ASO audit checklist

Before you touch metadata

Write down your current rank for the keywords you care about, in every country you sell in, before you change a single field. Without a baseline, a rank change after the fact could be your metadata, a competitor's update, or nothing but daily noise — you have no way to tell them apart.

• Record today's rank for your top 10-15 keywords, per storefront.
• Note who ranks above you on each keyword — rating count and score, not just the name.
• Screenshot your current listing (icon, screenshots, description) so you know what you're changing from.

Metadata, field by field

• Pick terms people actually search — check search demand for each candidate before committing a field to it.
• Protect the app name for brand; spend the subtitle and short description on search terms, not the name.
• Write the long description for humans, not the index — Apple doesn't read it for search, and stuffing keywords into a field nobody reads only hurts conversion.

Icon and screenshots

Metadata gets you into search results; the icon and first screenshot decide whether someone taps through. Your own A/B test measures the conversion effect; this checklist collects what you can check right away, without one:

• First screenshot communicates the app's core value with no text required to understand it.
• Icon is legible at the smallest size it actually renders at (a store search row, not a full-screen mockup).
• Localized screenshots exist for every storefront with meaningfully different language, not just a translated caption on the same image.

Ratings and reviews

Rating count and score are part of what the store — and the person searching — weighs alongside rank. They're also slow to move, so they belong in the checklist as an ongoing practice, not a one-time task.

• Prompt for a rating after a moment of clear value, not on first launch.
• Reply to negative reviews when the store allows it — a visible, specific reply changes how the review reads to the next person, even if the score doesn't move.
• The number beside a term is its ratings wall: it shows how established the apps you would compete with on that term are. Use it to compare terms; it does not tell you how many ratings you need or guarantee a rank.

After you ship

Metadata changes typically start showing in rank within a few days. Re-run the same keyword list, in the same countries, on a fixed schedule — and compare against the baseline you recorded before the change, not against a guess of what "should" have happened.

ASO audit checklist: the short version

Use this to audit a live listing in one pass. Every line is something you can check, not a matter of taste:

• Today's rank is recorded for your top 10-15 keywords, per storefront you sell in.
• iOS: name and subtitle within 30 characters each; the keyword field uses its 100 characters with no word repeated from the name or subtitle and no spaces after commas (keyword field rules).
• Google Play: title 30, short description 80, long description 4,000 characters, with terms inside real sentences.
• Every target term shows search demand in that storefront.
• Every storefront you sell in has manually written metadata, not a fallback language (ASO localization).
• The first screenshot states the core value without needing its caption; the icon reads at search-row size.
• You know the rating count of the apps above you on each target keyword (how many reviews to rank).
• After shipping, the same keywords are re-measured in the same storefronts on a fixed schedule and compared to the baseline.

How hard a keyword is to reach is covered in the glossary under keyword difficulty.

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