Glossary
App Store Optimization (ASO)
The practice of improving an app's store listing and signals so it ranks higher in store search and converts more of the people who see it.
App Store Optimization (ASO) is the process of improving how an app performs in the App Store and Google Play, with the goal of getting more organic (unpaid) installs. It is the app-store equivalent of SEO for websites.
ASO has two halves. The first is keyword optimization: choosing the right terms and placing them in the title, subtitle, and description so the store ranks the app for searches that matter. The second is conversion optimization: the icon, screenshots, ratings, and reviews that decide whether someone who sees the listing actually installs.
Keyword position is the core measurable signal of the first half. Tracking position over time tells you whether your ASO changes are working, which is why rank tracking is the foundation most ASO work is built on.
Read the guide
ASO vs SEO: what is the difference?
Same goal, different arena. SEO ranks web pages in search engines; ASO ranks app listings in the stores. Here is what actually differs, from what gets indexed to the ranking signals and the conversion step.
How to choose the right keywords for your app
The best keywords are relevant, searched, and winnable all at once. Here is how to find that overlap, start from real user intent, balance broad against long-tail, and treat your list as a hypothesis you track.
Related terms
Keyword position
Where your app appears in a store search results list for a given keyword, counted from the top (position 1 is the first result).
Keyword snapshot
A saved record of the top-ranking apps for one keyword in one store, country, and language on a given day, used to reconstruct ranking history.