App Store Ranking Factors Apple Actually Uses

Apple documents which text it indexes for App Store search. It does not publish how those signals are weighted against downloads, ratings, or anything else. That split is the whole article. If a blog gives you a percentage for “ratings are 18% of rank,” it invented the number. Apple has not published one, and this page will not either.

What you can act on today is narrower and more useful. Put the right words in the name, subtitle, and keyword field. Make the product page convert the people who arrive. Read conversion in App Analytics. Leave promotional text, description stuffing, and bought installs off the ranking plan. The field rules live on Apple’s Creating your product page , and the character-by-character version is the keyword field guide.

The indexed fields Apple documents

Search reads the app name (30 characters), the subtitle (30), and the keyword field (100). Added together, that is a 160-character indexed text budget. The keyword field is hidden from shoppers and is comma-separated with no spaces after commas. Spaces inside a phrase are fine. Do not repeat words already in the name or subtitle, plurals of words you included, category names, or the word “app.”

The description is 4,000 characters and is not a primary iOS ranking field. Write it so a parent, in the chore-chart example below, understands what the app does. Do not write it as a second keyword field. Promotional text is 170 characters. Apple says it does not affect search ranking, and it can change without a new version. Keywords and screenshots cannot. They are edited on a version in App Store Connect and go out with a submission.

Spend unique search terms in the name, subtitle, and keyword field. Promotional text and the description have other jobs, and Apple has not made them primary ranking fields.

Weights Apple does not publish

Apple does not publish the search ranking formula. Anyone who assigns a percent to keywords versus ratings versus “velocity” is guessing, then printing the guess as a chart. You can still work. You can see which of your words are eligible to match, because you wrote them into the 160 characters. You cannot see the multiplier Apple applies when two apps target the same word.

That unknown is why copying a chart-topper’s subtitle rarely reproduces their rank. Their name may be a brand people already type. Their keyword field is invisible. Their download history is not yours. Study the visible listing so you do not miss an obvious word. Then compete on a query your metadata can hold and your product can deserve. Do not budget time for reverse-engineering a formula Apple has not released.

Downloads: practitioners watch them

Indie developers watch how fast an app is downloaded after a metadata change, a featuring, or a launch post. A burst of installs often shows up next to movement on a search term. That observation is common. It is not a published weight. Apple has not said that “download velocity” counts for a specific share of rank, and this article will not invent one.

Use the observation as a reason to read your Analytics after a release, not as a reason to buy installs. Bought installs are not an App Store ranking tactic. They are a policy and trust problem, and they do not write new words into the keyword field. If you want a cleaner read on what changed, ship the metadata edit with a version, wait until the version is live, and compare the search terms report to the week before. One change at a time. A version that also redesigns onboarding makes the chart unreadable.

Ratings, without a fake percentage

Ratings are public and they affect whether a person taps. A chore chart with a thin or angry rating stack loses the parent who is comparing two apps with similar names. That is conversion, and you can see it. What you cannot see is a documented coefficient that turns “4.6 versus 4.2” into a search-rank delta. Do not publish or plan around a percentage you did not get from Apple.

Ask for a rating after the app has done the job, not on first launch. For a kids chore chart, that moment is after a week of checked-off chores, not after the parent creates an account. Fake reviews are not a growth channel. They are a rejection and removal risk, and they train you to ignore real complaints about a confusing repeat schedule or a missing parent lock. Fix the complaint. The rating follows the product more reliably than it follows a prompt.

Conversion is the number you can measure

App Analytics reports how many people saw your product page and how many installed. That ratio is conversion. It is not a secret ranking weight, and it is still the most useful number on a listing you control. If impressions on “chore chart” rise after a keyword edit and installs do not, the metadata matched and the page failed. The first three screenshots, the subtitle, and the opening lines are the usual culprits. How to line those pieces up is product page optimization.

Paid search is a different system. Apple Search Ads does not buy organic rank. A tap from an ad does not insert a word into the keyword field. Custom product pages can be attached to ads so the paid click lands on different screenshots. Organic metadata and paid keywords stay separate. That split is covered in Apple Search Ads vs organic ASO.

Non-factors worth naming out loud

Promotional text does not affect search ranking. Apple says so. It is the right place for a timely line, and the wrong place for a keyword test. Stuffing the 4,000-character description with repeated phrases does not turn the description into a primary ranking field. Buying installs does not purchase a query. The difference between promotional text and the description, including what can change without a version, is in promotional text vs the description.

• Promotional text: 170 characters, editable without a new version, not a ranking field.
• Description stuffing: the description is not a primary iOS ranking field. Write for the reader.
• Bought installs and fake reviews: not a ranking plan. Do not do them.
• Competitor names and celebrity names in the keyword field: improper keywords, and a common rejection reason.
• A ranking-factor pie chart with percentages: fiction, unless Apple publishes the formula.

Worked pass: a kids chore chart

The app is a weekly chore chart for families with kids: assign a chore, check it off, reset on Monday. The name “Chorechart: Kids Tasks” holds the job a parent types. The subtitle can hold the second idea, such as a weekly reset, without repeating “chore”. The keyword field then takes neighbors that are not already in the name: allowance, sticker, saturday, sharing, parent, routine. Count them in the character counter. Do not add “chart” again, and do not add a competitor’s app name.

Screenshot one shows a week grid with a child’s name and three checked chores. That frame is what converts the query the name just targeted. The description explains sharing between two parents and what happens on Monday. It does not repeat “kids chore chart” fifteen times. Promotional text, if you use it, can say the Monday reset is ready for this school week. That line can change next Monday without a binary. The keywords cannot. After release, read conversion for the chore queries. If people view the page and leave, change the screenshot before you touch the field again.