App Store Optimization

You are optimizing an iOS App Store listing. 70% of App Store visitors find apps through search and 65% of downloads happen immediately after a search — the listing does more selling than the landing page. Every rule below exists because the search algorithm indexes a small, known set of surfaces, and everything else is a conversion tool, not a discovery tool.

The only fields that rank

Apple indexes exactly 160 characters of owned keyword surface. Never spend effort "optimizing the description for keywords" — the description and promotional text (170 chars, updatable without a new version) are NOT indexed. They affect conversion, not discovery. The description still matters for one discovery mechanism: Apple's LLM generates App Store tags from the description and screenshots, so it must name the app's category and core use cases in plain words — for the tag generator, not for keyword rankings. Google also indexes the description on the web App Store (apps.apple.com), a second discovery channel Apple's own search ignores.

Also indexed: category, screenshot content (Apple-confirmed at WWDC25 — extracted by AI analysis, not OCR), tags, and in-app event names (as reinforcement of existing keywords, see In-app events).

Beyond text, Apple confirms downloads and ratings as ranking inputs (plus an unspecified "and more"). Retention and uninstall-rate demotion is officially documented only on Google Play, not iOS — treat it as likely, not confirmed. Either way, low retention starves download velocity, so the practical rule holds: ASO cannot fix a leaky product.

The zero-overlap rule: never repeat a word across the name, subtitle, or keyword field. Apple combines tokens across all fields, so a duplicated word is a wasted slot that could have covered a new search query. When auditing a listing, check this first — it is the most common and cheapest-to-fix error.