Here are the text metadata fields you will need to fill out on the App Store:

• Name: max. 30 characters
• Subtitle: max. 30 characters
• Keywords: max. 100 characters
• Description: max. 4000 characters (not indexed)

To optimize text metadata, you need to collect a complete list of relevant keywords and search requests.

• Name
• Subtitle
• Keywords

Name and subtitle have more influence, as they are visible to the users of the store in the search results. Fill the name and subtitle with the most frequent words, diluting them with less frequent but relevant ones.

In the keywords field, words can be entered in any order, comma-separated, without spaces.

The algorithm we are talking about in this article is a basic one. It does not take into account the peculiarities of verticals and specific apps.

The list of relevant keywords you have collected should be ranked by popularity/frequency of search requests: from high-frequency to low-frequency.

If you are just planning to release your app, it is probably too early to think about high-frequency search requests, but this is very individual; every app has its own strategy. In this article, we talk about the principles of filling text metadata and give recommendations on this.

Here is a list of keywords related to the app. Choose the highest-frequency relevant keywords and place them in the app’s name. If this search request is already used in the name, then add it to the subtitle.

Duplicating keys on the App Store does not affect the app’s position in the search results, but if you do the experiment and notice that the data has changed, write to us about it in the comments!

Let’s go further down our list and add relevant high and medium-frequency search requests to the name, subtitle, and keywords fields.

To select the right keywords for your metadata, competitor research is essential. Here are the best three tips to remember when selecting keywords for metadata:

1. Analyze Top Apps’ Title, Subtitle, and Description

When you look at the top apps on the Play Store that are similar to yours, you get to know which keywords competitors' apps deem as most relevant. Maybe the keyword they target can get you more downloads than it brings them?

2. Look For Keywords that Generate Most Downloads

To find keywords that might potentially get you the most downloads, drill down on the competitor’s ASO strategy. Use an ASO tool like AppTweak to get a comprehensive list of all the keywords your competitors use in their metadata.
AppTweak will further give you more insights into which keywords are working best and worst for your competitors. The tool will show you the ranking for each keyword, the number of conversions individual keywords bring, and more.
Leverage this information to create an ASO strategy for your app.

3. Run a Competitors Analysis to Find Missing Keywords

Again, use an ASO app to run a thorough competitor analysis and identify the keywords that they rank for, but you don’t.

With this, you will be able to find keywords that you might not have included in your metadata or keywords that are not optimized properly.

Make a list of such keywords, and A/B test your metadata by including/excluding keywords regularly.

Remember, brand names cannot be entered in the visible part of the text metadata on the App Store. However, a brand keyword (iPhone, for example) can be written in the keyword field, which is hidden from the user. The same is the case with the word “free.” It can only be specified in the keyword field.

You can’t write it in the name and subtitle, but you can try to add it to the keywords field. For this, there may not be any sanctions at all. The most unpleasant possible situation is a letter from Apple, in which the company will point out the violation, but the app will not be removed from the store.

If you add a competitor’s brand to a client’s project, it is worth clarifying whether he is ready to take such risks, provided that it is an opportunity to get more traffic.

There is also an opportunity to gather traffic if you change the name of the brand. For example, there is an app called TikTok, and this name is considered a brand key, but you can spell it as “TikToc.” Such a keyword will have less popularity, but it will be easier for you to get high positions for such a keyword because the frequency and competition are lower.

You can put a vertical line “|” between the words. In this case, search requests will be indexed, and everything works well for algorithms: the App Store sees punctuation marks as spaces. But to the human eye, this separation will look strange, so it’s up to you.

Find more information on how to complete text metadata in the App Store here.

• Title
• Short description
• Full description

The title and short description have more impact because they are visible to app store users in the search results.

The first thing we do is to collect a full list of keywords that we will fill out with the title, short description, and full description.

The algorithm we are talking about in this article is a basic one. It does not take into account the peculiarities of verticals and specific apps.

We rank the list of keywords according to the popularity of requests. High-frequency keywords should be used in the title and short description. Medium-frequency keywords should be filled in the title and short description. Low-frequency keywords should be placed in the full description.

Important! Google Play indexing is affected by keyword duplication, so feel free to use the same keywords in the title and short description of the app.

We can’t use it, even as in the App Store, because Google Play has no fields hidden from the user.

However, it is necessary to collect search requests with competitors’ brands in order to track the position of your app according to them.

There is an opinion that Google Play considers such keywords as one, so it is possible not to do it.

These are two different keywords; they have different popularity, and even the output for them will be different. But you do not need to write such a keyword several times. Google Play algorithm itself will collect the second keyword from the words that you have already used in the text. The order does not matter.

Find more information on how to complete text metadata in Google Play here.