How to Pick App Store Keywords Before You Have Any Downloads

Quick answer: With no downloads you have no first-party search data, so you borrow it. Source candidate keywords from competitor listings, store autocomplete, and the words real users type when they describe the problem. Then judge each term by how strong the current top 10 is, not by search volume, because volume tells you the size of the prize while the top 10 tells you whether you can reach it. Pick one head term you can realistically own for your 30-character app name, your sharpest long-tail for the 30-character subtitle, and fill all 100 characters of the keyword field with the rest. Re-check 7 to 14 days after launch, once Apple has indexed you, and iterate from real ranks.

The advice "look at your App Store Connect search terms" is excellent and completely unavailable to you. You have no impressions, no installs, no search data. You are picking keywords in the dark.

You are not, though, picking them blind. The data you need exists, it just belongs to other people. Here is how I do it for an app that does not exist yet.

Why the usual order is backwards

Most people build the app, name it something they like, ship it, and then try to bolt keywords on afterwards.

The problem is that your app name is the most heavily indexed field the App Store gives you, it is capped at 30 characters, and app names are reserved on a first-come basis per storefront. Deciding it before you know your keyword means either giving up your strongest ranking signal or renaming late, when your icon, landing page, and social posts all say something else.

So keyword research is a pre-build task, or at least a pre-naming one. It takes an afternoon and it determines the ceiling on your organic traffic for the life of the app.

Step 1: source candidates from people who already have data

Three sources, roughly in order of usefulness.

Competitor listings. Take the three or four apps that solve the problem you solve, and look at what they rank for. Every term they rank for is a term with proven demand in your exact category, and the terms they rank for that you would not have thought of are the valuable ones. Paste their store URL into our free ASO tool and you get their ranking terms plus scored suggestions. The gap between their list and yours is your candidate pool.

Store autocomplete. Type your category's core noun into App Store search and read the suggestions. Those suggestions are ordered by real query popularity, which makes them the closest thing to free volume data you can get without a tool. Do it for four or five root words and you will have thirty candidates.

The language real users use. This is the one people skip, and it is where the winnable terms hide. Read the reviews of competitor apps, especially the negative ones. Read the forum threads and subreddit posts where people describe the problem. Users do not search for "productivity solution", they search for "app to split bills with roommates". Those phrases are long, specific, low-competition, and they convert far better than category words because the searcher has described your app back to you.

Our competitor review tool exists partly for this: the recurring complaints in a rival's reviews are both a feature roadmap and a keyword list.

Step 2: judge winnability, not volume

This is the step that separates a keyword list that works from one that just looks busy.

For every candidate, search it in the store and look at who holds the top 10. Specifically, look at their rating counts.

• Top 10 is apps with hundreds of thousands of ratings: you are not ranking here. Not this quarter, not with a 1.0. Cross it off, however good the volume looks.
• Top 10 is apps with a few hundred to a few thousand ratings: this is your zone. A well-optimized new listing can break into it.
• Top 10 is barely relevant results, or the store is padding with loose matches: this term is underserved. If it describes your app, take it.

The rule I keep coming back to: ranking #3 on a small term beats ranking #50 on a big one. Nobody scrolls to position 50. Tap-through collapses after the first few results, so a term where you can plausibly land top 5 is worth more than a term with ten times the volume where you land mid-table.

Aim for one head term you can defend and ten to fifteen long-tails, prioritized by winnability rather than by demand.

Step 3: spend the character budget

iOS gives you three indexed fields and they behave differently:

Rules for the keyword field that people get wrong: comma-separated with no spaces after commas (spaces waste characters), no word repeated from your name or subtitle (already indexed, so it is a wasted slot), no plurals of words you already have, no category names, and no competitor brand names. Fill all 100 characters. Most apps leave 30 or more unused, which is free ranking surface thrown away.

The full breakdown of how the three fields differ, and what happens when you mix them up, is in title vs subtitle vs keyword field.

