Keyword density

Why it isn't a simple "more is better"

Both stores cap the fields they read for search: iOS gives 30 characters for the name, 30 for the subtitle, 100 for a hidden keyword field. Repeating a word already used in the name inside the keyword field burns characters you can't spare — it doesn't add a second match, it wastes the field.

Google Play works differently: the long description is indexed and has room for natural repetition, but stuffing it past what reads as normal copy risks a manual review flag rather than a ranking boost.

How keyword density is measured in ASO

Count a term only where the store's search reads it. On the App Store that is a small budget: 30 characters for the app name, 30 for the subtitle and 100 for the hidden keyword field — 160 characters in total. The long description is not indexed on iOS, so how often a word appears there does nothing for search.

Google Play indexes more text: a 30-character title, an 80-character short description and a 4,000-character long description. Density matters mostly in that long description, where a term can appear several times inside ordinary sentences.

Say an iOS app is called "Lumo: Dream Journal". The word dream is already indexed once through the name. Writing it again in the subtitle or keyword field does not make the app rank higher for "dream" — Apple pools the words from all three fields and recombines them, so the second copy only spends characters another word could have used.

Keyword density in ASO vs SEO

In web SEO, keyword density is usually expressed as a percentage of the words on a page, and pages are long enough for that ratio to vary. App store fields are short and capped, so a percentage says very little. On iOS the useful target is closer to coverage than density: each word you want to rank for should appear once somewhere in the indexed fields.

Google Play sits between the two. Its long description behaves more like a web page, but copy that no longer reads like normal text risks a policy flag rather than a ranking gain. The full field-by-field breakdown is on app store metadata.

Common keyword density mistakes

• Repeating the app name inside the iOS keyword field. The name is already indexed; the repeat buys no second match.
• Spaces after commas in the keyword field. dream, sleep spends a character that dream,sleep saves — across 100 characters that can be a whole extra word.
• Stuffing the iOS long description. It is written for the human reader; Apple does not index it for search.
• Stuffing Google Play's short description. It is indexed and visible, so a list of keywords there can cost installs even if it helps rank.

Packing these fields by hand is arithmetic; the 100-character keyword field guide walks through it, and Storelift's metadata studio runs the same check against your live listing.

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