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How to do App Store keyword research as an indie developer

· By Oguz Delioglu, founder of ODEL

App Store keyword research means finding the search terms people actually type, then choosing the few your app can realistically rank for and placing them in your title, subtitle and keyword field. For a small app, the winning terms are usually specific phrases with real but modest demand, not the biggest words in your category. You can do the first pass for free with the App Store itself and Apple Ads, and use an ASO tool when you want ranking data and tracking over time.

1. Write a seed list from your users' words

Start with 20 to 40 phrases that describe the job your app does, in the words a user would use. Good sources:

  • The App Store search box: type the start of a phrase and note the suggestions it shows.
  • Your competitors' names, subtitles and first screenshot captions. They show which phrases others are betting on. Do not copy competitor brand names into your own keywords; Apple's search guidance lists competing app names among the terms you should not include.
  • Your own support emails and reviews, where people describe the problem in their own language.

Write phrases, not single words: "pill reminder" tells you more than "pill".

2. Check how often each term is searched

Apple gives one official demand signal. In Apple Ads, keyword recommendations show search popularity "from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most popular" (Apple Ads). That is coarse, but it is free and comes from Apple.

ASO tools add a finer popularity score and difficulty estimate per keyword and country. Treat every third-party score as relative: it is good for comparing two terms, not for predicting downloads.

3. Judge competition by looking at the results

For each promising term, search it on an iPhone and look at the top 10 results:

  • Are they big brands with huge rating counts? Then a new app will struggle there.
  • Are they loosely related apps? That is an opening, because the store has nothing that matches the phrase well.
  • Does your app truly do what the searcher wants? Relevance matters for conversion, and Apple says search results depend on text relevance and user behavior such as downloads, ratings and reviews (Apple).

4. Pick a short list by fit, demand and difficulty

Score each term roughly on three things: how relevant it is to your app, how much demand it has, and how crowded the top results are. Keep the 10 to 15 terms where all three are acceptable. A useful rule for indie apps: one or two broader terms you hope to grow into, and the rest long-tail phrases you can win now.

5. Place the terms where they count

Apple indexes your app name, subtitle, keyword field and category for search (Apple). The name and subtitle are each limited to 30 characters (App Store Connect Help), and the keyword field to 100. Put your strongest phrase in the name or subtitle, and spread the rest across the keyword field without repeating words. Our guide on filling the 100-character keyword field covers the rules in detail.

Remember that each localization has its own fields. If your app is available in several countries, research each main market in its own language rather than translating your English list.

6. Track rankings and repeat

Keyword work is a loop. After the update ships, check where you rank for each term over the next weeks. Drop terms where you stay invisible, keep the ones that bring impressions, and test replacements in the next version. Write down what you changed and when, so you can tell which change moved a ranking.

Doing it without a paid tool

You can run this whole process with the App Store search box, Apple Ads search popularity, a spreadsheet and manual ranking checks on your phone. It is slower, and manual checks are easy to forget, but it costs nothing and teaches you how your category behaves.

Where Appalize fits

Appalize is the ASO workspace we make. It puts keyword research and ranking intelligence, competitor tracking with metadata change signals, and an ASO editor that validates and applies metadata in one web app. It also offers REST API and MCP access, so an AI assistant that supports MCP can run keyword research through your workspace. The Free plan needs no credit card and covers 1 app, 5 keywords and 3 countries; Indie Developer is $9.99/month for 10 apps, 100 keywords and 15 countries (appalize.com/pricing, Nov 2026).

If you are comparing tools, see AppTweak alternatives for indie developers and the best ASO tools for indie developers.

Checklist

  • Seed list of 20 to 40 user phrases
  • Demand checked (Apple Ads popularity or a tool score)
  • Top 10 results reviewed for each finalist
  • 10 to 15 terms chosen by relevance, demand and difficulty
  • Terms placed in name, subtitle and keyword field per locale
  • Rankings reviewed after release

Apps in this guide