Google Play works differently enough that you should not copy your iOS plan across. There is no keyword field; Play indexes your title, short description, and full description. So the terms that lived in your iOS keyword field need to appear naturally in your Play description instead. That is covered separately in the Google Play ASO guide.

Step 4: accept that you are guessing, then stop guessing

Your pre-launch list is a hypothesis. The point is not to be right on day one, it is to be indexed for something plausible so that you have real data to iterate from.

So build the feedback loop into your launch:

• Before you submit: pin your shortlist in a rank tracker. This is your baseline. Without it you cannot tell later whether a change worked.
• 7 to 14 days after launch: re-check. Apple needs time to index new metadata, so anything you measure earlier is noise.
• Read the terms you did not target. Apple will index you for phrases you never chose, based on your metadata and category. Some of them will be ranking better than the ones you picked. That is free intelligence, and it goes into your name and subtitle in the next version.
• Change one thing at a time. If you rewrite the name, subtitle, and keyword field in the same update, you will not know which one moved.

What I would not bother with pre-launch

Keyword-stuffing the name. "AppName: Budget Tracker Money Saver Expense Planner" gets cleaned up by Apple and reads like spam to humans. One head term.

Chasing your own brand name. You will rank for it automatically and nobody is searching it yet.

Localizing keywords into ten languages on day one. The iOS keyword field is per localization, which technically multiplies your surface, but managing ten sets of keywords for an app with zero installs is effort spent in the wrong place. Do your primary market properly, then expand into the storefronts that show traction. Screenshot localization pays back sooner than keyword localization; the localization guide covers which markets to start with.

Perfecting the description for iOS ranking. It barely affects iOS ranking. The first line affects conversion, so write that line well and stop optimizing the rest. On Play the description does matter, so give that one real attention.

The one thing that outranks all of this

Keywords get you the impression. Your icon and first two screenshots decide whether the impression becomes an install, and a listing that ranks well but converts badly is worse than the reverse, because you paid for the ranking with your only 30-character field.

If you have one afternoon and you have to choose, spend it on screenshot 1 rather than on your fifteenth long-tail keyword.

FAQ

How do I do keyword research for an app that has not launched yet? Borrow other people's data. Pull the ranking terms from three or four competitor listings, read store autocomplete suggestions for your category's root words, and collect the phrases real users write in reviews and forum posts about the problem. Then score each candidate by how strong the current top 10 is, and keep the ones where the leaders have hundreds rather than hundreds of thousands of ratings.

Should I pick keywords before or after building the app? Before, or at least before you finalize the name. Your app name is the strongest indexed field on iOS, it is limited to 30 characters, and names are reserved first-come, so choosing it without a keyword in mind wastes your best ranking signal.

How many keywords should a new app target? One head term you can realistically own, plus ten to fifteen long-tails. The head term goes in your name, the sharpest long-tail goes in your subtitle, and the rest fill the 100-character keyword field.

How do I know if I can rank for a keyword? Search the term and look at the rating counts of the apps in the top 10. If they have hundreds of thousands of ratings, a brand-new app will not break in. If they have a few hundred to a few thousand, a well-optimized listing can. Competition strength, not search volume, is the deciding factor.

How long before my keywords start ranking? Typically 7 to 14 days after the metadata is live, since the store has to index it. Measure before then and you are reading noise.

Does the App Store keyword field still work in 2026? Yes. It is invisible to users but indexed, it holds 100 characters, and it is the cheapest ranking surface you have because there is no copy or design cost to using all of it. Most apps still leave part of it empty.

Do Google Play keywords work the same way as the App Store? No. Play has no keyword field. It indexes your title, short description, and full description, so terms that would live in an iOS keyword field have to appear naturally in your Play copy instead. Plan the two stores separately.

Related Guides

• Shipaton 2026: The Store Launch Checklist if you are shipping a new app between August 1 and September 30
• How to Get Your First App Installs
• Title vs Subtitle vs Keyword Field
• How to Run ASO Keyword Research in 5 Minutes
• App Store Optimization Guide