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A large share of app discovery happens through store search, and every install from it costs nothing. Yet most listings are written once at launch and never revisited – wrong title, unused keyword field, screenshots that show the interface instead of the benefit. ASO is the work of finishing that job and then keeping it current.
The first half is search – appearing when someone types a query into the store. That is driven by which fields the store indexes, which words you put in them, and how your app performs against competitors for those terms.
The second half is conversion – the percentage of people who see your listing and actually install. Icon, screenshots, first two lines of description, rating. This half is usually worth more, because it improves the return on every visitor from every channel including paid.
The wider growth picture – paid acquisition, onboarding, retention – is covered on our app marketing and mobile app growth pages. ASO is the store-side foundation underneath both.
This is where most ASO advice goes wrong – it treats the stores as interchangeable. They index different fields, weight different signals and allow different testing. A listing copied from one to the other is optimised for neither.
Every part of a listing either helps you get found or helps you get chosen. A few do both. Knowing which is which stops the common mistake of writing keyword-stuffed copy into fields that were only ever about persuasion.
Store keyword research is not web SEO. Search terms are shorter, the results list is smaller, and a position outside the top few is effectively invisible. That changes which terms are worth pursuing.
We build the keyword set from competitor listings, your own review text – where users describe the app in their words rather than yours – and store autocomplete, which shows what people actually type rather than what a tool estimates.
They appear without scrolling, and a large share of visitors never scroll. If those two do not communicate what the app does and why it is worth the download, the rest of the listing rarely gets a chance.
Creative changes are the safest thing to test, because both stores provide native experiment tools. We change one element at a time so the result is attributable – which is slower than a full redesign and the only way to learn anything from it.
ASO compounds because the stores reward apps that perform. Better rankings bring more visitors, better conversion turns more of them into users, and better retention and ratings push the rankings up again.
Both influence ranking and conversion, both are largely free, and both are neglected by the majority of listings we audit.
Rating affects ranking and it affects whether a visitor installs. The gap between a mediocre rating and a strong one changes conversion substantially – and it is earned rather than bought.
Each locale is a separately indexed listing. Translating the words is the small half of the job; researching what people in that market actually search for is the valuable half.
ASO is not a project that finishes. Competitors change their listings, the stores adjust how they rank, and search behaviour shifts with the seasons. A listing optimised eighteen months ago is out of date.
Every field on both stores assessed against what it should be doing, plus current keyword positions and conversion rate as a baseline.
What the apps ranking above you have in their titles, subtitles and creative – and which of their terms are realistically contestable.
A ranked keyword set built from competitor metadata, your own review language and store autocomplete, filtered by whether you can actually reach the top.
Title, subtitle, keyword field and descriptions written per store – remembering that the Play description is indexed and the Apple one is not.
Icon, first two screenshots and video reworked to lead with benefit. This is usually where the biggest conversion gain sits.
Changes deployed store by store, deliberately not all at once, so movement can be attributed to something specific.
Native store experiments on creative variants, one element at a time, run to a genuine result rather than stopped early.
Keyword positions, impressions, listing conversion rate and organic install share monitored against the baseline.
Reacting to competitor changes, seasonal shifts and new features – and revisiting the keyword set as the app itself evolves.
Organic store search has no media cost. Every install it produces improves your blended acquisition cost immediately.
Conversion improvements apply to all listing traffic, including paid. A better listing lowers your effective cost per install across every channel.
Store search intent is hard to reach through advertising alone, and ranking there is a durable position.
A better title keeps working. Unlike advertising, the effect does not stop when the budget does.
People who found you by searching a specific need are more likely to activate and stay than broadly targeted ad traffic.
Localised listings open regional search demand for the cost of research and translation.
Better conversion and retention feed the ranking algorithms, which returns more impressions and starts the cycle again.
A strong organic position cushions you when ad costs rise or a paid channel changes its rules.
In some categories people search by problem, in others by brand, and in a few they browse charts rather than searching at all. That changes which half of ASO matters most.
The common shortcut is to write one listing and paste it into both stores. It saves an afternoon and wastes the indexed description on Play while stuffing keywords into an Apple field that ignores them. Two stores, two jobs.
A term you cannot reach the top for produces nothing. We rank the target set by whether you can realistically get there, not by search volume alone.
Conversion work usually produces larger gains than keyword work, and it improves paid traffic at the same time.
Changing everything simultaneously means learning nothing. Slower, and the only way to know what actually worked.
Both stores detect and penalise manipulation, and removal risks the whole business. We will decline rather than do it.
Markets get their own research rather than a translated keyword set – that is where most of the missed opportunity sits.
ASO sits alongside our app growth and app marketing work, so listing gains feed into acquisition rather than existing separately.
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We're here when you need us.
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Improving an app listing so it ranks for relevant store searches and converts more of the people who see it into installs. It splits into two halves – visibility, driven by which fields the store indexes and what you put in them, and conversion, driven by icon, screenshots, description and rating.
ASO is the storefront: everything that happens between a store search and an install. App marketing is the wider lifecycle – paid acquisition, onboarding, engagement, retention and monetisation. ASO makes every other channel cheaper, because it lifts the conversion rate on all traffic reaching your listing.
No, and this is the most common mistake. Apple has a dedicated keyword field and does not index the description; Google Play has no keyword field and does index the description. The same listing text copied across both is optimised for neither.
Metadata changes typically show ranking movement within two to six weeks, faster on Play where updates go live without an app review. Creative changes affect conversion immediately once live. Building rankings for competitive terms takes several cycles of iteration over a few months.
Yes – better ranking produces more impressions, and better creative converts more of them. The size of the gain depends on how much search demand your category has and how neglected your listing currently is. Apps that have never been optimised usually see the largest movement.
From competitor metadata, your own review text – where users describe the app in their words rather than yours – and store autocomplete, which shows real queries. Terms are then ranked by whether you could realistically reach the top few results, since anything below that is effectively invisible.
Title, subtitle or short description, keyword field, long description, icon, screenshots, preview video and category – per store, and per locale where relevant. Ratings and reviews are influenced rather than edited, through prompting strategy and review responses.
Substantially, on both ranking and conversion. The gap between a mediocre and a strong rating changes install rate noticeably. Ratings must be earned – both stores detect incentivised or purchased reviews and penalise apps that use them.
Monthly: keyword positions, store impressions, listing conversion rate, organic install share and the results of any active experiments. We report which changes moved which metric, which is why we change one thing at a time.
No. Rankings depend on competitor behaviour, your app performance, retention and store algorithm changes – none of which we control. We commit to the research, the optimisation and the testing, and report honestly what each change produced.
Send us your listing and we will audit every field on both stores, show you where you rank today, and identify the keywords your competitors hold that you could take. Free, no obligation, and the findings are yours either way.
The businesses that win aren’t just found – they’re found first. We make that happen, from local search to your entire digital presence.
