The ASO Checklist: 20 Steps to Rank Higher and Convert More (2026)

Quick answer: A complete ASO checklist covers four areas in order: keywords (research demand, pick one head term for your title, long-tails for subtitle and keyword field), metadata (30-char title, 30-char subtitle, 100-char keyword field, benefit-led description), visuals (icon, captioned screenshots at exact store dimensions, preview video), and post-launch (prompt for ratings at the right moment, reply to reviews, track your keyword ranks weekly, iterate every 4-6 weeks). The 20 steps below are checkable in an afternoon, and the tools for the keyword and tracking steps are free.

Most ASO checklists are written by SEO agencies who have never shipped an app. They tell you to "optimize your metadata" and "leverage keywords" without ever saying what to actually type into App Store Connect.

This one is different. Every item is a concrete action with a pass/fail answer. I use this exact list on our own listings. Work through it top to bottom; the order matters because keywords feed metadata, and metadata feeds visuals.

Part 1: Keywords (do this first, everything else depends on it)

1. Run keyword research on your own listing. Paste your App Store URL into a free ASO research tool and get your current keyword ranks plus ~50 ideas scored by demand and difficulty. You cannot optimize what you haven't measured. Takes about a minute.

2. Run the same research on your top 3 competitors. The terms they rank for and you don't are your gap list. The tool surfaces these automatically when you run competitor URLs.

3. Pick ONE head term you can realistically own. Not "fitness". Something like "home workout planner". If the top 10 for a term is all household names, you are not cracking it this quarter; move down the tail. The keyword explorer shows you who currently owns any term before you commit to it.

4. Shortlist 10-15 long-tail keywords by opportunity, not demand. Ranking #3 on a small term beats ranking #50 on a big one, because nobody scrolls to #50. Prioritize terms where you already rank #11-30; those are the cheapest wins available to you.

Part 2: Metadata (the three fields Apple actually indexes)

5. Title: brand + your one head term, within 30 characters. "AppName: Home Workout Planner" spends the strongest indexed field once, on purpose. Do not stuff a second term; Apple's ranking weight doesn't stack that way and the title gets cleaned.

6. Subtitle: your sharpest long-tail phrase, within 30 characters. Apple weighs it nearly as heavily as the title, and users read it. A specific promise ("Meal plans for busy parents") outconverts a slogan every time.

7. Keyword field: fill all 100 characters. Comma-separated, no spaces after commas, no words already used in title or subtitle, no plurals of words you already have. This field is invisible to users, so there is zero copy cost to maxing it out. Most apps leave 30+ characters on the table.

8. First sentence of the description sells the outcome. The description barely affects iOS ranking, but the first line shows above the fold and affects conversion. Benefit first, features later.

9. If you ship on Android, redo 5-8 for Google Play separately. Play has no keyword field; it indexes your long description instead, so density and phrasing matter there. The strategy is different enough that we wrote a separate Google Play ASO guide.

Part 3: Visuals (where browsers become installers)

10. First screenshot passes the 2-second test. A stranger seeing only screenshot #1 at thumbnail size should be able to say what your app does and why they'd want it. Most visitors never see screenshot #3. If your first panel is a raw UI screen with no caption, this is the highest-leverage fix on this entire list.

11. Every screenshot has a benefit-led caption. "Never lose a receipt again" beats "Advanced document scanning". Large text, high contrast, readable at thumbnail size in search results.

12. Screenshots are at exact store dimensions. App Store Connect rejects uploads that are off by one pixel. Check yours against the screenshot size calculator, or generate them at spec in the screenshot generator and skip the resizing entirely.

13. The set tells a story in order. Hook, proof, features, social proof. A random feature dump reads like a random feature dump. Reorder before you redesign; it's free.

14. Icon is legible at 60px and doesn't look like your top competitor's. Search results show you next to them. If a user can't tell you apart, the one with more ratings wins by default.

15. Localize screenshots for your top non-English markets. Translated captions on your existing designs, not new designs. Localized visuals routinely lift conversion double digits in those storefronts; our localization guide covers which markets pay back first.

Part 4: Ratings, reviews, and iteration (where most teams stop, and shouldn't)

16. Prompt for a rating after a success moment, never at first open. After the user completes the thing your app exists for (finishes a workout, exports a file), that's the moment. Apple gives you three prompts a year per user; don't waste them on someone who hasn't gotten value yet.

17. Reply to your negative reviews. Replies are public, they occasionally flip a 1-star to a 4-star, and browsing users read them as a signal that someone is home.

18. Track your keyword ranks weekly. ASO without rank tracking is guessing. Pin your shortlist in a rank tracker and check the weekly movement; it tells you whether step 5-7 actually indexed.

19. Re-run keyword research 7-14 days after every metadata change. Apple needs time to re-index. Confirm your targeted terms moved, and look for bonus terms Apple indexed you on that you weren't targeting; those are free intelligence for the next iteration.

20. Iterate one variable at a time, every 4-6 weeks. Change the subtitle OR the first screenshot, not both, or you won't know which change moved the number. Apple's Product Page Optimization lets you A/B test screenshots natively.

The one-afternoon version

If you only have three hours: do steps 1, 3, 5-7, 10, and 12. Keyword research, one head term, the three indexed fields, a captioned first screenshot at correct dimensions. That subset covers roughly 80% of the outcome, and every tool it needs is free.

Run the keyword steps now →

FAQ

What is an ASO checklist? An ASO checklist is an ordered list of the concrete actions that improve an app's store ranking and conversion: keyword research, optimizing the title, subtitle, and keyword field, captioned screenshots at correct dimensions, rating prompts, review replies, and weekly rank tracking. Working through one takes an afternoon and most steps use free tools.

What should I optimize first for ASO? Keywords first, because every other decision depends on them. Research which terms have real demand and reachable difficulty, pick one head term for your title and long-tails for your subtitle and keyword field, then build metadata and screenshots around those choices.

How long does ASO take to show results? Apple typically re-indexes metadata changes within 7-14 days, so rank movement shows inside two weeks. Conversion changes from new screenshots show as soon as the update is live. Compounding results come from iterating every 4-6 weeks, not from a single pass.

Do screenshots affect ASO? Yes, in two ways. Directly, screenshots drive conversion rate, and conversion rate feeds back into ranking. Indirectly, the first screenshot is the largest element a browsing user sees, and most users never scroll past the second one, so captioning the first panel is one of the highest-leverage ASO actions available.

Is ASO a one-time task? No. The initial pass is one afternoon, but rankings shift as competitors update and Apple re-weights terms. Track your keyword ranks weekly and revisit the checklist every 4-6 weeks, changing one variable at a time so you can attribute what moved.

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Related reading

• How to run ASO keyword research in 5 minutes: the deep version of steps 1-4
• Best ASO tools for indie app developers: what's actually worth paying for
• Screenshot mistakes killing your install rate: the visual half of this checklist, expanded