields as well as a proposed option.

For localization, keep the same core tasks but choose their wording from each market's research. Audit tests local candidates for the core keywords and prepares localized fields. Review the name, subtitle and keyword field together for each language, then export the selected fields for use in your listing.

Track keyword rankings after changes

Keep the selected phrases on the board after your listing changes go live. Use manual checks or configurable automatic rechecks to compare the same phrases in the same countries over time.

Record when you changed the listing so you can read later observations in context. A rank change is an observation, not proof that a single edit caused it. Inspect the competing apps again when a phrase changes substantially, and revisit whether the wording still fits your app.

Keep a useful phrase, test another local wording or research a different feature based on that review.