How many keywords should I track for my app?

Quality matters more than count. A focused set of strongly relevant terms, often somewhere around ten to twenty to start, is easier to act on than a sprawling list. What matters is covering the different ways people describe your app, not hitting a number.

Should I target high-volume competitive keywords or long-tail ones?

Both, in balance. A couple of ambitious head terms are worth aiming for long term, but the core of your list should be winnable long-tail phrases. They are less contested and match a sharper intent, so they usually convert better and can deliver installs now rather than someday.

Should I use a competitor's app name as a keyword?

Generally no. Branded competitor terms are often trademarked, both stores can remove keywords that infringe, and you tend to convert poorly against people searching for a specific other app. Spend the space on terms that describe your own value instead.

Do I need different keywords for each country and language?

Yes. Each country is a separate storefront with its own demand and competition, and each listing language only competes for the terms it is written in. Localise rather than translate literally, because the phrase a native speaker actually searches is often not the dictionary translation.

How do I know if a keyword I chose is actually working?

Track it over time and look at two things: whether your position climbs into a range that gets traffic, and whether ranking for it moves your installs. Drop terms that never rank or never convert, and put more weight on the ones that do.

How to choose the right keywords for your app

What makes a keyword the "right" one

A keyword is worth targeting when it passes three tests at once. It has to be relevant, meaning it genuinely describes what your app does. It has to be searched, meaning real people actually type it. And it has to be winnable, meaning you can realistically rank well for it. A term that is missing any one of the three is a trap: relevant but never searched sends no one, searched but not relevant sends the wrong people, and searched and relevant but hopelessly competitive sends nobody because you sit on page five.

The keywords to pick sit where all three overlap: terms that genuinely describe your app, that people actually search, and that you can realistically rank for.

Start from how people describe the need, not your feature list

The most common mistake is choosing keywords from the inside out, using your own product names and clever feature labels. Users do not search for those. They search for the problem in their own words: not "smart ledger", but "split bills with roommates"; not "AI capture", but "scan receipts for taxes". Write down the jobs people hire your app to do, in plain language, and you have your first and best list of candidates.

Three places fill that list out fast: your own reviews, where users describe your app in their words; the listings and reviews of competitors, where you can see the language your shared audience uses; and the store's search autocomplete, which surfaces real phrases people type as they start to search.

Relevance: it has to be about your app

It is tempting to chase a big, loosely related term because the traffic looks huge. Resist it. Ranking for a keyword your app does not really serve brings people who glance at your listing and leave, and that poor conversion is itself a signal the stores read, so an irrelevant keyword can quietly drag down the rankings you actually care about. Every keyword you pursue should be one where, if a searcher saw your app, they would think "yes, that is what I wanted".

Demand: someone has to be searching it

A perfectly relevant keyword that nobody searches is just a phrase. Favour terms with real demand over hyper-specific ones only you would think of. You will not always have exact volume numbers, and that is fine: autocomplete is a good proxy (the store only suggests terms people actually search), and you can confirm demand the honest way by tracking the term and watching whether ranking for it moves your installs at all.

Winnability: you have to be able to rank

The broadest "head" terms, single words like "game", "photo", or "budget", are dominated by giants with millions of installs and years of reviews. As a smaller or newer app you will not crack the top results for those, and the traffic past the top few is negligible. Specific, longer "long-tail" phrases are far less contested, and because they match a sharper intent they tend to convert better too. "Budget app for couples" is winnable and high-intent in a way that "budget" never will be.

Build a balanced mix, not a wish list

Good keyword sets are a portfolio. Include a small number of ambitious head terms you would love to rank for one day, but build the core of your list from winnable long-tail phrases that can deliver installs now. Aim for a focused set of strongly relevant terms rather than a sprawling list: breadth across the different ways people describe your app matters more than sheer count, and a tighter list is one you can actually watch and act on.

Choose per country and language, and localise

Keywords are not universal. Each country is its own storefront with its own demand and competition, and each listing language competes only for the terms it is written in. So pick keywords per market, and localise rather than translate literally: the word a native speaker actually searches is often not the dictionary translation of your English term. A keyword that wins in one market can be dead in the next.

Place them where the store reads them

Choosing the term is only half the job; it has to sit in a field the store indexes. On the App Store that is the app name, the subtitle, and the hidden 100-character keywords field (the long description is not indexed). On Google Play it is the title, the short description, and the full description, which Google does read. Cover breadth across your terms rather than repeating one word, since neither store rewards stuffing.

Treat your list as a hypothesis, then track it

Even a careful keyword list is a set of guesses until the data comes in. Track your positions for each term over time and watch two things: whether you can rank, and whether ranking actually brings installs. Drop the terms that never move or never convert, and double down on the ones that do. Keyword choice is not a one-time decision, it is a loop you refine as the history builds.

How daily snapshots build a history

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Each day's snapshot saves the full ranking. Lined up over time, they let you replay how your app climbed, and when a competitor moved, long after the live store only shows today.

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