ASO glossary
The App Store and Google Play terms indie developers run into, in plain words.
“surf forecast”Sample app
#4▲ 27 in 8 weeks
Passed SwellWatch on Oct 12. Rank 1 is at the top.
- App Store Optimization (ASO)
- Improving an app's store listing so it ranks higher in store search and more people who see it install it. It covers the name, subtitle, keyword field, description, screenshots, ratings and the searches you target.
- Keyword field
- A hidden field in App Store Connect, up to 100 bytes (100 English letters), where you list search words separated by commas with no spaces. Apple matches searches against it along with your app name, subtitle and category. Google Play has no equivalent.
- Subtitle
- The 30 character line under your app name on the App Store. It shows in search results and Apple searches its words.
- Short description
- Google Play's 80 character summary at the top of a listing. With the title and full description, it is the text you control for Play search.
- Keyword rank
- Your app's position in the store's search results for one search, such as #4 for "surf forecast". It changes daily and can differ by country, device and account, because Apple personalizes parts of the App Store.
- Search popularity
- Apple's measure of how often a term is searched on the App Store. Apple shares it with Apple Ads accounts: a 1 to 5 score in the Ads interface, and 1 to 100 scores in the Apple Ads API. Google does not publish an equivalent.
- Keyword demand (estimated)
- An estimate of how much a search is worth, made from public data when the store's own numbers are not available. Altitude estimates it from how established the apps in the top 10 are.
- Keyword difficulty
- How hard it is to reach the top 10 for a search. Altitude estimates it from the apps you would have to pass and how many of them name the search in their title.
- Competitor (in ASO)
- An app that keeps ranking above you for the searches that matter to you. It may not be the app you think of as your rival.
- Top charts
- The store's ranked lists of the most downloaded or highest grossing apps overall and per category. They are separate from search ranks.
- Conversion rate
- The share of people who see or visit your listing and then install. App Store Connect and Play Console report it for your own app.
- Metadata
- The text fields of a listing: name, subtitle, keyword field and promotional text on the App Store; title, short and full description on Google Play.
- Localization
- Separate listing text for each language and country. Each App Store storefront searches its own localized name, subtitle and keyword field.
See how Altitude turns these into numbers on how Altitude measures, or add your app free.