App Store Keyword Research Without a Paid Tool

You can build a usable App Store keyword list without a subscription. The sources are the search box on a phone, the words competitors already put in their name and subtitle, the search-terms report in App Analytics once people find you, and the nouns in reviews. Paid tools estimate volume. They do not change the 160 characters Apple indexes, and they cannot see a competitor’s hidden keyword field either.

Treat this as a scoring method, not a tool roundup. A term earns a slot only if the app actually does that job, the term fits inside name plus subtitle plus the 100-character keyword field, and a screenshot can convince someone who searched it. Apple’s field rules are on Creating your product page . How to spend the hidden field, including commas and the skip list, is in the App Store keyword field guide.

Start in the search box

Autocomplete is the free list of what people are already typing. Open the App Store app, tap Search, and type the job one word at a time. For an offline trail-maps app, start with “offline”, then “trail map”, then “hiking map”, then “topo”. Write down every suggestion that describes a job your app does. Skip suggestions that are other products’ brands. Those names are a rejection risk, not a research prize.

Do this on a phone signed into the storefront you care about. Suggestions change by country. A US list and a UK list will not match, even in English. Note the storefront and the date at the top of the sheet. If you only ship one locale, you still want to know which store you mined, because you will compare this list to Analytics later and the two have to be the same market.

• Type the core job, then the situation (“no service”, “day hike”), then a format people already know (“gpx”, “topo”).
• Capture the suggestion exactly as shown, including spaces inside a phrase. You can decide later whether the whole phrase belongs in the field.
• Stop when new stems repeat words you already captured. More typing after that usually invents synonyms nobody suggested.
• Repeat the pass in a second storefront only if you will localize that locale. A copied US list is not international research.

Read the words competitors show

You cannot see a competitor’s keyword field. You can read the name, the subtitle, and the screenshots. Those visible strings are the part of their indexed budget they chose to show a shopper. Copy the name and subtitle into the sheet and underline tokens you do not already use. A full teardown worksheet, including the first three screenshots, is in how to read a competitor’s App Store listing.

Pick competitors from the chart, not from whoever is loudest on social. Open Top Apps for the category and country you are targeting, then open those product pages on a phone. A brand-new app with a clever subtitle and no chart position is a weaker signal than a listing that is actually being found. You are mining language, not copying a strategy you cannot see.

Use your own search terms once they exist

App Analytics includes the search terms that showed your app, once there is traffic to report. That is better than a third-party volume guess because it is your storefront, your metadata, and your conversion. Early on the report is thin. Leave it thin. Do not invent popularity to fill the silence, and do not “refresh” the keyword field every week hoping a new combination will manufacture downloads you do not have yet.

When rows do appear, sort for terms that earn product-page views and that your screenshots can support. A term with impressions and almost no page views is a metadata match the icon or the first screenshot failed. Fix the frame before you spend more of the 100 characters doubling down on that phrase. Keywords ship with a version. Promotional text does not, and Apple says promotional text does not affect search ranking, so do not park experiments there.

Mine reviews for the job people name

Reviews are unprompted language. Read your own, then read public reviews on two charting competitors. Pull nouns and situations, not adjectives. Hikers write “trailhead”, “switchbacks”, “no service”, “GPX”, “cairn”. They rarely write “beautiful offline mapping experience”. If the same job-word shows up in autocomplete and in reviews, it is a stronger candidate than a synonym you thought of at your desk.

If reviewers describe a feature you do not have, do not keyword it. Ranking for a promise the screenshots cannot keep is how a small app collects one-star reviews that then sit on the product page. Relevance is the first score for a reason. A term can be popular and still be the wrong term for this build.

Score relevance, budget, and the screenshot

Three checks, in this order. Relevance: would a person who searched this be glad they installed your app? Budget: is the word already in the 30-character name or the 30-character subtitle? If yes, it is already inside the 160-character indexed budget and repeating it in the keyword field wastes characters. Conversion: can screenshot one, two, or three show the job in one glance? If the answer is no, the impression will not become an install.

Keep terms the app can fulfill, that are not already in the name or subtitle, and that a screenshot can prove. Competitor names are a rejection, not a shortcut.

Worked list: offline trail maps

The sample app downloads map tiles so a hiker can navigate with no cell service. The name is “Ridgepack: Offline Maps” (23 characters). The subtitle is “Trails without cell service” (27). Words already indexed: ridgepack, offline, maps, trails, without, cell, service. None of those tokens go back into the keyword field.

The field, 100 characters including commas: topo,gpx,trailhead,national park,contour,backpack,switchback,no signal,day hike,summit,gps,hut,cairn. “national park”, “no signal”, and “day hike” keep their internal spaces. There is no space after any comma. Paste it into the ASO Character Counter before you submit, because one stray space pushes the field to 101 and App Store Connect will reject the save.

Screenshot one should be a trail map with a trailhead and contour lines, captioned for offline use. If the strongest new phrase is “national park”, that park boundary has to be visible. A generic “explore the outdoors” frame converts a different query than the one you just bought. Phrase-versus-token choices, including when not to paste a full long-tail string, are in long-tail App Store keywords. Where your own brand sits versus these generics is in branded vs generic keywords.