ASO Keyword Planner
Plan your App Store and Google Play listing — keyword placement, density, character limits, and platform-specific tips, scored against ASO best practices.
Fill in your title, subtitle, primary keyword and description to see your ASO analysis.
ASO, explained
App Store Keyword Research: Score Your Listing Before You Publish
An app with excellent features and a badly optimised listing does not grow. Users find apps by searching, and the store matches those searches against your metadata — your title, subtitle, keyword field, and description. Get those wrong and your app is invisible regardless of quality.
This ASO keyword planner scores your listing against documented best practices before you publish, so you are not resubmitting every three weeks to test a guess.
What It Checks
Keyword placement. Where your primary keyword appears across title, subtitle, and description. Title placement carries the most weight on both platforms.
Character limits. App Store title and subtitle are 30 characters each; Google Play titles are also limited to 30, with 80 for the short description. Exceeding them means truncation in the exact place users are reading.
Keyword density. What percentage of your description is your primary keyword, targeting the 1–3% range. Above that risks tripping spam filters; below it wastes ranking potential.
Readability. A Flesch Reading Ease score on your description, because easier descriptions convert better.
Analysis updates in real time as you type, so you can test phrasings without submitting anything.
iOS and Google Play Work Differently
Select App Store, Google Play, or both, and the scoring adjusts — because the two platforms index differently.
iOS has a hidden keyword field separate from your visible text, and weights title and subtitle heavily. Repeating a keyword you have already placed in the title wastes characters in that field.
Google Play has no hidden field and indexes the full visible description, leaning more on engagement signals alongside it.
Writing one listing and pasting it to both platforms wastes the advantage each one offers.
Finding Keywords Worth Targeting
Start with what users actually type, not what you call your product internally. Check competitor apps in your category. Use store search autocomplete — it reflects genuine search behaviour.
Then balance breadth and intent. Broad two-word terms carry volume and heavy competition. Long-tail terms of four or more words have lower volume and considerably higher conversion intent, because someone searching that specifically knows what they want.
A good listing covers both: broad terms in the title, long-tail in the description.
A Realistic Example: A Fitness App Before Launch
An indie developer is publishing a workout tracker. His title is the app name alone, and his description mentions "fitness tracker" eleven times in 200 words.
He runs it through the planner with the platform set to Both. The score flags two problems: the primary keyword is absent from the title entirely, and the density is far above the healthy range.
He rewrites the title to include the keyword, spreads mentions naturally through a longer description, and uses the iOS keyword field for secondary terms rather than repeating what is already in the title.
Same app, same features, published with a listing that can actually be found.
Results Take Weeks, Not Days
Setting expectations correctly matters. After you update a listing, stores re-index within hours to a few days, and ranking movement often shows within a week — but the full effect usually takes two to four weeks.
Ratings, reviews, and download velocity also feed ranking, so keyword optimisation is necessary rather than sufficient. Do it properly, then keep asking satisfied users to rate the app.
Who Uses It
Indie developers preparing a first launch. Product managers updating a live listing. Growth teams testing keyword strategies. Freelance ASO consultants showing clients a before-and-after score. Name the app with the App Name Generator, write the listing with the App Store Description Generator, and prepare assets with the App Icon Generator. Our mobile app development team builds and launches apps end to end.
Score Your Listing Now
Publishing an unoptimised listing means waiting weeks to learn it was wrong. Paste your title, subtitle, and description above and fix the placement before you submit.
How does ASO work?
App store algorithms index your metadata, match it against what people search for, and rank the results. These are the four stages your listing passes through.
- MetadataTitle, subtitle, keywords, description
- IndexingThe store reads and stores your words
- MatchingA search is matched to apps
- RankingKeywords, ratings, downloads, reviews
Keyword ideas by app category
Starting points to test in the planner above. Pick a category to see the terms people actually search for.
Productivity apps: task manager to-do list note-taking project management time tracking
Finance apps: budget tracker expense manager personal finance savings tracker investment tracker
Fitness apps: workout planner fitness tracker gym tracker exercise log calorie counter
Games: puzzle game action game strategy game casual game multiplayer game
Social apps: social networking messaging app group chat community connect with friends
Mix broad keywords (2–3 words) with long-tail keywords (4+ words). Long-tail terms have less volume but higher intent.
From search to install
Keywords decide how many people ever see your listing. The listing itself decides how many of them tap install. Both have to work, and they fail in different ways.
Widen the top with better keyword placement, then keep people moving down with a clearer title, subtitle and first screenshot.
Score my listingWhy use this ASO keyword planner?
App stores give you very few characters to work with, so every keyword has to earn its place. This planner helps you choose terms with real search demand and realistic competition, and build a shortlist for your title, subtitle and keyword field in one sitting — instead of guessing and re-submitting a listing every few weeks.
Score my listing