# What is ASO?

URL: https://storelift.net/guide/what-is-aso/
Language: en
Updated: 2026-08-18

ASO (App Store Optimization) is the work that decides which keywords your app shows up for in store search, and in what position. This page covers three things: which fields the stores read for search, how rank is measured from outside, and which questions measurement can never answer.

## Why search

An app has to be found before it can be installed, and there are two ways to be found in a store: someone hands you a link, or someone types something into the search box. The first runs on ads and social, costs money and effort, and stops the day you stop. The second doesn't stop — every day you hold a rank compounds.

That's why the unit of ASO isn't installs, it's which keyword you rank for and where. Installs are the outcome; rank is what produces it.

## Which fields do the stores index?

The two stores do the same job with different fields. The most common mistake is stuffing keywords into the iOS description: Apple does not read it for search.

| Field | App Store (iOS) | Google Play |
| --- | --- | --- |
| App name | Indexed · 30 chars | Indexed · 30 chars |
| Subtitle | Indexed · 30 chars | — |
| Short description | — | Indexed · 80 chars |
| Keyword field | Indexed · 100 chars, invisible to users | — |
| Long description | Not indexed | Indexed · 4,000 chars |
| Developer name | Indexed | Indexed |

NOTE: The iOS 100-character field is a list, not a sentence. Separate terms with commas, drop the spaces, and never repeat a word already in your name or subtitle — Apple combines across fields when it matches. Repeating a word wastes characters you can't spare.

## How rank is measured from outside

The store never tells you your rank. App Store Connect and Play Console show installs, conversion and (partly) which terms brought people in — but not the answer to "where do I rank for 'dream meaning' today?"

That answer comes from running the search and counting. A term is queried against the store's public search surface, your app's position in the returned list is recorded, and the same thing happens again the next day. The value isn't in one day's number — it's in the difference between days.

- iOS — the public search surface returns up to 200 results. "Not ranked" here means "not in the top 200".
- Android — Google Play offers no official search endpoint; its search page returns roughly 20-30 results at a time. Depth is therefore about the first 30, and an honest tool prints that on screen.
- Country — every storefront is its own search engine. The same term can be 3rd in one market and 80th in another; the two can't share a row.

## Rank alone isn't enough: demand

Ranking first for a term nobody searches buys you nothing. So a second question sits next to every rank: does anyone search this?

The industry's standard answer to that used to be the Apple Ads "Search Popularity" score. That score largely stopped working in autumn 2025, and it never existed in every storefront to begin with. The alternative signal is the store's own autocomplete: does it suggest the term, and with how many variants. Details on its own page.

NOTE: Autocomplete does not give you a volume number — it gives you presence and breadth. Ask any tool that shows "searches per month": where does that number come from? If there's no answer, there's no number.

## The wall has a name

"Competition is strong" is not a measurement. The measurement is who ranks above you on that keyword: how many ratings they have, what score, how old they are. A six-year-old app with 740 ratings is not the same wall as a new one with 79 — the first is a reason to drop the keyword, the second is a reason to push.

A practical rule: for every keyword you want to climb, look at the five apps above you. If all five are older and heavier than yours, the keyword is the wrong pick — a narrower term buys a higher rank for the same effort.

## Questions measurement can't answer

A tool saying what it does not measure is the precondition for trusting what it does. From outside, these are unknowable:

- A term's real monthly search volume — neither Apple nor Google publishes it. Every volume figure on any screen is derived; ours comes from Apple's own 1-100 popularity score and is drawn as a band roughly 3x wide, with that basis printed next to it.
- A rival's installs and revenue — model output, not measurement.
- Personalized results — the store reorders by language, country and history. What gets measured is the un-personalized baseline.

Three things can be measured instead, and they're enough to decide with: rank, rank movement, and the strength of the apps above you.

## FAQ

Q: How long until ASO work shows a result?
A: Ranks start settling within a few days of a metadata change going live. Any sentence that promises a duration is guessing; the correct method is comparing the same keywords before and after the change — which means starting measurement BEFORE you ship it.

Q: Should I put keywords in the app name?
A: The name is the heaviest field in both stores. It is also your brand: pushing a search term into it buys rank and weakens brand search. The usual balance is to protect the name and spend the subtitle (iOS) and short description (Play) on terms.

Q: Should I track the same keywords in every country?
A: No. Measuring a Turkish term in the US storefront returns nothing. Every storefront needs its own list; for the same app, the TR and US lists often don't overlap at all.

Q: How do I check my rank for free?
A: You can search the store by hand and count, for one keyword. Two limits: your own account sees personalized results, and a one-off number shows no movement. Storelift's free tier runs that measurement automatically every day for one app, 25 keywords per storefront and two countries.