Singular and plural keywords (App Store)

To fit more terms in the 100 bytes, Apple advises avoiding plurals of words already included, generic terms such as "app" or "game", filler words and special characters. That is the full statement. Apple does not document how its search handles plurals, stemming or word forms in other languages, so any guide that states exact rules is guessing.

Each extra entry costs its characters plus a comma, and every keyword must be longer than two characters. "habits" as a second entry costs 7 bytes (six letters and a comma). In a field of 100 bytes, that is 7 percent of the space for something Apple suggests you skip.

Apple's advice is your default. If you want to confirm it for your market:

1. Pick a term whose singular is in your listing and whose plural is not.
2. Search the plural in the storefront and note your keyword ranking.
3. Search the singular and compare.
4. If your app appears at a similar position for both, the plural adds nothing for that term.
5. Repeat in other languages. Rules differ, so do not carry the result from English to German.

A hypothetical habit tracker lists habit,routine and tests "habits" and "routines" in the United States. If it ranks #9 for "habit" and #9 for "habits", the plural entry is unnecessary.

Use the keyword cannibalization checker to find other waste and see byte limit for how to count.